International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 16, No. 3 (2020)

Local Strategies and Models for Availability and Access to Information and Communication Technologies in a Rural Elementary School in Mexico.

María Guadalupe López-Sandoval, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
Óscar Enrique Hernández-Razo, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

Abstract
This article, which is based on an ethnographic approach, analyses the models and strategies that a rural elementary school community in Mexico has developed to keep available, accessible, and in daily use, digital devices and connectivity despite their marginality conditions. This case study is explored from two theoretical perspectives. First, a critical approach to digital inclusion policies in Latin America (Dussel 2014; González 2014) is used to understand how the school community has translated digital inclusion policies to build their own availability models. Second, the access of the school community to ICT is examined under the scope of a literacy access perspective (Street 2016) in order to understand ICT practices according to discourses and ideology that surround practices, the community and institutional structures that support participation, and the relationships with other people who model and promote ways of using ICT (Hernández & López 2019; Kalman & Hernández 2018; Warschauer 2003). This analysis shows the local strategies that allow the school community to keep availability, access and everyday use of ICT, such as, the use of economic resources generated by the school, the incorporation of students’ and teachers’ own devices, the subcontracting of Internet connectivity, and knowledge sharing practices among teachers.

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