Discuss about the Research Proposal for Information and Communication.
World has advanced by leaps and bounds by the last decade and we are now in an age where information drives the requirements of society, economy, work, space, culture, etc. With this notion there is a philosophy among the research scholars that with the advancement of information technology we are in the middle of an information society. One concern regarding this development is how to make it more inclusive. However, the greatest hurdle with this advancement is the ways or procedures which would make this an inclusive phenomenon.
A world summit was held wherein delegates from several societies had been invited to participate in the mutual exchange of ideas and representatives of government and civil society organizations from 175 countries had participated wherein this resolution was passed:
“… common desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize, and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life” .
This has made it imperative for the government that they take active part in the global information technology advancement process for the upliftment of their country and the world as a whole. But before the government takes any step towards implementing policies which would initiate the growth and development of information technology, there is a strong need to identify and evaluate the underlying development theories which would pave the path for the growth of the society which is sustainable (Weigel 2006).
This research makes an attempt to understand the diverse development paradigms that are prevalent in the existing literature in line with the concept of information and communication technology as a means to development. Then there is elaborate discussion on the growth of inequitable access to information and communication technology which is popularly addressed as digital divide. This research also makes an attempt to bring together the policies and frameworks which has made an attempt towards bridging this gap so that people have a better access to technology and technology related products.
The last section of the research talks about the capability index and how it has emerged as the superior method in measuring the advancement as well as the impact of ICT in achieving the developmental goals of the society (Voogt & Netherlands 2010).
The concept of information society which has become extremely popular over the last few decades underpins the fact that it has to pass thorough several phases of evolution to establish itself in the society. It has been closely intertwined with the goals of modernization and globalization which has driven the development of society as a whole. Information has emerged as the cornerstone of evolution in countries all over the world and there has been integration among the participants all over the world through information technology (Sutthichaimethee 2016).
Information technology is viewed as a tool to develop a nation and participate in the development process. As such with the advent of globalization there has been increased application of information and communication technology which makes it all the more imperative (Strauss 2003).
But over the years researchers have seriously questioned the efficacy of such growth measure since it has been seen invariably that growth in one measure leads to underdevelopment in the other. It is generally seen that when one country excels in economic progress the other tends to lag behind. This disparity is widespread and although measures have been taken to bridge the gap it has not been much successful (Schware & Choudhury 2008). The reason for this disparity lies more with capitalism than with the use and applicability of information and communication technology. But these has motivate the developing world to question the traditional concepts of development which the western world has relied upon and how it can be customized to meet their needs and requirements. The same is true with information and communication technology as it is seen as the medium and channel of growth in the western countries but the same has not been true for the emerging markets although there has been instances of change. ICTs are mostly value-driven, contextual and moulded by the local features rather than a standardized process. All these factors have led to the unequal growth of ICT all over the world (Rodrigues, Marks & Steel 2003).
Similar debates have also been raised regarding the efficacy of ICT as the medium of development. Few scholar are of the opinion it has percolated the divide more than it has contributed to the social upliftment of the downtrodden (Rovegno 2002). However, there is also a significant majority to whom ICT is viewed as a measuring tool for the sustainable development of individuals, communities and nations, hence, a necessity. ICT have the potential to play the role of game changer in several of the crucial public administration mechanisms like business, education, health, and environment, among others (Qureshi 2011).
It has been argued in several researches that ICT act as the elixir which paves the path for growth and development in economically weaker sections of the society. This has motivated the considerably low income countries to move for digital transformation which will in tune take care of the developmental problems. However this is an assumption which is best described only in theoretical models but its practical applicability is widely debated. The concept that access to information technology leads to increase in production, participate in labour markets, and contribute in reciprocal exchanges with other people has not been proved successful universally. People have also tried to establish their argument in favour of ICT through empirical evidence which states the growing proportion of ICTs in the world economic output. The most optimistic viewpoint is that the growth of ICT would empower the emerging markets to leapfrog the stages of development and be on the same footing with the developed nations (Qureshi 2010). This would be driven by the outsourcing of information and communication technology activities from the businesses in the developed nation and their implementation by the experts in the developing countries. In short this would lead to the rise of the service industry and bring about the radical change in the economy of the emerging markets. A result to substantiate these claims can be seen from the study which was conducted to prove that the correlation between growth and prosperity to the use of smartphones is more profound in the developing countries than in the developed nations (Parker 2008).
