Factors influencing technology planning in developing countries: A literature review

This article is a literature review concerning the factors that play an important role in the development of educational technology plans in the educational system of developing countries (DCs). Largely, the technology plans are influenced by factors that emanates from within the country (internal) and those outside of their borders (external). Internal factors include the high prices and low effectiveness of services provided by technology-related multinational corporations in DCs, the philosophical perspectives and priorities of organizations, foundations and development agencies promoting the implementation of ICTs in DCs, pilot programs without sustainability, uncoordinated pilot projects, selling of refurbished computers for use at a large scale, and dominance of the English language in the software. External factors include international summits and conferences, global partnerships and establishment of international organizations, and technology-related multinational corporations. To this end, this article is intended to stimulate reflections on the different factors that play an important role in the development and implementation of educational technology plans in Dcs.     

INSET: prospects and practice in developing countries

Recent years have witnessed considerable growth of emphasis in the inservice education and training of educational personnel. It has come to be generally accepted that the pace of social and educational change makes preservice training an inadequate basis for long‐term professional competence, and that inservice training is an essential instrument for updating and upgrading staff. In contrast to preservice training, inservice courses can often be more easily related to the practicalities of the education profession, and several models of inservice training avoid removing staff from the workforce. Inservice practices are not usually without problems, however, many of which may be logistical and financial constraints arising from the decision to cater for trainees in their workplaces rather than in one central location.

This paper highlights some of these issues by reference to the experience of several less developed countries, and in particular by reference to practices in Papua New Guinea. For over a decade, university inservice courses have been organized in Papua New Guinea for school teachers and a variety of educational administrators. These programmes were developed independently of ‘main stream’ thinking on INSET, but analysis of their operation within a more general and contemporary theoretical context sheds useful light on issues of international interest.     

Peripheries and centers: research universities in developing countries

The research university is a central institution of the twenty-first century—providing access to global science, producing basic and applied research, and educating leaders of the academe and society. Worldwide, there are very few research universities—they are expensive to develop and support, and the pressures of massification have placed priorities elsewhere. For developing countries, research universities are especially rare, and yet they are especially important as key ingredients for economic and social progress. This article argues for the importance of research universities in developing and middle-income countries and points out some of the challenges that such institutions face.     

Creating world-class universities: Implications for developing countries

Many countries are now creating world-class universities (WCUs) as essential parts of their higher education reform agendas, and as national goals. It is legitimate to ask whether every county that aspires to build a WCU can do so—especially developing countries. To answer this question, this paper provides a three-step framework. The first step in building a WCU is to understand its characteristics. The second is for the country to systematically assess whether it has the capacity to create a WCU by rationally appreciating the challenges it would face in creating one. Third, it must understand, given the challenges discovered in the second step, what to do to create a WCU. Considering this framework, only a few developing countries have the potential to foster a WCU. Thus it is difficult for many universities in developing countries to enter an existing market already occupied by well-developed education systems and universities.