DOI: 10.1002/isd2.12018
RESEARCH ARTICLE
An ecological model of bridging the digital divide in education: A case study of OLPC deployment in Nepal Devinder Thapa
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Maung K. Sein
Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway Correspondence Devinder Thapa, Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Norway. Email:
[email protected]
Abstract Techno‐centric initiatives to bridge the digital divide, such as One Laptop per Child (OLPC), has been criticized for not taking a holistic approach that has led to limited success in providing quality education in developing countries. Particular emphasis is placed on examining the context in Information and communication technology for development (ICTD) initiatives. In this paper, we applied the theoretical lens of information ecology to conceptualize context to conduct a case study of Open Learning Exchange Nepal, which has been described as one of the few successes in implementing OLPC. Our findings show that it is not the technology per se (OLPC in this case), but its ecosystem that brought quality education in schools of remote mountain regions of Nepal. KEY W ORDS
developing countries, education, information ecology, OLE Nepal, OLPC
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I N T RO D U CT I O N
Bridging the digital divide particularly in education remains a challenge (Natriello, 2001). The initial concept of digital divide was narrowly focused on the gap between those who have access to computers and Internet services and those who do not. To reduce the gap, mass diffusion of Internet and computers in the schools of developing countries has been promoted. There were good reasons behind this approach: Students get access to information sources; at the same time, they facilitate communication that can also promote the cooperation and collaboration among students and teachers over distance (Eastmond, 2000; Rao, 2005), enabling them to share experiences, often in real time (Andersson & Grönlund, 2009; Sife, Lwoga, & Sanga, 2007). However, in this techno‐centric view, accessibility to the Internet is conflated with quality education. Consequently, many such technology‐focused initiatives failed to narrow the digital divide in education (Warschauer, 2003; Warschauer & Ames, 2010). Perhaps the most striking example of this approach is the ambitious One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program. The program was sought to, “develop and distribute a low‐cost ‘children machine’ that would empower youth to learn without, or in spite of, their schools and teachers.” (Warschauer & Ames, 2010, p. 34) However, the project has failed to reduce the digital gap in education, and scholars and practitioners suggested reframing the technocratic view of OLPC (Kraemer, Dedrick, & Sharma, 2009; Warschauer & Ames, 2010). Some flaws of the OLPC program that have been pointed out are as follows (Warschauer & Ames, 2010): The laptop is still not affordable in poor countries; the laptop is just one component of an educational system; the system needs school buildings, teachers training, developing curricula, providing books, and subsidizing attendance, assessment reform, and formative evaluation. Therefore, “simply handing computers to children and walking away [ibid, p. 34]” will not work. Essentially then, the main criticism leveled at techno‐centric initiatives such as OLPC is that they do not take a holistic approach. In this paper, we offer a premise for a holistic understanding by borrowing from the field of information ecology (IE). We studied a project called Open Learning Exchange (OLE)* in Nepal, which implemented ICT‐based education projects that used OLPC computers in schools in remote mountain regions. We selected OLE because it is a significant ICT for education initiative in Nepal. We found that OLE has been successfully addressed such as increasing and sustaining attendance, dissemination of course materials and consequently, providing quality education. It is one of the few successful implementations of the OLPC project (Warschauer & Ames, 2010). The rest of the paper is organized as follows: We first narrate our case, the OLE project, and then present our theoretical premises of IE and ecosystem. Next, we present the research method and case findings, followed by discussions and concluding remarks.
