Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

Regardless of intent, human beings consistently cause harm to one another.One potential approach to avoiding doing any harm is to remain in bed allday and circumvent taking any action or decision making. In doing this onewould successfully avoid inflicting much active harm but it would not bepossible to avoid passive harm through acts of omission. If the primaryobjective is to „do no harm‟ then the only possible outcome is a bland researchagenda devoid of all risk. Social research that is beneficial and progressiveincorporates an element of risk that harm will be done. Despite my convictionthat the overall potential for good is greater than the potential for harm, thearena of ICT for education is a clear example of such risk-filled research, aswas considered in the theoretical context, Chapter 2.A useful recognition that harm may result from research is very differentfrom explicitly intending to cause harm, although this too is theoreticallyexcusable on utilitarian grounds. I never attempted to cause harm throughmy research but it is undoubted that inadvertent yet considerable harm mayhave been done to many individuals as a result of the activities undertaken.At various junctures decisions and interactions may have unavoidably andoften invisibly caused harm, offence, marginalisation and the reinforcing ofpower inequalities. This should be acknowledged as an unavoidable realityrather than obscured under pseudo-protective codes and maxims. In the lightof this, it is appropriate to employ a thoughtful consequentialist approach ofrisk and benefit analysis, aware of mixed consequences and unforeseeableimpacts but convinced that within these parameters the research is causingor at least contributing to a greater level of good than harm.If governed by the Hippocratic maxim, then it would be impossible to engagewith a sphere of research so ambiguous and contested as ICT for education.As discussed in Chapter 2, engaging with the use of technology indevelopment in general, and education more specifically, is an arena in whichresearch has significant potential to cause real harm, both at an individualand societal level. It is plausible that the research undertaken for this thesiswill instigate local empowerment, improved educational outcomes andcapacity enhancement through engaging with the introduction of106