Title: ICT or Development: Why It’s So Difficult to Get Rich and Help the Poor Simultaneously?
Author: Kentaro Toyama
Source: The ICT4D Jester
Date (published): 14/08/2011
Date (accessed): 18/09/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"In 2004, the Jester visited some of the Akshaya rural telecenters in the Malappuram district of Kerala, India. These centers were initiated and subsidized by the state government, who sought “100% computer literacy” for the state, meaning that one person in every household should learn the basics of PC operation, e-mail, and Internet browsing. The state saw it as a development project, but unusually for communist-leaning Kerala, the telecenters were meant to be run as for-profit businesses by local entrepreneurs.

The telecenters the Jester saw on that trip varied in their apparent success. One had a row of shiny new PCs in a swanky air-conditioned office space and bustled with customers furiously working through a computer-literacy curriculum. The owner boasted that he was already making a good profit. Another stacked computer equipment floor to ceiling, so that at most one PC was actually usable. The owner said that he dragged members of low-income families in his village to his center to learn about PCs, even if they kicked and screamed. When asked about breaking even, he demurred, “What I care about is the development impact of this project.”

A year or two later, then-PhD-student Renee Kuriyan went back to the same district to explore in depth, and among other things, she confirmed what the Jester had seen informally – that most Akshaya entrepreneurs fell into one of two categories: Those who made money by marketing to richer clients, and those who had some impact on poorer clients, but made little money. A very small minority made money and served poor clients.

Since then, the Jester has seen or heard of myriad attempts to make a profit by serving the poor, or as C. K. Prahalad put it, “eradicate poverty through profits.” Yet, despite the ongoing excitement around social enterprises and the bottom of the pyramid, in actuality, it is very difficult to make a lot of money by selling goods or services to poor people in a way that has meaningful, positive impact on their lives, particularly with ICT."

Second part: click here

Title: Measure Contribution, Not Impact, of ICTs
Author: Jeffrey Swindle
Source: Connectivity for Development
Publisher: USAID
Date (published): 09/08/2011
Date (accessed): 10/08/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Randomized control trials (RCTs) cannot capture the full impact of ICTs on human development because ICTs have inherently ambiguous and emergent effects. However, RCTs can capture particular impacts of ICTs, but they cannot tell the whole story. Evaluations of ICT4D initiatives should concentrate instead on the contribution of ICTs to human development.

In the past few years, academics and practitioners alike have advocated for measuring the contributions to human development and capabilities of ICT4D projects. They have learned over the past decade that ICTs have various levels of impact on many aspects of social life. They can completely revamp cultures, like the mobile phone has, or they can but countries into serious debt, like many state-subsidized computer education programs, with little to no impact. The ways in which people utilize ICTs is often different than development workers initially expect. As Amartya Sen expressed, “a lot of the advantages that come from mobile phone will not have a predictability feature…There are ways in which predictability of these [technologies] will defeat us.”

If traditional econometric approaches to monitoring and evaluating development projects do not capture the full contribution of ICTs on human development, then how can ICTs’ contributions be measured?"

Title: One-to-one computing in Latin America & the Caribbean
Author: Michael Trucano
Source: EduTech
Publisher: The World Bank Group
Date (published): 21/06/2011
Date (accessed): 13/07/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"A recent paper from Eugenio Severin and Christine Capota of the Inter-american Development Bank (IDB) surveys an emerging set of initiatives seeking to provide children with their own educational computing devices. While much of the popular consideration of so-called "1-to-1 computing programs" has focused on programs in the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Australia, One-to-One Laptop Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean: Panorama and Perspectives provides a useful primer for English-speaking audiences on what is happening in middle and low income countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela."

Title: Tuned In To Student Success: Assessing the Impact of Interactive Radio Instruction for the Hardest-to-Reach
Authors: Jennifer Ho, Hetal Thukral
Pages: 18 pp.
ISSN: 1554-2262
Source: Journal of Education for International Development 4:2, December 2009
Publisher: Educational Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP)and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Date (published): 22/12/2009
Date (accessed): 29/01/2010
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
A review of recent research was conducted to assemble evidence on the impact that Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) may have on improving student learning outcomes. IRI is an instructional tool designed to deliver a family of active learning packages via radio broadcast using a dual-audience approach. IRI exposes students to regular, curriculum-based learning content while modeling effective learning activities and classroom organization techniques for teachers. As IRI continues to be called upon to improve teaching and learning in low-resource and hard-to-reach areas, a better understanding of the empirical data available is critical to guide the way forward. IRI has been implemented by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) in over 50 countries over the past 30 years. This paper is a review of existing student and teacher data collected by EDC’s IRI projects. Effect sizes are used to summarize what is known about the effect of IRI on student learning gains in Grades K-4 for English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Local Language. In all, student test results from 13 projects, ranging from Nicaragua in 1977 through Indonesia in 2008, are reviewed, as are teacher observation outcomes from Mali and Madagascar.