*http://www.olenepal.org/
E J Info Sys Dev Countries. 2018;e12018. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12018
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/isd2
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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C A S E DE S CR I P T I O N
Poor accessibility to education materials and lack of appropriate pedagogical approaches are major challenges in the rural areas of developing countries. Nepal's case is no different. The gravity of problems is higher in the remote mountain areas, especially in the public schools. Text books are scarce, and often they are not delivered until 2 to 3 months into the start of the school year. Poor pedagogical approaches add to the challenge. Teachers available in these remote areas are not skilled, and the majority of them are unaware of any approach other than teacher‐led and even rote memorization. It is not surprising that students hardly attend classes and often drop out after a few months of enrolling. To address these challenges, OLE Nepal initiated a project in September 2007. The initiators of this project were a trio of activists, Rabi Karmacharya from Nepal and Bryan Berry from the United States were working in a technology firm at Silicon Valley and Dr Saurav Bhatta, who was an assistant professor in the urban planning and policy program at the University of Illinois, US. They were considering various opportunities that ICT can provide to improve the education sector in Nepal, and their target was mainly public schools and rural areas. They initiated that an alliance with the OLPC project OLE needed an ICT platform to achieve its objective of improving the education quality and access in rural public schools in Nepal. OLPC needed a context to implement their inexpensive computers. The idea behind this networking was to use inexpensive computers to improve education quality and access in rural public schools in Nepal. The next step was to implement the ICT‐based education in the rural schools. However, Karmacharya, who was now the director of OLE Nepal, realized that technology was just a medium. What was needed first was developing digital content. To do so, the OLE team managed to convince the Nepal Government's Department of Education (DOE) to collaborate. DOE provided subject experts from their Curriculum Development Center who helped OLE to prepare and review educational material that was named E‐Paath. These interactive educational materials were closely aligned with the national curriculum and were designed to help teachers and students meet the learning objectives outlined in the curriculum. The next challenge was to electronically deliver this content to the remote mountainous areas. Here, OLE linked up with the Nepal Wireless Network Project (NWNP), which had built the infrastructure in those areas. The driving force behind NWNP was another social activist, Mahabir Pun. Pun knew that without relevant applications, the IT infrastructure would be meaningless. Already, a number of such applications, such as health care, and income‐generating services had been based on NWNP and had reached more than 200 (Sabo, Sein, & Thapa, 2014). The OLE project was another significant addition to NWNP's portfolio. OLE enrolled a number of other actors to help achieve its goals. They included the Danish Government's local Grant authority (which provided resources for content development), the United Nations World Food Program (which provides free lunch to remote and rural public schools children), and the Finnish Government's Funds for Local Cooperation (which provided resources for OLPC deployment). So far, the collaboration had succeeded in addressing one of the challenges, ie, accessibility. The next challenge for the OLE team was to develop skilled teachers. To accomplish this purpose, it involved the teachers in the process to understand the kind of digital content that needed to be developed for the teachers and students to ensure quality education. In collaboration with DOE, it developed training programs to help teachers to integrate technology in daily teaching/learning activities. The project would be a total failure without the support of the teachers. The implementation of OLE's project started in 2008 with pilot tests in 2 rural schools. At present, in partnership with DOE, the project has extended to 340 schools in 34 districts. It has so far provided educational access to more than 42 000 children of public schools in these rural and remote mountain areas. It has installed local servers in all schools, which contain a digital library (E‐Pustakalaya) and interactive learning resources (E‐Paath). The schools are equipped with power backup and access points for students and teachers to easily access the materials on the servers. The program has so far trained close to 700 teachers on successfully integrating ICT in classroom teaching and installed networks with the help of NWNP at the schools. The project has developed around 630 interactive learning modules and deployed around 5300 laptops. In summary, OLE Nepal has 4 goals: • Development and distribution of free and open digital educational content • Preparing teachers on effective integration of ICT in classroom teaching • Research and development of appropriate technology and network infrastructure • Building local capacity to monitor, support, and sustain the program In the next section, we briefly present our theoretical premise, “information ecology,” and its relevance to understand the ecosystem of the OLE Nepal.