There are also several opposing views regarding the efficacy of ICT since many scholars are of the opinion that this will only result in further inequalities with respect to opportunities that are available (Paraskeva et al. 2007). It is generally observed that the geographies that are well connected and have been governed by a good administration with several economic and social advantages have been best posed to reap the benefits of ICTs. On the other hand, countries which have unstable government with limited access to infrastructure and social or cultural stigmas prevalent in their society have not been able to leverage the growth and development through ICTs. The concept of integrating poor nations with internet or ICTs have proved to be an abstract concept. A perfect example would an emerging country like India where ICT have helped in the development of the information technology industry but have failed in the social upliftment or providing amenities to the poor. The inequality and digital divide between the rich and poor have evolved and expanded over the years in a country like India. The same can be told about another developing nations. In those nations ICT development are not so crucial than investing in other pressing requirements (Mohammad & Kamal 2016).
Then there is the middle-ground opinion which talks about the development agenda through ICTs only if they are applied properly. Few scholars have investigated and come out with the opinion that increase in telecommunication and installation of telephone have resulted in the development of the rural people (Martens 2015).
This calls for further research in this domain to ascertain the hypothesis that whether ICT installation and expansion can facilitate the social and economic growth of a country particularly the poor. Existing research does not specifically talk about the targeted benefits of ICTs in developing countries. They are more focused on the generic benefits that a country reaps through the implementation of IT and engineering solutions. However, it has been observed empirically that most of these benefits are leveraged by the wealthy and well to do people of a country (Kostakos & Ferreira 2015).
As we have discussed about several issue there is also considerable discussion regarding the issue of digital divide which has led to the inequitable distribution of economic benefits through information technology. For further discussion one needs to understand the definition of digital divide which is concerned with “situations in which there is a marked gap in access to or use of ICT devices” (Khwaja 2016). There is also ensuing debate in this respect as a group of scholar believe that the need for a discussion on digital divide is irrelevant since all the people who are in need of digital services especially in the developing countries have already access to such services or they must not be needing them and for that reason do not have them. However there has been several instances where it has been proved that if the reach of the digital services can be extended to those people then it leads to significant improvement in their lifestyle. There have been very stark examples within the same country where ICTs have been able to transform the lives of a certain part of the country while the remaining sections still live in oblivion (Faßler 2010).
It is expected that in the near future these differences will be eradicated through improved delivery of ICT infrastructure and social inclusion drive which aims to bring more people under the realm of the information society. There has been significant rise in the development of computing power, reduction in the cost of transportation of data through optical fibre networks, and significant convergence of information and communication technologies.
At the end it can be said that this research deals more with the issue of bridging the gap rather than the requirement for debating that whether there is digital divide or not (Dror 2004).
The aim of the research is to understand the impact of ICTs on the growth and development of the social and economic sectors in the country. Their impact in transforming the lives of the downtrodden by providing them with increased scope for job opportunities and other facilities. The specific research objective questions include:
The theoretical basis on which the research will be designed is the impact of digital transformation on the developing nations with special reference to the low income people in the society. The hypothesis for the analysis would be as follows:
The methodology that will be used for the investigation of the aforementioned research topic is both qualitative and quantitative which is popularly called as the mixed methodology. The qualitative aspect will be looking at the social and economic factors of a country which have led to the failure of bridging the gap in development through the implementation of ICTs. The governance in the country and their political stability will be critically analysed to understand the effects and expansion of ICTs. As this requires data of diverse country sets it will be mostly conducted through secondary research and publicly available data for the analysis purpose (Dagiene & Grabauskiene 2011).
The quantitative model will be based on the capability index approach formulated by Amartya Sen for which he was awarded wide accolades. This index is mainly concerned with calculating the human development index which can be derived by incorporating several factors. This index can be modified as per the needs of the research and then applied to dig out the factors which is leading to the digital divide or disparity among the people in the country. This mixed methodology is expected to be successful in evaluating the research objectives as stated in the previous section (Burnett et al. 2006).
