Final Exam

Al Akhawayn UniversitySchool of Humanities and Social SciencesCOM 4304 Media for Development/ICTs4Dev


Spring 2008


Student Name: Amal EL YAHCOUBI MOULAY
Student ID Number: 041R260568

1. What does ICT for Development or e-development mean for you? (250 words)

ICT for Development or e-development is the new information and communication technology. ICT includes the traditional technologies such as: (TV, radio), the new communication technologies such as desktop, laptop, Internet, distance learning.., in addition to the telecommunication lines: mobile phones, wireless and scanners. ICT is becoming vital and necessary for the success and the development of a country.

All the information we get and receive from the digital means of communication help in promoting innovation, success and good flow of digital communication. ICT is used in different ways and in different issues. For example we can find that ICT is used in education for the purpose to improve the education and learning and maintain a good transmission of information between students and instructors in order, to assure a good learning environment. Computers and internet are the communication technologies tools that are most used in education in today’s schools. For example Internet is used a lot by students to look for information related to their curriculum. Furthermore, it helps them make their assignment and learn by themselves. Internet helps student become responsible for what they look for and also make them learn in an independent way. In addition, email, blogs, and forums those are considered means of communication that are used for education and digital information sharing. A professor can depend on emails to share information between his students’ saves times and facilitate learning. Blogs and forums are also digital communication means that are used between instructors and students. In addition to education, ICT us used for economical development, health, poverty reduction…


2. How can we measure the digital divide? (250 words):

Measuring the digital divide will help know that impact if information communication technology on the population and the opportunity that people have accessing to different digital communication tools. In order to do so, many important criteria need to be taken into consideration to make a credible and successful measurement. First of all, human competencies, level of education, access to ICT technologies and Information Technology professionals need to be defined. This will help to start the process of measurement in a well managed and organized way. Than many indicators need to be used for the measurement of the digital divide which are:
· The percentage of TV users in a specific country as well as the calculation of the percentage of those people who do no use TV or do not have access to this communication medium especially in rural areas.
· Internet access: Internet needs to be measured in terms of people who use it and those who do not use it because of skills or internet availability. We need to measure this in cities as well as rural areas and also count the number of cyber cafes which will help the measurement of internet access.
· Mobile Phone users: Access and the use of mobile phones in rural areas and cities need to be analyzed to measure the digital divide.
· Computer availability: We need to measure the number of computers in each household, and also the computer skills according the gender and age.
· ICT equipment in public administrations and schools: We need to go to private schools and see if they have a multimedia lab, than count the number of computers in the labs and the number of students who use it.· Those previous indicators need to be measured according to Gender, the size of households, races, languages, place because they are considered important indicators to measure the digital divide in Morocco.


3. What should Morocco do to become a knowledge economy? (250 words)

In order for Morocco to become a knowledge economy many important things need to be taken into consideration especially the communication technology. Morocco should take into consideration this issue and try to develop it in order to become a knowledge economy.

Morocco need to install computers in all the ares especially rurals ares because it will make those people aware of those new technologies and use it in an appropeiate way.Moreover, Awarness programs in rural areas infesizing on the ICT technologies and how they are helping in facilitating the acess to informarmation is necessary because many people in rural ares do not know many ICT tools and how they can help in their developemnt . Cheap Internet cyber cafes are also needed. This will incourage Moroccan citizens to use this ICT tool and also to make them curious and moro motivated to learn how to use and navigate through the internet.Integrate the Multimidia lab in All Moroccan pulic shools and make it as a mandatory class in order to make students aware of the new information technology and let them use it and learn it.Cheap mobile acess is imortant as well as including mobile networks in all rural areas in Morocco to give them the opportunity and acess to use the mobile phones.In addition, the governement needs to encourage the investement in ICT infrastructure, development by hiring experienced workers and professionals

Assignment#2: Digital Divide

Concerning the penetration and the use of the Internet data remains incomplete, in some countries we have only “guestmates”. Can this statement apply to Morocco? Think of the exercise we did in class:

Through the exercice we did in class about the findings of ANRT concerning the use of ICT in Morocco we saw that its results and measures are solid and accurate. The indicators used by ANRT reports are very accurate and realable because they give accurate and sure data findings. Through those reports we saw that ANRT was giving detailed information about the number of cyber cafes, acess to internet, compuer users, and the diferent way to acess to internet in Morocco including houshol, public and private spaces which is very good to come up with realable findings. The graphs in those reports are very interesting to make us understand more deeply about the use of ICT tools in Morocco. Those reports and analysis are very meanigful because they studied the issue form diferent angles which proovs that the satement of “Internet data remains incomplete” is not true. However, they are relevant and they give us accurate and appropriate data that will give us a specific idea about the use of internet in Morocco

What does the digital divide mean for you?

