Designing successful ICT for education projects in developing nations

The field of ICT in education has gone through exciting changes in the recent past. Wider availability, lowered costs and increased capabilities have increased the potential utility of ICTs in education in developing nations. Next to that, large private parties have leaped in and have brought on new developments in discourse, strategies, practices and expertise. However, widespread success among ICT4E project is yet to be attained. Throughout this study, an effort is made to establish the different elements that amount to a successful ICT4E project model in developing nations. The analysis of literature and three policy documents indicate that various key elements such as sustainability, scalability and monitoring and evaluation drive the likelihood of success of ICT4E projects in developing nations. These elements are not isolated entities within a project, but extremely interconnected and dependent on each other. Through critical discourse analysis, some of the more problematic key concepts in the field are scrutinized: how are these concepts defined, framed and utilized within the policy documents. Other findings of the critical discourse analysis include a perceived reluctance of policy organizations to embrace recently popularized conceptions to include more business-oriented practices within ICT4E. The conclusion that is drawn is that not one, complete blueprint model with specific activities exists for ICT4E projects, but instead the road to widespread success of ICT4E projects in developing nations lies within a meticulous approach that looks at specific tools and practices that encourage success. Among others, these practices include a strong monitoring and evaluation regiment, and a larger emphasis on the project’s scalability and sustainability. The analysis of an ICT4E project provided insight into actual working practices to boost sustainability and scalability within the field, which include strong strategical alliances, low total cost of ownership, scalable technological infrastructures with low fixed costs, the deployment of affordable technology and scalable monitoring and evaluation systems.