Towards e-learning for all in Sri Lanka - progress and problems in some selected Sri Lankan 21st century initiatives

Abstract

In the 21st century Sri Lanka and many other regions in Asia have shown a rapid but heterogeneous development in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).The difference in impact on urban regions and rural areas has sometimes been described as the internal digital divide. At the same time as the gap has diminished between cities in developing countries and the developed world the internal development gap has increased in many Asian countries. How can this gap be bridged? In this paper some Sri Lankan initiatives for islandwide dissemination are analyzed and discussed. The study is built on observations, recorded interviews and a literature study. In formal tertiary education we have chosen a nationwide online learning programme for a Bachelor of Information Technology (eBIT) and how the content and curriculum was developed and revised by the National e-Learning Centre (NeLC), at the University of Colombo (UCSC). Regarding primary school and informal learning we have selected the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative and the Nenasala Telecentre network. We find that these initiatives together have improved life for people in rural areas but that there still exists an internal digital and social gap that needs further bridging