TY - JOUR
T1 - Policy considerations from a nationwide IT-in-education initiative
T2 - Macedonia connects
AU - Hosman, Laura
N1 - Funding Information:
Laura Hosman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Illinois Institute of Technology. The research informing this article has been supported by a research grant, received in April 2008, from the McDowell Center for Global IT Management at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Though information technology (IT) is increasingly touted as an effective tool through which governments may enhance their development efforts, to date, many IT-related deployments have remained in a pilot stage, which does little to aid governments in understanding macrolevel IT policy approaches to confronting development challenges. To address this shortcoming, this article presents a unique nationwide initiative: Macedonia Connects, a multipartner, scaled IT-foreducation project wherein every school in the country was equipped with both computers and wireless Internet connections and through which the Internet was made available to citizens across the entire country. A number of policy-related aspects of the project are identified and discussed, including the predeployment training of teachers in IT adoption, the equality of technology and training provision across the entire country, the long-term focus on the part of all stakeholders in terms of outcomes, and the business model employed in the public-private partnership. Although it is too early to discuss long-term outcomes, there are many aspects of this case that will be applicable to governments and practitioners alike in future IT-for-development endeavors. Some of Macedonia's neighboring states have already indicated interest in following this model.
AB - Though information technology (IT) is increasingly touted as an effective tool through which governments may enhance their development efforts, to date, many IT-related deployments have remained in a pilot stage, which does little to aid governments in understanding macrolevel IT policy approaches to confronting development challenges. To address this shortcoming, this article presents a unique nationwide initiative: Macedonia Connects, a multipartner, scaled IT-foreducation project wherein every school in the country was equipped with both computers and wireless Internet connections and through which the Internet was made available to citizens across the entire country. A number of policy-related aspects of the project are identified and discussed, including the predeployment training of teachers in IT adoption, the equality of technology and training provision across the entire country, the long-term focus on the part of all stakeholders in terms of outcomes, and the business model employed in the public-private partnership. Although it is too early to discuss long-term outcomes, there are many aspects of this case that will be applicable to governments and practitioners alike in future IT-for-development endeavors. Some of Macedonia's neighboring states have already indicated interest in following this model.
KW - Development
KW - Digital inclusion
KW - Education
KW - Macedonia
KW - Policy
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U2 - 10.1080/19331681.2010.489407
DO - 10.1080/19331681.2010.489407
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79955490841
SN - 1933-1681
VL - 7
SP - 369
EP - 383
JO - Journal of Information Technology and Politics
JF - Journal of Information Technology and Politics
IS - 4
ER -