Time machines and virtual portals

Graham, Mark

doi:10.1177/146499341001100303

Cited by 187 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Various studies have shown that digital divides and digital literacy consist of multiple, complex layers, which are manifest not simply as geographic divisions (Ferro, Helbig, & GilGarcia, 2011;Graham, 2011). Reducing divides and advancing literacy is therefore not a straightforward endeavor but needs to be contextualized.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Schulte

2015

Chinese Journal of Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are often presented as the cure-all for various problems: ICTs for education (ICT4E) are considered promising tools for promoting self-directed, creative learning and bridging various divides, such as those between developed and developing countries, urban and rural regions, and so on. While the lofty goals of ICT4E are continuously being highlighted, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these technologies are embedded in sociocultural and political environments.China is no exception to this narrative of techno-determinism. In China, new technologies are being widely propagated as effective instruments for erasing differences between learners and learning communities, particularly with regard to transplanting "modern" education into rural communities. The novelty of 21st century ICT, however, tends to obscure the fact that these techno-optimist beliefs date back to attempts in the early 20th century to uplift rural China through the implementation of modern technologies. The article will scrutinize this history of techno-optimism and will relate it to recent attempts at "transformation by technology." Finally, I will discuss how the new keyword in both educational modernization and the knowledge economy-"creativity"-functions as the conceptual ideological heir to "production capacity," the core ingredient of the industrializing societies of the 19th and 20th centuries.Keywords: ICT4E; techno-determinism; techno-optimism; creativity; rural China IntroductionIn the field of education, information and communication technologies (ICT) are often presented as the cure-all for a variety of problems: on the one hand, ICTs for education (ICT4E) are considered appropriate and promising tools for promoting self-directed and creative learning, which are deemed crucial for education in the 21st century. On the other hand, these new technologies are expected to bridge various divides, such as those between developed and developing countries, urban and rural regions, affluent and poor neighborhoods, and so on, by spreading the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to every classroom on the globe. While the merits and lofty goals of ICT4E are continuously highlighted in the research on ICT4E, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these technologies are embedded in sociocultural and political environments after they are designed in national contexts and implemented in local schools. In a manner that can be best described as both ahistorical and apolitical, both ICT4E practitioners and policy makers assume that the newly promoted technologies, by virtue of their novelty, will automatically transform and improve learning both in and outside the classroom.China is no exception to this narrative of techno-determinism. New technologies are being widely propagated as effective instruments to both erase differences between learners and learning communities and raise learning behaviors and outcomes to a new level of quality. This has been true particularly with r...

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Schulte

2015

Chinese Journal of Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The oft-mentioned 'digital divide' is an expression of this historical trajectory. It represents more than a gap in access to ICTs, it is symptomatic of gaps between rich and poor, developed and developing, knowledgebased societies and agrarian communities (Graham, 2011). Living with the knowledge of having deficits obliges African governments to show the will to participate and to improve by complying with universal policies that seek to close these gaps (in Li, 2007).…”

Section: Universalising Principles and Forms Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the tensions and incongruities of Internet governance in Africa

Holden

Klyton

2016

Government Information Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews and statistical analysis of policy reports and documents, this paper examines how African nation states interact with Internet governance at the international level. There is a dominant paradigm at work that values the multistakeholder approach and encourages dialogue and equal representation.While, in principle, this model has developed for the good of all participating countries, we illuminate tensions and incongruities experienced by African nation states. We use three analytical frames that focus on the way countries are measured and ranked as ICT ready -what we refer to as accumulating evaluative value, the forms of resistance that emerge in order to counter the universalising values of Internet governance, and the way spatial geographies of internet use and access are mapped out politically. We draw attention to a paradox of stakeholder participation arguing that African nations experience continual disempowerment and alienation in their compliance with international directives.

