Bridging the Education Divide Using Social Technologies

This book explains the concept of education divide in rural India and identifies various factors that shape and sustain such a divide. In doing so, it also discusses a range of attempts undertaken to bridge the education divide. Subsequently, the book has attempted in providing a socio-technical framework towards optimally deploying social technologies for addressing the issue of education divide of marginalized communities. The proposed framework offers a transition from traditional content-centric, teacher-centric and centralized education ecosystem to a connection-centric, learner-centric and decentralized education ecosystem of the socio-digital age. It demonstrates how Internet-enabled digital platforms, based on the principles of sharism and mass collaboration using social technologies, could help to solve one of the greatest problems facing the world: mitigating the extant education divide by delivering quality education to underprivileged sections of society. The bookalso presents empirical validation of the proposed framework to show how a community-driven blended learning platform can mobilize the dormant knowledge capital of domain experts to teach underprivileged rural Indian children, as well as help form communities of practice to enable lifelong learning for the rural adult population. The book closes by pointing out the challenges involved in building an equitable education ecosystem using social technologies and ultimately the possibility of creating a fair and equitable society. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the domain of education who want to transform education ecosystems by using technological and process-related innovations to improve educational practices for underprivileged sections of society.

Somprakash Bandyopadhyay is Professor in Management Information Systems Group and Research Director of Social Informatics Research Group at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is also Founder–Mentor of Nexconnect Ventures Pvt Ltd, a social start-up working towards an online knowledge management platform that aims at providing holistic development to individuals and communities in the form of formal and non-formal education online by mobilizing knowledge capital of experienced and passionate teachers from all over the globe. He received Ph.D. in Computer Science from Jadavpur University and B.Tech. in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. He was a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, and a fellow of the Japan Trust International Foundation. He has around 35 years of experience in teaching, research and development in several organizations of international repute and more than150 publications in journals and conferences of international repute. Prof. Bandyopadhyay is Founder–Director of Social Informatics Research Group at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. The objective of Social Informatics Research Group is to develop and evaluate Internet-enabled Social Information Systems and to investigate their applications for societal benefits. One of his research interests is “social inclusion through digital inclusions”, and he works extensively on application of social technologies for development. 

Arina Bardhan has completed her graduation and postgraduation in sociology from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, respectively. From 2013 to mid-2020, she worked with Social Informatics Research Group at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, as Research Associate, and has submitted her Ph.D thesis in Sociology at Jadavpur University Kolkata. She is Co-Founder–Director of a social startup, NexConnect Ventures Pvt Ltd, which is incubated in Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) in 2017. NexConnect is working towards solving problems in rural education through social technologies using an online teaching–learning platform connecting senior teachers with rural learners. She publishes regularly in journals and conferences of international repute. 

Priyadarshini Dey has completed her M.A. and M.Phil. in sociology from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her research area is enhancing quality of rural education through ICT. From 2013 to mid-2019, she worked with the Social Informatics Research Group at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, as Research Associate. She has submitted her Ph.D. in sociology at Jadavpur University. She is also associated with the Transform Rural India (TRI), a subsidiary of Tata Trust aiming towards creating sustainable education centres in rural Jharkhand. She is Co-Founder and Director of the social start-up NexConnect Ventures Pvt Ltd (incubated in IIM Calcutta Innovation Park). She publishes regularly in journals and conferences of international repute.

Sneha Bhattacharyya has completed her graduation in sociology from Presidency University, Calcutta. After her graduation, she completed her postgraduation in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. At Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, she undertook a field work oriented qualitative study as a part of her M.Phil. dissertation. In 2017, Sneha joined Social Informatics Research Group, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, as Research Associate. Rural development accounts to be her primary research interest. At present, Sneha is concerned with devising strategies, through which contemporary digital technologies can be employed to address the issue of rural marginalization.