Sometimes in a quest to acquire record and data points, we might have to evaluate records which are confidential in nature or should not be disclosed in public. As we would try to maintain the privacy and accuracy of such data people might be sceptical about the use of such information. But in order achieve success in the research it has to be designed in such a manner so that it can be employed and utilised in the best possible manner to get the outcomes which are not skewed or biased (Browne & Gavin 2010).
At the end of the research proposal discussion it can be said that this article has thoroughly discussed all the aspects of the present literature that is available and also highlighted the issues that are pressing in this domain. With this research it is expected to understand the various reasons behind digital divide and the factors which have led to underdevelopment of few nations although there has been widespread implementation of ICT. The methodology of the research design id appropriate for the analysis that has been decided and would fetch the best possible results. Finally it is justified to mention that this research makes an attempt to critically analysed and investigate the reasons for the failed implementation of ICTs in the developing countries with special reference to the downtrodden people (Angeli & Valanides 2005).
Dates are indicative and can be replaced by actual project dates.
References
Angeli, C. & Valanides, N. 2005, ‘Preservice elementary teachers as information and communication technology designers: An instructional systems design model based on an expanded view of pedagogical content knowledge’, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 292–302.
Browne, P. & Gavin, T. 2010, ‘Support for information technology development’, Information Development, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 20–27.
Burnett, C., Dickinson, P., Myers, J. & Merchant, G. 2006, ‘Digital connections: Transforming literacy in the primary school’, Cambridge Journal of Education, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 11–29.
Dagiene, V. & Grabauskiene, V. 2011, ‘Transformation of individual learning through informatics and information technology activities in primary school’, International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 1–14.
Dror, Y. 2004, ‘Learning activities as an additional measure of “pedagogical knowledge” for teacher Trainingâ€Ââ€Âtheory and practice’, Westminster Studies in Education, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 53–57.
Faßler, M. 2010, ‘Understanding information’, it – Information Technology, vol. 52, no. 4.
Khwaja, B. 2016, ‘Impact of foreign direct investment on sectors of GDP Pakistan perspective’, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 1856–1859.
Kostakos, V. & Ferreira, D. 2015, ‘The rise of ubiquitous instrumentation’, Frontiers in ICT, vol. 2.
Martens, A. 2015, ‘Book review: “Playful user Interfaces”’, Frontiers in ICT, vol. 2.
Mohammad, N. & Kamal, S. 2016, ‘Social impact and sustainability of corporate social responsibility in the banking sectors: Bangladesh perspective’, Asian Business Review, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 39.
Paraskeva, F., Psycharis, S., Papagianni, A. & ΗaraBouta, N.A. 2007, ‘Psychological and pedagogical issues in ICT teachers’ training and development’, International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, vol. 3, no. 2/3, p. 329.
Parker, J.S. 2008, ‘Editorial: Information technology and the information society’, Information Development, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 45–45.
Qureshi, S. 2010, ‘Driving development through innovations in information technology and its applications’, Information Technology for Development, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 241–243.
Qureshi, S. 2011, ‘Information technology for development in expanding capabilities’, Information Technology for Development, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 91–94.
Rodrigues, S., Marks, A. & Steel, P. 2003, ‘Developing science and ICT pedagogical content knowledge: A model of continuing professional development’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 386–394.
Rovegno, I.C. 2002, ‘Learning to teach in a field-based methods course: The development of pedagogical content knowledge’, Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 69–82.
Schware, R. & Choudhury, Z. 2008, ‘Aid agencies and information technology development’, Information Technology for Development, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 145–158.
Strauss, S. 2003, ‘Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge about children’s minds and learning: Implications for teacher education’, Educational Psychologist, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 279–290.
Sutthichaimethee, P. 2016, ‘MODELING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF MACHINERY SECTORS TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THAILAND’, Journal of Ecological Engineering, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 18–25.
Voogt & Netherlands, T. 2010, ‘Teacher factors associated with innovative curriculum goals and pedagogical practices: Differences between extensive and non-extensive ICT-using science teachers – Voogt – 2010 – journal of computer assisted learning – Wiley Online library’, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 453–464, viewed 6 June 2016, <https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00373.x>.
Weigel, D.J. 2006, ‘Mothers’ literacy beliefs: Connections with the home literacy environment and pre-school children’s literacy development’, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 191–211.
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