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T HE O R E T I C A L F R A M E W O R K—I E
Information ecology is defined as “a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment.” In information ecologies, the spotlight is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technology (Nardi & O'Day, 1998, p. 49). The concept of IE was first articulated by Capurro (1990) as a way of understanding how we use technology to communicate and disseminate knowledge in the information landscape that consists of the social, linguistic, and historical dimensions. Essentially then, this view of IE is viewed as harmonization of the
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relationship between humans and technology. Information ecology was subsequently adapted to the management context by Davenport and Prusak (1997) who described it as an approach to manage an organization's entire information environment. This approach, they suggested, would lead to effective use of information through facilitating the process of implementation of changes in organization of information and thus effective deployment of adequate technology. While we see a shift from understanding (Capurro, 1990) to management and affecting change (Davenport & Prusak, 1997), we are still looking at an organizational level. Examining societal level phenomenon, such as OLE, we need a different perspective of IE. This was the essence of the perspective taken by Nardi and O'Day (1998) that focused on social aspects of implementation and functioning of technologies at workplaces. At the core of this view is the premise that users can influence the design of technologies and technological systems through expressing their own values, attitudes, and preferences. Information ecology (Nardi & O'Day, 1998) is comprised of 4 basic elements: people, practices, values, and technologies. People constitute, as in other IE concepts, the most essential element. The aim of IE is to provide the motivation to improve the given information ecosystem. We adopt Nardi and O'Day's perspective of IE (1998). It is comparable with a biological ecology and thus can be considered as a complex ecosystem of parts and relationships (Nardi & O'Day, 1998). The ecological metaphor suggests several key properties of many environments in which technology is used. In essence, an IE exhibits diversity, and it experiences continual evolution. Different parts of ecology coevolve, changing together according to the relationships in the system. Several keystone species are necessary to the survival of the ecology. Finally, IEs have a sense of locality. The main elements of IE summarized in Table 1.
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RESEARCH METHOD
The nature of our study was exploratory. We started our study with the purpose of identifying the ecosystem of OLE through the IE lens. To understand the local context and observe the interactions among various elements of the ecosystem, we visited 10 villages in mountain regions of Nepal, including 1 school in Hetauda district, and the OLE head office and the DOE in Kathmandu. We conducted several rounds of interviews between March 2010 and March 2011 with teachers, pedagogy experts, DOE staff, content developers, local communities, OLE staff, and NWNP staff. Interviews ranged from 20 to 60 minutes and focused on understanding the state of the community's development and how its interaction with ICT might lead to the quality education. The interview questions were oriented towards how OLE interconnected and mobilized various actors and organization to implement OLPC project in public schools of Nepal. We took detailed notes of all the interviews and discussions. The interviews were tape recorded with the participants' consent. We conducted 4 focus group interviews in the schools of Hetauda, Nangi, Tikot, and Sikha. The purpose was to understand how various stakeholders perceive the intervention of OLPC. One of the authors had also observed classroom activities in Hetauda, Nangi, and Kathmandu. The purpose of the observation was to understand the pedagogical approach and the reaction of the student and teachers in this changing digital environment. Throughout the data collection process, we worked closely with Karmacharya, the director of OLE Nepal to get a deeper and nuanced understanding of the context. Later, we got his feedback on our interview transcripts and data analysis, which was helpful in verifying our interpretation of his responses in the interviews. All the recorded interviews were transcribed, coded, and categorized. Interview transcripts that were in a Nepali language were translated to English for data analysis. The data analysis was guided by theoretical framework of “information ecology.” Through dialogues with the collected data, we tried to understand how the ecology of OLE functioned. We first identified the different elements of ecology, namely, system, diversity, coevolution, keystone species, and locality. We then performed data comparisons to uncover connections between these elements by examining how they act, interact, influence, and coevolve. To verify and validate our findings, we presented the initial findings at ICTD conference held in Michigan, US, in 2016. The comments made by the participants in the conference helped us to critically examine the interpretation of the research context from different perspectives. The different perspectives were useful to support or contradict the findings, which we present and discuss in the next section. TABLE 1
Key elements of information ecology
Key Elements
Description
Example From OLE
System
A strong interrelationships and dependencies among its various parts
OLE project initiator, NWNP provides IT infrastructure, Ministry of Education provides curriculum, pedagogical experts design methods, content developers develop online course contents, teachers implement technology and pedagogical approaches
Diversity
Various kinds of people and various kinds of tools work together in a complementary way
OLE, NWNP, Ministry of Education, XO computers, pedagogical approaches, content developers, teachers, children and local communities
Coevolution
Information ecologies evolve as innovative ideas, tools, activities, and forms of expertise arise in them
Changing of pedagogy from teacher centric to child centric is one example
Keystone species
In ecology presence of certain keystone species whose presence is crucial to the survival of the ecology itself
OLE, NWNP, teachers, children, OLPC
Locality
Local context of the ICT intervention and the meaning that people give to the technology
OLE deployed XO computers in public schools to impart quality education
Abbreviations: NWMP, Nepal Wireless Network Project.
