Md. Saifuddin Khalid, 2011, Digital divide between teachers and students in urban Bangladesh, International Technology Education and Development Conference, INTED 2011, Valencia, Spain, 7-9 March, 2011, ABSTRACTS CD ISBN: 978-84-614-7422-6 PROCEEDINGS CD: 978-84-614-7423-3, pp. 2010- 2020.

1. Conference:INTED 2011, Valencia, Spain,7-9 March, 2011 ABSTRACTS CD ISBN: 978-84-614-7422-6 PROCEEDINGS CD: 978-84-614-7423-3, pp. 2010- 2020. digital divide between teachers and students in urban bangladesh Md. Saifuddin Khalid Aalborg University, Denmark khalid@hum.aau.dk Session: ICT skills and competenciesamongteachers Tuesday, 8th of March, 2011 1 khalid@hum.aau.dk

2. Introduction Mission and Vision of “Digital Bangladesh”. Sporadic, un-orchestrated, distributed initiatives to realize the goal. Barriers include - only 47% power supply from national grid with per capita consumption of 156 Kwh[4], among 11 years and above 34.2% are non-literate[5], lack physical access to ICTs, has social class gaps and bias, family resistance etc. Various divides exist between Urban and Rural. Rural (20%) Versus Urban (80%), disadvantaged versus advantaged community, challenges are ICT ‘inclusion’ versus ‘advancement’. Do teachers and students in urban Bangladesh, especially those in the capital have ‘access’ to ICTs and believe that they ‘can use’. 2 khalid@hum.aau.dk

3. Education Structure of Bangladesh – Divide in itself National Curriculum International (Private Inst.) Bangla Version English Version Technical Vocational Education and Training Madrassa Education (Islamic) Cambridge International Examinations Edexcel International Baccalaureate Exists inherent Socio-economic divide 3 khalid@hum.aau.dk

4. Objectives to explore the physical access, ownership and ability to use ICT to analyse the digital divide between teachers and students to analyse the differences (possibly) contributed by two education systems or socio-economic background associated with the systems to gain basic understanding of the readiness and ability to initiate further study to catch the attention of the decision makers to take strong initiatives to capitalize existing readiness and ability 4 khalid@hum.aau.dk

5. Literature Review Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) [9] defines digital divide as “the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities. The digital divides reflect various differences among and within countries”. Digital divide can also occur due to socio-economic factors, geographical, educational, attitudinal, and generational or age factors, or even due to physical disabilities [10]. Prensky’s “digital native” versus “digital immigrant” debate [11]. Skill divide between “daily use” versus “teaching-learning”. 5 khalid@hum.aau.dk

6. LiteratureReview (Cont.) Basic Model of Innovation ([21] reviews [22]) “any new form of behaviour must yield benefits that outweigh the costs or disadvantages (= “readiness” or R). “the new form must be legitimised, i.e., it must be culturally (ethically, morally) acceptable (= “willingness” or W)”. “there must be adequate means, though not necessarily of a technical nature, to implement the new form (= “ability” or A).” ... “a success S can be expressed as S = R∩W∩A”. This model willbeused for going to nextphase.. 6 khalid@hum.aau.dk

7. Methodology Two questionnaire were developed based on initial semi-structured interview with randomly selected 10 students and 5 teachers. 965 students and 185 teachers participated in the survey. 33 institutes were communicated and 11 could be surveyed formally. Responses collected using paper-based 41-question questionnaires were recorded in Moodle LMS. Among 185 teacher respondents 42% (78) are male, 49% (90) are female and 9% (17) did not respond to gender question. Out of 995 student responses 44% (420) are male, 504 (52%) are female and 4% (41) has missing value in gender question. 7 khalid@hum.aau.dk

8. Digital Divide between English Medium and BanglaMedium Divide: Know How to Use 8 khalid@hum.aau.dk

9. Digital Divide between English Medium and BanglaMedium 9 khalid@hum.aau.dk Divide: Have own device

10. Ownership and Ability to ‘use’ ICT devices 10 khalid@hum.aau.dk

11. Access to Computer 11 khalid@hum.aau.dk

12. Access to Internet 12 khalid@hum.aau.dk

13. Access to Internet (cont.) 13 khalid@hum.aau.dk

14. Use of Mobile Phone 14 khalid@hum.aau.dk

15. Use of Radio 15 khalid@hum.aau.dk

16. Use of Radio (cont.) 16 khalid@hum.aau.dk

17. Use of Television Average TV viewing time for teachers is less than 2 hours and more for the students. News, talk shows and short movies or serials are popular among teachers. Sports programmes are equally popular among both groups. Movies, song, cartoon and reality shows are much popular among the students. Educational quiz programs with mobile and online participation scope might be attractive as well. CD/DVD player ownership can be utilized by providing video learning contents. 17 khalid@hum.aau.dk

19. On an average both teachers and students spend more than 30 minutes. Phones are for common use than personal and usually placed in the parents’ room, dining or family living room.

20. About 40% or more respondents do not have a land phone or fixed phone at home.

21. With limited functionality there is little scope for this device to be included in ICT for education.18 khalid@hum.aau.dk

22. Conclusion & Recommendations The study revealed that teachers and students from the educational institutes of capital of Bangladesh do not have significant digital divide in terms of access, ownership and basic ability to use. However, there might be significant difference if the study is extended using Bloom’s taxonomy’s digital version [24]. In case of ability to using mobile phone features, students have higher ability to use, as opposed to teachers. 19 khalid@hum.aau.dk

23. Recommendations (Cont.) Internet access and social networking site use being high in both group, academic institutes might take the benefit of websites along with LMS. Very few schools in Bangladesh have web presence till date. Open source LMS and portfolio manager like moodle and mahara might enable the educational institutes with learning content management and academic information management. Ability to use mobile features and internet access through mobile phones might be used for academic information exchange. 20 khalid@hum.aau.dk

24. Recommendations (Cont.) Decision makers of urban school and parents of students should consider their advantaged position in ICT access. It is time that “motivation” is instigated and appropriate “ability” [21] is put to use context. Radio: high percentage of access, use and electricity consumption requirements make this very prospective. Mobile can be used for feedback. DVD player with TV might be academically contributing if parents purchase learning contents are created during various development projects. 21 khalid@hum.aau.dk

25. Recommendations (Cont.) Programs associated with school-based telecentre [25] for the rural areas might be highly rewarding for urban educational institutes as well. Urban School boards of trust or governing body would require much less effort than rural (80% of the country’s population) to realize the Digital Bangladesh vision. 22 khalid@hum.aau.dk

26. Acknowledgement My Students of MAT 211 of Autumn 2009, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) 23 khalid@hum.aau.dk

27. Feedback Thank You 24 khalid@hum.aau.dk