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

time to figure out what we are missing, what we could havedone differently. So we don‟t think too much about the why –we don‟t think about objectives.‟The two quotations demonstrate how the widespread focus on hardware andgeneric enthusiasm for technology combine to marginalise monitoring,evaluation and introspection. The devices represent a connection to a worldpreviously inaccessible that people desire to be part of. The widespreadassumption was that „of course‟ this intervention constitutes a positiveinitiative because it is synonymous with progress (Pal 2008).8.3.7 Multi-layered implications of aspirationOstar Chagamba, coordinating PEA for Zomba, accompanied me to a schoolin Malawi where the gadgets had recently been introduced. On our departureI enquired why technology serves to motivate people so much. His responsedemonstrated how the enthusiasm for technology affects both the individualand national mentality (05/03/08):„Here in Malawi we are always after new things, newtechnology – nobody would like to remain behind, we alwayslike to see new things, to be told about new things, everybodylikes to develop – so when we see new things coming in we aremuch interested because we know we will learn from thesethings ... In our country, people always want to develop andnot always remain at the same place – people want to gohigher and higher ... In this part of the world we copy from theWestern people.‟This demonstrates an awareness of difference, a desire to connect, and theperception that technology constitutes the bridge to a desired future. Linkedto this is the potential for increased social status as a result of the access totechnology. In Malawi there was a widespread notion that the gadgetsrepresented progress and that this progress was more important than anyeducational benefit that they might have. It was considered that they were a334