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FINDINGS
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We organized our findings around IE key elements, which are shown in Table 1. We have identified various entities of OLE Nepal, and their interaction, especially their coevolution. We elaborate below.
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System
Like a biological ecology, IE is marked by strong interrelationships and dependencies among its parts (Nardi & O'Day, 1998). In the OLE case, the function of NWNP, DOE, pedagogy experts, content developers, teachers, students, and local communities can be seen to fit together in complementary ways, and the nature of their work is both extended by and dependent on the technologies they use. The following interview quotes provide the sense of interrelationships and dependencies among OLE's various entities. If you want ICT intervention, if you want education through ICT, then it has to be very systematic. We need to develop contents, provide training to the teachers, build network with other stakeholders, develop infrastructure, and focus on capacity building of the local communities and involve central government. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010).
The following statements show how local and national level government influence OLE ecosystem: … in the district level, our focal contact is the government officials at the district education office. He is the one who can be contacted, and work through them in building teachers' capacity, the government officials can also attend the training programs. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/ 03/2010)
The contents in the laptop should be interactive. So, it's more fun for children and, it's something which children can work on its own. Even at home without the presence of teacher, something that they can do in their own so that it promotes the self‐learning as well as self‐ assessment. (Krishna Pun, Teacher, Nangi, 21/04/2010)
In a similar way, OLE ecosystem also involves content developer, curriculum experts, and programmer. The courses should be always within the framework defined by the ministry of education, there might be small discrepancies but it is always inside the boundary of framework. (Staff, Ministry of education, 29/03/2010).
… basic subjects just like English math and science can teach better using the laptops. (Bajra Bahadur, Teacher, Nangi, 21/04/2010)
… so, if you are expert in science you can come up with different activities and then you worked with software developers to build this and you review it and then you sort of approve it. (Teacher from Hetauda, 26/03/12)
Sustainability of this kind of project is also a big challenge that needs to be addressed. OLE therefore is trying to involve the Nepal government in this project. In the words of Karmacharya: First and foremost, our target should be to convince the government. Non‐government organizations like OLE cannot do this for long time. Our [OLE's] role here is more of catalyst. For example, to bring all the stakeholders together and discuss how to do it, try different ways of doing it, and find out how best to do it, and how best to take this to the mass, and scale it across the nations. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/ 2010)
He added, … we should also form a partnership with different organization and individuals who already doing this [OLPC] and get along with them. So, network is the third aspects. Fourth one is the most important for us and it covers everything else. That is to prepare the government to take over this kind of program in next 3, 4, or 5 years of time. So eventually if we really want all the children in school in public school in Nepal to be using some form of ICT to learn then we have to make sure that government includes such kind of teaching practices in the plans and policies documents and in the budgets. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010)
For long‐term sustainability, OLE is not just focusing on collaboration with the government, but also preparing local communities to take the ownership. As Karmacharya stated,
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We have to build and support the basic sort of power and network structure in and around the schools. We tell the schools that these are the kind of arrangement you should have in the schools. For example, telling them about different equipment that is used, and providing training on how to take care of that equipment. We also ask schools to get internet access, and create network with other schools. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010)
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Diversity
In IE, there are various kinds of people and various kinds of tools. In healthy IE, they work together in a complementary way (Nardi & O'Day, 1998). In the OLE case, the role of NWNP is to provide IT infrastructure, the role of DOE is to provide national curriculum, the role of pedagogy experts is to suggest appropriate pedagogical methods, the role of the content developers is to design and develop course contents, the role or the teachers is to implement the curriculum, and the role of the local communities is to provide conducive environment. The following quote illustrate the diversity in OLE ecosystem. … we worked with the curriculum development center. The subject experts are from the Ministry of education who prepare all these contents. It helps us because we get their expertise and it also helps them, in the sense, that we told them look you don't have to be a computer whiz, we are not asking them to become a software developer, you don't have to be a programmer, your role will be the same as curriculum experts. (Staff, curriculum development center, 30/03/2012)
