Information and Communications Technology in Primary School Education

The main focus of this monograph is to discuss the role of technology in education in emerging markets considering that many countries have attempted to reform their educational systems using large scale interventions in the last two decades. Educational change can be prompted by two exact opposites in two different settings; for example, Western countries are faced with the problem of falling enrollments whereas developing countries have to adjust to rapid acceleration in enrollments. Based on the need to bring about change, these reforms subscribe to a large diversity including attempts at restructuring school systems, curriculum revisions, pedagogical change, technological change, assessment- related changes, work condition changes, and so on. Although there have been reforms in schools over the last century, they have been only first order classroom reforms; a 'deep-seated continuity' still persists in both schooling and teaching. Educational reforms are therefore plagued with different kinds of problems: the problem of successful initial change taking place, the problem of replicating successful change in varying contexts, and the problem of institutionalization or durability of the change.??Readers will also discover that American India Foundation, having worked in the educational sphere for more than a decade, intends to transform the school ecosystem through its 'Digital Equalizer' Program (DE). The program strives to foster an environment of collaborative learning by effectively empowering teachers to use technology as a pedagogic tool leading to better learning outcomes among students of under-resourced schools across India. The author sheds new light on how the DE program is affecting change in the state of Odisha's education system and the adoption of new pedagogic teaching techniques.?