show abstract

“…In all o f these cases, the virtual takes on an ontic role (Adams, 1997;Graham, 2011). Information and communication technologies are able to discursively construct "both an ethereal alternate dimension which is simultaneously infinite and everywhere (because everyone with an Internet connection can enter), and as fixed in a distinct location, albeit a non-physical one (because despite being infinitely accessible all willing participants are thought to arrive into the same marketspace, civic forum, and social space)" (Graham, 2013b, page 3).…”

Section: Spatial Imaginaries and Technomediationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is a similar conceptual move to the one performed by the many writers who dreamt of human territoriality being replaced by new technologies through a 'global village' [or Gibson's (1984) 'consensual hallucination']. Those texts, along with much else that was written about the emancipatory possibilities of the Internet, offer inherently dualistic worldviews (Wertheim, 1999) in which the Internet (or the 'global village' that it can bring into being) is assigned an ontic role (Adams, 1997;Graham, 2011;2013b).…”

Section: Understanding Perceptions and Practices Of Technomediated Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

Contradictory Connectivity: Spatial Imaginaries and Technomediated Positionalities in Kenya's Outsourcing Sector

Graham

2015

Environ Plan A

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

E ast A frica has trad itio n ally been characterized by sta rk b arriers to n o n p ro x im ate co m m u n icatio n a n d flows o f in fo rm atio n . It was the w o rld 's last m a jo r region w ith o u t fibre-optic b ro a d b a n d In tern et access, an d until the sum m er o f 2009 h ad been forced to rely on slow an d costly satellite connectivity. T his all changed when the first o f fo u r fibreo p tic cables was connected in K enya: bringing w ith it the prom ise o f fast an d affordable In tern et access fo r the m asses, an d the ability o f th e co u n try to m ove tow ards a know ledgebased econom y. W ithin the context o f this m o m en t o f change, th is p ap er explores the ways th a t m an ag ers o f outso u rcin g firm s envisage 'connectivity.' O ver the co u rse o f fo rty -o n e interview s, co n tra d icto ry spatial im aginaries were discovered. W hen describing th eir p erceptions o f the c o u n try 's new technom ediated positionalities, m any interview ees rep eated visions th a t allow ed geographic frictions to ev ap o rate. B ut w hen m an ag ers were asked a b o u t their actual m ediated positionalities, they presen ted a very different w orld: o ne o f b arriers, frictions, an d th e very real role th a t d istance con tin u es to play in the w o rld 's econom ic peripheries.T he goal o f this p ap e r is to in te rro g a te why we see such sta rk disconnects betw een perceptions an d practices o f connectivity. T h e co n trad ictio n s co uld be seen as an exposition o f a scalar schism betw een in te rn atio n a lly o p era tin g regim es o f tru th (ie, pow erful discourses th a t have their origin nonlocally) an d local experiences a n d practices in K enya. A lternatively, we can th in k a b o u t the co n tra d icto ry acco u n ts o f connectivity as em ergent from strategic spatial essentialism s th a t are practised to achieve p articu la r goals. By focusing on the co n tra d ictio n s em bed d ed in to the ways in w hich people speak a b o u t connectivity in the K enyan o u tso u rcin g sector, we can learn m uch a b o u t how arg u m en ts a b o u t the entanglem ent o f connectivity, grow th, an d developm ent are o perationalized. 'C onnectivity' is offered as a necessary, an d som etim es even sufficient, co n d itio n from w hich grow th an d econom ic developm ent can be b ro u g h t in to being: a set o f sp atial im aginaries th a t conveniently s u p p o rt a n atio n al developm ent strateg y o f rem aking K enya in the co n tem p o rary know ledge econom y.

show abstract

Time machines and virtual portals

Cited by 187 publications

References 58 publications

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

(Dis)Empowering technologies: ICT for education (ICT4E) in China, past and present

Exploring the tensions and incongruities of Internet governance in Africa

Contradictory Connectivity: Spatial Imaginaries and Technomediated Positionalities in Kenya's Outsourcing Sector

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About