Title: An Analysis of the Research and Impact of ICT in Education in Developing Country Contexts
Authors: Nitika Tolani-Brown, Meredith McCormac, Roy Zimmermann
Pages: 12 pp.
ISSN: 1554-2262
Source: Journal of Education for International Development 4:2, December 2009
Publisher: Educational Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP)and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Date (published): 23/12/2009
Date (accessed): 29/01/2010
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Despite evidence of increased usage of information and communication technology (ICT) in educational programming, extant evaluations on the impact of ICT on educational child outcomes are sparse and often lack the methodological rigor necessary to guide policymakers towards sound, evidence-based practices. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) has conducted a global analysis of research undertaken to date on the deployment of ICT solutions to support education goals in developing countries. The present study is comprised of two phases. First, a series of in-depth, structured interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders, including policymakers and academicians, researchers, users and developers of ICT solutions. These interviews touched upon the challenges associated with developing, implementing and evaluating ICT solutions within educational settings, perceptions on the utility and future of ICT solutions and extant gaps in the usage of ICT solutions within developing countries. Second, AIR conducted a detailed literature review of published and unpublished evaluations on the educational impacts of ICT solutions. This paper reports on the demonstrated and measurable impacts of ICT on students and generates an innovative and rigorous research agenda addressing salient issues such as impact and effectiveness, return on investment, and total cost of ownership.

Title: ICT4D: Past mistakes, future wisdom
Author: Aparna Ray
Source: Global Voices Online
Date (published): 14/12/2009
Date (accessed): 16/12/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
While there has been great excitement and buzz around various ICT4D projects in recent years, it is also true that many projects started with a bang and later died with a whimper. In short, they have not been scalable or sustainable in the long run.
What makes an ICT4D project fizzle? What are the common mistakes that donors, planners and implementers make when trying to run an ICT4D project?

Title: OLPC Pre-Pilot Evaluation Report (Haiti)
Authors: Emma Näslund-Hadley, Scott Kipp, Jessica Cruz, Pablo Ibarrarán, and
Gita Steiner-Khamsi
Pages: 81 pp.
Source: Education Division Working Papers ; 2
Publisher: Inter American Development Bank
Date (published): 23/07/2009
Date (accessed): 22/11/2009
Type of information: working paper, evaluation report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The Haitian Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) has introduced one-to-one computing within the context of constructivist pedagogy—or student-centered learning—in the Haitian primary school system. The XO laptop, an educational tool designed by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC, a nonprofit organization headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), was selected as the educational device for the initial implementation of one-to-one computing, which took place during May–July 2008. MENFP carried out the initial implementation as a pre-pilot project conducted in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The purpose of the pre-pilot was to gain experience in preparation for the subsequent pilot project and to ascertain effective teacher preparation by identifying successful training methods and important content to be addressed during teacher training sessions.
A project team consisting of representatives of Teachers College, Columbia University and IDB evaluated the OLPC pre-pilot project. The purpose of the evaluation was to smooth the way for the subsequent implementation of the OLPC pilot project, which will assess the effectiveness of and determine the requirements for the nationwide implementation of one-to-one computing in Haiti.

Title: Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs
Authors: Sheila Kinkade and Katrin Verclas
Pages: 60 pp.
Source: Access to Communication Publication Series Volume 2
Publisher: UN Foundation–Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership
Date (published): 23/05/2008
Date (accessed): 22/11/2009
Type of information: evaluation survey
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
In this second publication in our Access to Communications Publication Series, the authors examine real-life examples of and trends in wireless technology solutions being used to drive change in the areas of health, humanitarian assistance, and environmental conservation. The compelling stories portrayed in this report demonstrate that telecommunications can be a powerful tool for positive change in our world.
Between December 10, 2007 and January 13, 2008, 560 non-governmental organization (NGO) workers participated in a survey designed to demonstrate how NGOs are using wireless technology to help reach various social, civil, economic, and political goals.