Do ICTs Narrow or Widen the Gender Gap in Education? or ICTs: Tools to Achieve and Sustain Gender Equality? Ellen Carm Leikny Øgrim Oslo University College

Content Context: policy and legislation issues ICTs and education –Formal education –Non-formal education –Education management Information Networks, empowering women Girls’ access to ICTs Gender differences in the use of ICTs Experiences – what works?

Policy and legislation issues Global trends and policies: –Digital divide –ICT in education –Education for All

Definitions and Concepts radio, tape cassettes, television, video, satellite, fixed telephone, mobile telephone, fax, computers, CD-ROMs, and the Internet Teaching and learning tools Objects of learning The internet: , www, news

ICTs and education Primary and secondary education Teacher training Higher education Education Management

Illiteracy in selected countries Country% Illiteracy rate % Male% Female Botswana Ethiopia Ghana Malawi Niger Zimbabwe7510 Zambia Rwanda South Africa151416

Non-formal learning activities Need based Accessibility Technology

Information networks. Empowering Women. The lack of correlation of women’s Internet use with expected indicators supports the hypotheses that most women internet users in almost all developing countries are not representative of women in the country as a whole, but rather are presently part of a small educated elite.

Preferred media for reaching women with information ChoiceAnglophone AfricaFrancophone Africa 1. most successfulFace to face 2 most successfulRadioPhone/fax 3 most successfulPhone/faxPostal/mail 4 most successfulPostal/mail 5 most successful Radio 6 most successfulInternet

Girls’ access

Gender differences in use of ICTs Idea from Kvande Rasmussen Are girls’ interests directed towards the social aspects of the technology, end boys’ towards the technology s such?

Experiences – what works? Female role models Obligatory IT-education Attention ! Attitude campaigns Extra time and space Learning on girls’ premises

Part of GEM context analysis Because gender issues are not often mainstreamed into project and planning processes, it is particularly important to look at how, if at all, gender issues were articulated in the first three phases of the project cycle. This is also true for ICT for social change considerations. Was there discussion of gender issues in the project planning phase? Were women or groups of women identified as a specific beneficiary groups? What assumptions or research were made about how ICTs would facilitate positive social change for women?

Cross-Sectoral Co-operation, Potential Educational Change: National Curriculum: Attitudes Experiences Knowledege: Policy and legislation issues Implementation of ICTs as tools for achieving gender equality.