Education Via ICTs: Knowledge and Comprehension in the Age of Electronic Communication

Abstract

Electronic media has been recognized by large, decentralized scientific and engineering organizations with headquarters in North America and Europe as a critical tool for communication and information sharing with members and other stakeholders. The greatest technical society in the world, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, realized that it was becoming more and more dependent on electronic media and ordered a research to evaluate the effects this change would have on its members and other stakeholders in the social, organisational, and economic spheres. The lack of conceptual underpinnings in ICT impact assessment has contributed to its current state of absence or poor quality. To illustrate where such foundations might originate, this editorial lays out the intellectual origins of the newly-emerging sub discipline of "development informatics." Additionally, it provides an overview of the conceptual contributions made by each work in Policy Arena. Sen's capability theory, enterprise value chain models, and empowerment models are used in the articles to illustrate how ICTs contribute to ideas of development that include economic growth, sustainable livelihoods, and freedom. The editorial offers a good practice summary based on experiences of both success and failure, since not all ICT endeavours are successful. It goes above and beyond the adage that practitioners and legislators should always include impact evaluation in this beneficial activity.