By Minamur Chowdhury, University of British Columbia, ETEC520 Assignment, May 2008
Bangladesh is facing significant challenges in its effort to catch up with the rest of the world in term of improvement of the living conditions of its general population. The only way the country can do so is by transforming the population into a productive force. The Government of Bangladesh need to embrace an innovative strategy to address these challenges; central to this strategy is a requirement to improve the education and skill of the people, at all levels. E-learning has the potential to help address these challenges.
In Bangladesh, barriers to technological development remained tied to the barriers to any economic developments. In order to carry out a successful e-Learning strategy, the country desperately needs to get rid of these barriers and implement progressive laws that encourage free markets. Bangladesh should start implementing e-Learning solutions through the Ministry of Education. This can be done by creating market-based competition for the e-Learning industry, a sensible set of regulations, ensuring respect for private local, foreign investments and the rule of law that would promote confidence in entrepreneurs seeking to employ new ventures relating e-Learning technology. Government must create benefits for private companies investing towards e-Learning with encouragements such as tax breaks, R&D grants.
For Public sector, government must have policies concerning the characteristics of the emerging knowledge intensive economy and social environment that fits into the knowledge-intensive activities. Bangladesh Ministry of Education should encourage a list of attainable aims for accomplishments by public institutions. The ministry should also allocate funds for well-targeted, sustainable e-Learning projects for major public institutions of their own or encourage establishing collaboration with similar institutions in neighboring countries. ... read more
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By Minamur Chowdhury, University of British Columbia, ETEC540 Assignment, December 2005
Currently, the dividing lines between the rich and the poor, between the North and the South, are the digital texts and technology networks. If "digital divide" is maybe an over-used phrase, it does represent a reality that cannot be ignored. Fifteen per cent of the world's population controls around 80 per cent of the world's telephones and about 90 per cent of access points to the Internet, and they are 13 times more likely to own personal computers than the rest. And the rest are the 85 per cent of the world's population living in low and lower-middle income countries.
Unlike the divide between rich and poor the 'Digital Divide' among nations is a growing global and social problem that never had a place meaningfully in the reality only a couple of decades ago. Therefore, it is still in the form that is manageable comparing with other stubborn global and social problems. There is good possibility to achieve greater result if more weight is given on to this particular problem rather than fighting world’s other never - ending problems. By mobilizing resources to target fighting the growing ‘digital divide’ as a priority, actually gives poorer part of the world a unique opportunity to reshape and rebuild a social structures in the process that would be based in a new 'information society' which would then automatically spark developments in all other problematic areas of the world like chain reactions. Genuine effort to close the gap between digitally divided communities in poorer countries will pave ways for not only 'digital opportunities,' for many but also will result in a 'technology breakthrough’ to overcome other problems that widens divide among nations. Poverty is one of such social divides. But, I hope and that the process to create a world wide digitally connected global society will open up new opportunities to those living in the poorest and most isolated regions of the world. It will offer a voice to those who in the past have often been unheard and forgotten. ... read more