| dc.description.abstract | In this end piece, we argue that while this special issue shifts debates on the digital
divide to address students’ capacity to use Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) for productive social purposes, access to ICT remains a major challenge in
countries like Uganda, in which less than 1%of the population has access to the Internet.
However, since the case studies address marginalised communities in Australia,
Brazil, Greece and South Africa, the findings have relevance to Uganda and other developing
countries. Five lessons, in particular, are important for curriculum planning
and policy development in Uganda: the need to collect empirical data on ICT access
and use; the importance of recognising local differences across rural and urban communities,
male and female students; the need to promote professional development
of teachers so that they can make effective use of ICT in classrooms; the importance
of integrating in and out-of-school digital literacy practices; and the need to consider
how global software can best be adapted for local use. We conclude that if ICT is
to play its part in achieving Education for All by 2015, there is an urgent need for
collaborative partnerships between a wide range of stakeholders at both the local and
global level. | en_US |