§ Degital divid is devided into two categories of poeple those who have acess to information technology sich us (television radio internet..) and those who does not have acess to those information dechnology.

§ Degital devide can be devided into poeople in cities and people in rural areas. Because we can that a lot of poeple in rural areas fo not have acess to internet or televion while people in cities do have acess

§ Degital devide also means educated and undesucated people. Because undeducated people are not able to have acess to the new information technology. However, educated poeple have this provelage to acess to the new ICTs

§ Degital devid inequelity of acess to communication and information between citizens

How can we measure the digital divide in Morocco?

To measure the degital divide in Morocco we need to focuss on the most important criteria to make this measurement.We need to defince; human competencies, level of education of the Moroccan citizens, acess to ICT technolgies and the Informtion Technology profesionals. The indicatrs that needs to be used for this measurement are:

· Television acess for moroccan and also those who do not use or do not have acess to television medium in urban and rural areas

· Internet Acess: Those who acess to internet and those who do not. We should keep in mind bothh rural and urban areas and litterate and illeretate people.

· Mobile Phone acess: Thise who use phone and those who do not in rural and urban areas

· Computer availability: leasure the computer aailabilty and skills according to gender and previous indicators.

· On line public services: Number of cybers cafes in Morocco

· ICT equipement in public and private administrations

Those indicators need to measured according to Gender, the size of housholds, races, languages, place because they are considered important indicators to measure the digital devide in Morocco.

How can we bridge the digital divide in Morocco?

To bridge the digital divide in Morocco we need:

· Install computer in isolated areas because this will help to rise computer leateracy among Moroccans .

· Awarness programs in rural areas infesizing on the ICT technologies and how they are helping in facilitating the acess to informarmation.

· Cheap Internet cyber cafes that will incourage Moroccan citizens to use this ICT tool and also to make them curious and moro motivated to learn how to use and navigate through the internet.

· Integrate the Multimidia lab in All Moroccan pulic shools and make it as a mandatory class in order to make students aware of the new information technology and let them use it and learn it.

· Cheap mobile acess and also include mobile networks in all rural areas in Morocco to give them the opportunity and acess to use the mobile phones

· Governement needs to encourage the investement in ICT infrastructure, development and experienced workers.

Detailed outline of The limits of leapfrogging

· Mobile phones are substitute for travel,
· Allow price data to be distributed more quickly and easily,
· Enable traders to reach wider markets and generally make it easier to do business

The mobile phone is also a wonderful example of a “leapfrog” technology:

Has enabled developing countries to skip the fixed-line technology of the 20th century and move straight to the mobile technology of the 21st
Mobile phones use work using radio, so there is no need to rely on physical infrastructure such as roads and phone wires
Even Illiterate people can use and have acess to mobile phones

There are some other examples of leapfrog technologies that can promote development—moving straight to local, small-scale electricity generation based on solar panels or biomass, for example, rather than building a centralised power-transmission grid—but there may not be very many.

Computers and broadband links are not much use without a reliable electrical supply, for example, and the latest medical gear is not terribly helpful in a country that lacks basic sanitation and health-care facilities.

The World Bank's researchers looked at 28 examples of new technologies that achieved a market penetration of at least 5% in the developed world, and found that 23 of them went on to manage a penetration of over 50%.

Lavatories before laptops
The World Bank concludes that a country's capacity to absorb and benefit from new technology depends on the availability of more basic forms of infrastructure.

Building a fibre-optic backbone or putting plasma screens into schools may be much more glamorous than building electrical grids, sewerage systems, water pipelines, roads, railways and schools

Detailed outline of Mobiles narrow digital divisions (BBC News)

Mobile phones and net access are helping narrow the gulf between rich and poor nations,
says a UN report.

· The efficiencies these technologies bring has boosted development in poorer countries, said the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
· Mobile phone users in developing nations now make up 58% of handset subscribers worldwide, it said.
· But it warned that the digital divide meant that developing nations still lagged far behind richer countries

The big gap:
· Science and technology can drive long-term economic growth.
· the greater use of technology in businesses, schools and at home could raise standards of living and help people prosper.
· Mobile phone had become the standard bearer for these changes.
· In rural communities in Uganda, and the small vendors in South Africa, Senegal and Kenya mobile phones were helping traders get better prices, ensure less went to waste and sell goods faster
· Greater use of computers in small businesses in countries such as Thailand made staff boost productive,
· Net availability was ten times higher in developing nations. In 2006, net availability was only six times higher.
· Developed countries still had many more net users and since 2002 had the gap in terms of broadband users had widened.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7232264.stm