Education for All in Sri Lanka - ICT4D Hubs for Region‐wide Dissemination of Blended Learning Peter Mozelius Report Series/DSV No. 14-017 Education for All in Sri Lanka ICT4D Hubs for Region‐Wide Dissemination of Blended Learning Peter Mozelius ©Peter Mozelius, Stockholm University 2014 ISSN 1101-8526 ISBN 978-91-7649-042-6 Printed in Sweden by US-AB, Stockholm 2014 Distributor: Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University To Chalani, may your children’s life be better than your parents’. Abstract ICT4D, here defined as the use of Information and Communication Tech- nologies (ICT) in developing regions, can be seen as one of the most power- ful and cost efficient ways to improve the standard of living in the develop- ing world. Many regions in Asia have shown a rapid but heterogeneous de- velopment where information technology had a drastic impact on develop- ment but often with the problems related to ICT4D 1.0: lack of sustainability and lack of scalability. This study analysed the Sri Lankan infrastructure for region-wide dissem- ination of blended learning in the 21st century based on the exploration of some selected ICT4D hubs and educational initiatives. The overall aim of the research was to observe, describe and analyse how the selected ICT4D initiatives and the creation of ICT4D hubs in Sri Lanka might support re- gion-wide dissemination of blended learning and local development. A lon- gitudinal case study has been the overall approach where a number of em- bedded thematic units were explored in long-term fieldwork conducted be- tween 2006 and 2012. Data has been collected from a combination of obser- vations, interviews, group discussions, surveys and document analysis. Findings showed that several of the studied ICT4D hubs have contributed to the general development but the country’s internal digital divide has in fact grown, as urban growth has been so much faster than the growth in rural areas, leaving the country with geographic as well as socio-economic gaps. Some of the former war zones have definitely been left behind and there is a need for further support of the Eastern and Northern regions of the island. Sri Lanka has had an outcome that must be classified as better than average compared to other developing regions with increased opportunities for edu- cation and with some ICT4D hubs as multipurpose meeting points. Contrib- uting factors to the successful development are the high literacy rate, the chain of ICT4D projects rolled out in the right order and a committed im- plementation of educational eServices. On the other hand there were other, more negative findings indicating that sustainability, knowledge sharing and inter-project cooperation and coordination have often failed. The identified strength in the Sri Lankan model, which can be recom- mended for other parts of the world as well, is the way top-down manage- ment of infrastructure sometimes is combined with bottom-up grass-root activities. Other recommendations, that also are global, are to extend existing ICT4D hubs and upgrade them to more intelligent, autonomous and multi- service ICT4D routers that could also handle the future need for eServices in the fields of eHealth, eFarming and eGovernance. Keywords: ICT4D, ICT4D hubs, Digital divide, Sri Lanka, Blended learn- ing, Education for All Sammanfattning ICT4D/ IKT för Utveckling, som i denna avhandling definieras som använ- dandet av information- och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT) som stöd för utveckling, ses av många som ett av de mer effektiva sätten att förbättra lev- nadsstandarden i utvecklingsregioner. Många regioner i Asien har, precis som Sri Lanka, haft en snabb men heterogen utveckling där användandet av IKT på ett märkbart sätt har påskyndat utveckling och globalisering i stor- stadsområden men ofta med de problem för skalbarhet och långsiktig håll- barhet som förknippas med ICT4D 1.0. Denna avhandling har undersökt den Sri Lankesiska ICT4D-designen i det tjugoförsta århundradet genom att utforska några utvalda IKT-baserade ICT4D-nav/ICT4D hubs där den gemensamma nämnaren är blandat lä- rande/blended learning. Den övergripande forskningsstrategin var en longi- tudinell fallstudie där ett antal inbäddade tematiska enheter utforskades i fältstudier mellan 2006 och 2012. Studiens målsättning har varit att obser- vera, analysera samt beskriva hur ett antal undervisningsprojekt och ICT4D- nav har bidragit till den regionala spridningen av blandat lärande och lokal utveckling. Resultaten av studien visade att ett flertal av de undersökta utbildningsini- tiativen har bidragit till den allmänna utveckling men att detta främst gäller Sri Lankas storstadsområden i landets sydvästra delar