The local development agencies provide financial support to buy computers in the schools. Likewise, Nepal telecom also started to support in building infrastructure. The director of Nepal telecom said, Nepal telecom has introduced ADSL service it cost around 900 rupees, and now if you have phone line in your school that is the only cost. (Anand Adhikari, Nepal Telecom Director, 29/03/2010)
The diversity can also be seen in the way different organizations are involved in this initiative. According to Karmacharya, … computers were donation from the different foundations. We are program supported by WFP (world food program), world food program is providing afternoon meals and that's for very poor school areas. This is kind of incentives for the children to come to school. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010)
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Coevolution
Because of the rapid pace of new technology development, IE is not static; it is evolving all the time (Nardi & O'Day, 1998). Similar dynamics can be seen in the case of OLE ecosystem. For example, the school, pedagogy, and class settings are organizing in a newer way. Information ecologies evolve as new ideas, tools, activities, and forms of expertise arise in them (Nardi & O'Day, 1998). This means that people must be prepared to participate in the ongoing development of their IEs. For example, in the OLE project, the daunting task was to prepare the teachers to adapt the new teaching paradigm where teacher act as a facilitator in learning process compare to the traditional paradigm where teachers were treated as the fountain of knowledge. As Karmacharya expressed in this regard, … the next thing is to make sure that the teacher can use this laptop to teach the classroom. So, the goal of the training from the technical aspects is to make teachers comfortable with using laptops. Get them to overcome the fear of technology, then said them there is nothing to be afraid of this you can just go on. How to integrate this kind of teaching learning method, how to manage classroom and how to manage time, all of these are included in our teachers training package. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010)
One of the teacher explained the pedagogical change as follows: … there is already a lot of focus on child centric learning. So right now, we stay with the same principle, but we deliver it in a different medium that is more effective. (Sakuntla, Teacher Hetauda school, 26/03/2011)
Another teacher added, Before this [laptop], we [teachers] don't have to prepare in advance. Now we have to look at, search for and then go to class. We need to prepare. Children are very enthusiastic to open laptop and try to explore materials by themselves. The explorative habit of children is cultivating and they seem to be more active than before. (Subhadra, Teacher, Shri Devi School, 21/04/2010)
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The schools across the mountain regions are connected through Wi‐Fi provided by NWNP, school teachers are gradually adapting student‐ centric teaching rather than teacher centric, at the same time the mode of dissemination of certain course materials moved to online. However, the ICT is changing dynamically, and all the stakeholders involved in this IE also need to adapt the changes. Here, we present one instance of adaptation. Teacher are learning so many technical things from the children, egoist thing is not there. We have to make teacher comfortable. If you look at in Nepal and lot of this Asian countries teacher have always seen as know all person, but now it's no longer, we tried to tell the teacher that teacher is no longer the founder of knowledge. Now the teachers have to be the facilitator, in the learning of the children that's the role we are trying to tell the teacher. The most important thing to the teacher is to accept that you don't know everything and be able be comfortable enough to tell the children that I don't know everything let's find out the solution together. (Head Master, Tikot school, 22/03/2010)
Information ecologies are filled with people who learn and adapt and create. Even when tools remain fixed for a time, the craft of using tools with expertise and creativity continues to evolve. The social and technical aspects of an environment coevolve. People's activities and tools adjust and are adjusted in relation to each other, always attempting and never quite achieving a perfect fit. [10, p. 53] The following reflections illustrate this: … as soon as you introduce laptops in the classroom the class automatically becomes a child centric class. Now the children are directly involved in the learning, so whether teacher like it or not that's going to be happened. So, it does change the dynamics of the classroom. (Krishna Pun, Teacher, Nangi, 21/04/2010)
Children can use it [course materials] in the local intranet because they don't have high bandwidth. We update them every three. Months every material and we also putting it into internet and we also find that lots of people, Nepalese Diaspora are using it. (Teacher from Hetauda, 21/04/2010)
