Technological initiatives should be contextualized in the social, cultural and economic sectors. As information and communications technologies (ICT) have evolved with the process of globalization, ICT has played a significant role in supporting the development for both the marginal group and developing countries. In spite of the increasing numbers of ICT development projects, there is a lack of the robust research and evaluation regarding to ICT project outcomes. This study attempts to examine the ICT projects carried out in the Aboriginals community in Taiwan. Drawing the attention to the issues of power, identity, culture, and society, the postcolonial perspective is adopted. As the nature of the problem and the lack of previous understanding of the phenomenon, the interpretive ethnographic method is deployed in order to explore the cultural and social issues involved.
During the two-year research, three ICT projects are examined through participate observation, interviews and related data retrieve. From the reviews of these ICT projects, the findings present in three themes: ¡§Technological Utopianism¡¨; ¡§Power Struggle¡¨ and ¡§Polarization¡¨. Although project Principal-initiator, teachers-project members and Parents- the community agree on the potential of ICT, they approach and expect ICT differently as their disparities in their position in the ICT projects, ICT literacy, and limitation from their social/economic reality. Each stakeholder has faced different context and carried different perception and vision toward ICT and ICT projects. After the ICT projects are carried out, the unanticipated and hidden gap of perception results in dissatisfied stakeholders. Although the media cover the project outcomes with positive tone, and both TY School and Principal obtains the reputation in ICT education, teachers are reluctant to execute ICT project and parents are disappointed and think the projects don¡¦t really help them. In order to accomplish these ICT projects under the disharmony, Principal takes advantage of his power from administration of school, knowledge legitimacy, and the control over resources. The power-laden process occurs and the communication gap is unable to close. Moreover, the relationships between stakeholders are eventually polarized. As failing to taking account of the dynamic context difference and lacking of communication, ICT projects in this study fail to deliver its promise to the people they intended to serve.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0117109-090003 |
| Date | 17 January 2009 |
| Creators | I. C. Lin, Cecilia |
| Contributors | Dr. T. P. Liang, Dr. F. Y. Kuo, Dr. Michael D. Myers, Dr. S. S. Wu, Dr. W. H. Tang |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0117109-090003 |
| Rights | campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive |
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