och att landets norra och östra delar har behov av ytterligare stöd. Sri Lankas IKT-stödda utveckl- ing uppvisar resultat som måste klassas som bättre än genomsnittet i jämfö- relse med andra utvecklingsregioner, med ökade möjligheter till utbildning och med ett flertal IKT-baserade utbildningsnav som multifunktionella mö- tesplatser. Viktiga bidragande orsaker till utvecklingen var den låga graden av analfabetism, en delvis planerad kedja av biståndsprojekt, samt ett hängi- vet arbete på gräsrotsnivå med implementationen av e-tjänster. Flera av de studerade initiativen och ICT4D-naven har bidragit till utveckling, men att den interna skillnaden mellan storstad och landsbyggd har ökat samt att samordning av utbildningsresurser och projekt inte har lyckats särskilt väl. Den identifierade styrkan i landets utvecklingsmodell, som också rekom- menderas för andra utvecklingsområden, är hur vissa centralstyrda IKT- och utbildningsprojekt har kombinerats med lyckade lokala gräsrotsaktiviteter. Vidare rekommendationer, som även de är avsedda för andra delar av värl- den än Sri Lanka, är att behålla existerande ICT4D-nav men att upprusta dessa till mer intelligenta, autonoma och serviceorienterade centra som även innefattar e-tjänster inom e-hälsa (eHealth), e-jordbruk (eFarming) samt e- förvaltning (eGovernance). Nyckelord: ICT4D, ICT4D-nav, Sri Lanka, Blandat lärande, Digitala klyf- tor, Utbildning för alla Acknowledgement Many thanks to all my Sri Lankan friends and collaborators, without whose help this thesis would have been impossible to write. Our discussions have been an important part of the analysis process and without your company I would never have found the way to some of the remote ICT4D hubs that are described in the study. There will probably be no more Swedish initiated aid projects in Sri Lanka in the fields of ICT and eLearning, but what is an inter- esting future challenge is to keep the sometimes successful collaboration alive without any funding. That would be real sustainability. One idea would be to keep the ICTer conference (ICTer, 2014) as an annual meeting point with discussions between Swedish and Asian researchers. Due to my teach- ing I will probably not be able to participate in ICTer but as a member of the ICTer review team I will share ideas and discussions. Furthermore, I want to express my appreciation for the opportunity to par- ticipate in the European Union funded AsiaLink eBIT project and the Sida funded NeLC project. Without the relatively successful outcome of the eBIT project I would never have written a thesis on this subject and several of the main ideas in the thesis are the result of dicussions with, Swedish, Dutch and Sri Lankan colleagues in these projects. As an example, seven out of nine co-authors in the compiled articles have in some way been active in the eBIT and NeLC projects. Finally I must thank the supervisor team for your iterative and construc- tive feedback all through the process. Not all supervisors will, like Henrik Hansson join field trips on the other side of the globe. Not all co-supervisors will read a messy prototype kappa as carefully as Anders G. Nilsson, and with a smile, explain the important structural changes that make a messy prototype a decent thesis. I am also very grateful for the thoroughly and commited pre-doc revision done by Devinder Thapa. Thank you Thapa, it was beyond all expectations! I would also like to thank Thashmee Karuna- ratne and Ranil Peiris for your proofreading and useful comments on Sri Lankan details. Contents Education for All in Sri Lanka - .................................................................. i 1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 15 1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Aim and Research Questions ........................................................................... 17 1.3 Research Articles ................................................................................................ 17 1.4 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 27 1.5 Case Study Timeline and Conceptual Framework ....................................... 29 1.6 Constraints ........................................................................................................... 32 1.7 Purpose ................................................................................................................. 32 1.8 About the Author ................................................................................................ 33 2. Extended Background .......................................................................... 35 2.1 Development ......................................................................................................