When we [OLE] visited the school [Shri Devi school in Hetauda], I thought that it is not a good idea, but it's interesting because the teacher told us what the students are doing back home. They told us that their sisters, brothers and also their parents are actually playing with the computers. It is a very good opportunity to bring in some government information in these computers that also address, for example health issues, if there are family planning issues, etc. (Principal, Shri Devi school, Hetauda, 26/03/2010)
In one of the focus group discussions, teachers told of some interesting methods to reduce absence of the children from the classroom. They stated, There is a red alert indicator in the laptop which shows the lack of batter, the battery lasts for two hours only, therefore they have to come back to the classroom to recharge it. Normally, they never mishandled the laptops. (Navaraj, Teacher, Shri Devi school, Hetauda, 26/03/ 2010)
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Keystone species
Ecology is marked by the presence of certain keystone species whose presence is crucial to the survival of the ecology itself (Nardi & O'Day, 1998). An example of a keystone species in the case is OLE itself as facilitator, OLE Nepal will support it as long as we needed but actually will be government lead this and we will be a supporting body for it. We already had preliminary discussion with the government. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010)
The following statement shows the passion and importance of Karmacharya for OLE: As there have been tough time sometimes you are so frustrated but I think it's the same motivation as Mahabir has is if you go to the villages and if you interact and see these kids and you feel like you are creating the future of so many children and that's the there is no comparison to that. (Rabi Karmacharya, 29/03/2010)
The NWNP in general and Pun in particular play a significant role as facilitator of IT infrastructure to OLE,
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Because of the NWNP we are able to connect the schools to each other, and it is also possible to access the internet, and Mahabir Pun is helping us a lot. (Principal, Shri Devi school, Hetauda, 26/03/2010)
Karmacharya added, The fact is that it was difficult in the past to develop this school. But, with the help of Mahabir and Sansad (political leader) we got an opportunity to implement this project. (Head Master, Tikot school, 22/03/2010)
The OLPC project, teachers, and children are equally important stakeholders in the OLE ecosystem. In the rural and remote mountain schools, sometimes it is difficult to find these keystone species; in these situations, mediators play a prominent role to build bridges across various entities. For example, one of the respondents (whom we consider as a mediator) described, … we cannot expect government to do everything; local has to do as much as possible. I know I have been to district called Karnali those guys do not have resources. For that places, we can find donors but other places it should we a joint venture. The local should do something, the village development committee they get around two million rupees. They can spend it to build schools and buy some computers. (Tak Pun, Narjang School, 11/03/2011)
Ironically, their contributions are often unofficial, unrecognized, and seemingly peripheral to the most obvious productive functions of the workplace. Although the success of new tools may rely on the facilitation of mediators who can shape the tools to fit local circumstances, technology is too often designed and introduced without regard to the roles these people play. (Nardi & O'Day, 1998, p. 54)
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Locality
Locality is a particularly important attribute of IEs. It seeks for the answers to the following question, such as to whom does it belong, to what and to whom is it connected, through what relations? “Only people who are immersed in particular information ecology can provide a local habitation and a name to new technologies. Healthy information ecologies are sustained by the active, intelligent participation of the people involved in them. (Nardi & O'Day, 1998, p. 55).” The OLE project has involved all the local actors such as Pun from NWNP, local community people, local governments, teachers, and students from the particular schools. These local actors have better understanding of their local needs, and legitimacy compare to outside interventionist. For example, the OLE has more understanding of local context and their needs.
FIGURE 1
Ecological model of OLE Nepal
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… we are not trying the children to teach how to use Microsoft word, or excel or any other software, these are the things which they will pick up easily, for example we never get trained in how to use word. So, what we thought we could do using these laptops technology is to deliver quality education. (Teacher from Hetauda, 21/04/2010)
In addition, OLE is more focused on developing local contents: I mean without contents just bringing the few computers connecting it to internet is not going to change anything. So that is why what OLE Nepal is doing this is very important. (Pun, Leader NWNP, 21/03/2010)
The ecosystem the OLE project is summarized in Figure 1.
