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

months. Thus the aspiration towards the idea of the technology does notnecessarily translate into sustained eagerness to use technology: the rhetoricis somewhat removed from the reality.8.3.5 Assumed value of technologyThe default, although not universal, mindset encountered was thattechnology was something previously unattainable that is intrinsically goodand thus should be desired enthusiastically (Battelle 2005, Sunstein 2006).This perspective defines much ICT for education activity and is in directcontrast to dominant Western philosophical perspectives on the role oftechnology within the development of society (section 2.3.3) (Feenberg 1999,Vogel 1995). Indeed, warnings surrounding the technological society and itsassociated breakdowns (Marcuse 1964, McLuhan 1964, Ellul 1964) would beconsidered anathema within the mindset of most ICT for educationprogramme beneficiaries.The practical outworking of this mentality was demonstrated throughcomments from the two Standard 4 students in Dzenza (16/11/07) whoreported to the research team what their parents had told them regarding thedevices:„I told my mother and she said you must use these gadgetsbecause these things are good and important.‟„I told my father and he said you have to use them and followwhat it says.‟The perspective of the parents in Malawi as reported by their children links toan observation in Kuriyan and Kitner‟s study (2009 p.7), where they notedsimilarly that whilst participants „couldn‟t necessarily articulate what thebenefit of computers brings to them‟ they still clearly „associated it withmodernity and advancement‟.An anonymous a member of the ECBP team explained how the widespreadpositive attitude contributed to the marginalising of monitoring and332