[ecrea] New book: Education and digital divide [Educazione e divario digitale]

*Title*: *Educazione e divario digitale. Idee per il capacity building*

*Author*: Magda Pischetola

*Editor*: Milano: Unicopli

*Language*: Italian

The volume offers a comprehensive discussion of the concept of digital 
inclusion, based on a comparative analysis of the worldwide 
international project One Laptop Per Child.

*Abstract*

It is generally agreed upon that ICTs are of vital importance for the 
social and economic development of a country. Following this idea, 
various initiatives have been made to address technical, cultural, rural 
and community development issues through projects of digital inclusion, 
with the direct or indirect supervision of international institutions or 
local agencies.

The implementation of low cost personal digital devices represents one 
of the main educational trends in recent years, alongside the 
improvement in wireless connections potential. The One Laptop Per Child 
initiative, with its design of a $100 laptop for the developing world, 
has popularized the concept of one-to-one technology. The project 
combines the goal of bridging the digital divide with the educational 
paradigm of discovery learning, but it also suffers from the inability 
to acknowledge essential cultural outlines, leading easily to a 
one-size-fits-all view of development interventions.

This book aims to expose some issues associated with the impact of ICTs 
projects for education, going beyond a simplistic relationship between 
technology and knowledge. It highlights some interesting perspectives on 
research into cognitive access, and it presents a digital inclusion 
model based on cultural needs analysis and subsequent promotion of 
didactics innovation, alongside the enhancement of social and 
intellectual capital. The results of the empirical research conducted on 
deployments of the OLPC project in Italy and in Ethiopia are used to 
illustrate parts of the model and to provide guidelines for future actions.

*About the author*

**

Magda Pischetola has a Ph.D. in Education at the Università Cattolica of 
Milan (Italy), and is working with adults' professional training, both 
in presence and at a distance. Her research focuses on the integration 
of Information and Communication Technologies in schools and community 
centers; the impact of technology on literacy practices; the 
relationship of ICTs to social development, with a particular interest 
in how digital media may alleviate social inequalities.