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A conceptual framework for effective strategies for information and communication technologies in education: A case study of Mauritius

Papayah Guruvadoo, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on three country case studies: Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States, with occasional compelling examples from elsewhere. The cases are analyzed and synthesized into a rich and comprehensive conceptual framework with contextual factors and a set of metrics that can be used as a lens to assess a country's readiness and needs in terms of Information and Computer Technology education. The lens is applied directly to the case study of Mauritius as a test-bed, and yields the basis of a consensual strategic technology plan for education. Finally, the lens is tweaked to examine possible technology transfer to developing countries, in particular, to Africa. Further, this study develops the human capacity component of the United Nations Development Program—Markle Foundation's conceptual framework of the components of the development dynamic model, into a model for ICT education, thus providing an integrated conceptual model for ICT education, and ICT industry and/or development. By scanning the environment against the backdrop of the Information Revolution, the author reaped a body of practices and refined them into a set of best practices in teaching, learning, educational administration, school restructure, teacher training, infrastructure, contents, research and evaluation, school linkages with parents, community, business, and other stakeholders, strategic compact, leadership, funding, and sustainability. The results of the study impact e-learning and virtual institutions, the digital child, information literacy, computer fluency and new skills for productivity and creativity in the emerging knowledge-based society, and the digital divide. The implications of the dissertation are the provision of a clear guide to effective planning for ICT education for a broad range of countries and ICT transfer to developing countries. The study also explores some pathways in the search for a new social order where the digital capital of the ICT-developed countries could extend the digital dividends to minimize the digital divide within and between countries. It fills a gap in an increasingly important area of knowledge in a confused and turbulent environment. It will be useful to most governments, which have recently expressed some ambitious strategies for stimulating and supporting the use of ICT in education.

Subject Area

Educational software|Teacher education|School administration

Recommended Citation

Guruvadoo, Papayah, "A conceptual framework for effective strategies for information and communication technologies in education: A case study of Mauritius" (2003). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI3096280.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3096280

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