Lessons from the field: What researchers learned from evaluating ICT platforms for rural development and education

Authors

  • Thato Emmanuel Foko South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
  • Nare Joyce Mahwai CSIR
  • Charles Acheson Phiri

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/joci.v16i0.3470

Abstract

The field of information and communication technology for development is a field constantly changing as new ICT tools emerge and new knowledge gained by field researchers while performing their duties. The research problem: The field ICT field is littered with examples of failed projects because field researchers did not know the best way to carry out their work. The paper is about knowledge imparted by six monitoring and evaluation field researchers after working for almost eight years, from 2010 to 2018, in ICT platforms projects. These platforms were deployed across South Africa’s remote rural areas. The work followed interpretivism as its philosophy and was underpinned by qualitative research methods. Written projects reports, face-to-face interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data and also to triangulate the findings. The participatory evaluation formed the basis for the complete understanding of the finding. (i) Planning; (ii) Deployment; and iii) Usage were found to be critical elements for a successful implementation of ICT platform. Although well planned, numerous lessons were still learned for the benefit of future projects.

Author Biographies

Thato Emmanuel Foko, South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

Thato is a Principal Researcher in the Technology Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation group of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Meraka Institute. He obtained his PhD in Digital Media in 2006 specialising in information and communication technology in education from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Thato's special interests include among others educational gaming and ICT4D. Thato carried out  and analysed the research findings. He has put together this article in collaboration with Charles Phiri and Nare Mahwai.

Nare Joyce Mahwai, CSIR

Nare is a member of the CSIR research community. She has worked with the respondents to the research study covered in this article. She has contributed immensely to putting together all the instruments and doing the interviews. 

Charles Acheson Phiri

Charles is a member of the CSIR research community. He has worked with the respondents to the research study covered in this article. He has contributed immensely in putting together all the instruments. 

Downloads

Published

2020-12-22

Issue

Section

Notes from the field