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DISCUSSION
Our findings show that it was not the laptops in the OLPC project that succeeded in narrowing the digital divide. It needed an ecosystem. Numerous researchers have raised the need for a holistic understanding of how ICT initiatives in education play out in a developing country situation (Andersson & Grönlund, 2009; Eastmond, 2000; Natriello, 2001; Rao, 2005; Sife et al., 2007). Specific to the OLPC project, it has been pointed out that taking the local context into account is vital (Warschauer & Ames, 2010). What is less addressed is a clear articulation of what “local context” means as a concept. In this paper, we have forwarded the lens of IE as a means of defining “local context” and thus unfolding the mechanism through which ICT initiatives such as OLPC attain developmental objectives. We illustrate that IE is a useful and appropriate theoretical lens to understand and explain why ICT4D initiatives such as OLPC succeed. The critique can be legitimately raised “why information ecology?” Our initial response is “because it allows us to take a systematic perspective.” The question that follows is naturally, “why information ecology in particular? Why not any systems perspective such as complex systems?” Our answer is that it is not enough to see how ICT initiatives are successfully implemented and adapted. It is more important to understand how such efforts become sustainable (Sein, Ahmad, & Harindranath, 2008). By looking at the interrelationships, interactions between the diverse species that make up an ecosystem, we can get an insight to how they coevolve and makes the system sustainable. We can also see how the system can fall apart if keystone species disappear or sustained interactions and interrelationships are disrupted. An ecosystem is then a specific and more nuanced complex system. The elements of an ecosystem and the coevolving nature of the relationship between its diverse species provide this nuanced characteristic. We readily submit that as powerful and useful the IE lens is, it is not enough to explain OLPC's success. If anything, it presents a static perspective: It is a picture albeit a sharp one. The dynamic nature of how the changes happened and who did it remains unexplained. We need to bring in other theoretical premises to sharpen the picture even further. To answer the question of how the process happened and how a key actor, Karmacharya in this case, was able to bring in the other key species, the social capital theory is a useful lens. Social capital explains the ties that bind people and has been shown to be a powerful lever that activists use in initiating developmental initiatives (Andrade & Urquhart, 2009; Thapa, Sein, & Sæbø, 2012). The actual actions taken by such activists can be understood through actor‐network Theory (Thapa, 2011), which can explain the process through which the activists enroll other stakeholders into a project. There is a final piece that is needed to complete the puzzle. Even if the activists have strong social capital and even if they have used effective enrollment processes, a technology artifact is not likely to be used or adopted if the users and other stakeholders do not see what they can do with it to fulfill their goals. The question of “what can it do for me” can be examined through the affordance theory (Thapa & Sein, 2017). These are interesting avenues for future research. Finally, we have analyzed how the elements of the ecosystem of an ICT‐based initiative in education are related. In addition to the theoretical implications articulated above, our paper also suggests implications for practice. A project aimed at using ICT for enhancing education quality in resource poor developing countries needs to take into account all the elements of the ecosystem and nurture the coevolving relationships between these elements. The project should not embark by just focusing on technology, but should focus on increasing students' enrollment and reducing dropouts, disseminating course materials (timely distribution of course materials and easy accessibility to information), improving the teaching side (appropriate pedagogy, teachers training, and updated curriculum), and maintain and strengthening relationships with key actors (networking with governmental and nongovernmental organizations) and assess its state (evaluation and monitoring and continuous improvement). We especially emphasize the vital role of teachers in such projects. It is important to train them not only in the technology per se but perhaps more importantly, in innovative pedagogical approaches that can leverage the functionalities of ICT for effective and efficacious education (Kalogiannakis, 2010). We end the paper with an observation. As we stated in Section 1, OLE Nepal was pointed out as one of the few successes of the OLPC initiative (Warschauer & Ames, 2010). Our paper revealed at least one reason for its success: It had a sustainable ecosystem. RE FE R ENC E S Andersson, A. S., & Grönlund, Å. (2009). A conceptual framework for e‐learning in developing countries: A critical review of research challenges. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 38(8), 1–16.
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How to cite this article: Thapa D, Sein MK. An ecological model of bridging the digital divide in education: A case study of OLPC deployment in Nepal. E J Info Sys Dev Countries. 2018;e12018. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12018
