Page 275 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2024

Innovation and Digital Transformation for a Sustainable World

Table 6 – Model 4: AIC-Optimized Model 7.2 A HOLISTIC VIEW OF INTERNET
AIC: 755.4827, Multiple R-squared: 0.8308, Adjusted
R-squared: 0.8222 The findings from Model 4, which incorporated
educational, economic, and governance variables, suggest
Co- that a comprehensive approach to internet access is
P-
Variable Efficient Standard Value essential.
Error
(Est.)
The significant role of urban population and secondary
0.005872
(Intercept) 11.53860 4.09683 education indicates that strategies should target both urban
**
and rural areas to bridge the digital divide. As the lines
between urban and rural blur, measures of urban population
Urban 0.33123 0.05861 1.56e-07
Population *** may represent physical infrastructure and access to
resources (including education) rather than implying cities
Secondary 0.16804 0.05769 0.004439 are necessary for internet use. This is further demonstrated
Education ** by the simple regression finding that urban population
alone only explains about 54% of the variation in use
Mean Years 2.24388 0.48164 1.00e-05 (R-squared = 0.5367).
Schooling ***
Political stability also plays a crucial role, as it influences
ICT Price -0.08804 0.04283 0.042503 both infrastructure deployment and the public's ability to
Basket *
effectively use the internet.
Political 0.16606 0.04202 0.000147
Stability *** The ICT price basket's modest impact relative to
educational variables reinforces the need to focus on
broader development goals rather than purely economic
7. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS measures.

This study offers two key insights: First, education is a 7.3 CAPABILITY APPROACH FOR ICT4D
more powerful predictor of internet use than economic
factors. Second, a holistic approach to internet access, These findings not only quantitatively illustrate insights
incorporating educational, political, and infrastructural from qualitative research but also validate Sen’s capability
considerations, may be essential to expanding equitable and approach as an effective framework for evaluating the
enriching internet access. interplay of freedoms that enhance internet access. The
analysis aligns with Sen's capability approach, suggesting
7.1 EDUCATION OVER ECONOMICS that expanding any significant freedom, such as education
or political stability, contributes to broader development
The analysis highlights that educational attainment, goals.
particularly mean years of schooling, has a more substantial
impact on internet use than economic variables like income 8. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
and internet affordability.
While this study provides valuable insights, it is not without
This suggests that efforts to increase internet access should limitations. Firstly, the data used were cross-sectional,
focus on enhancing educational opportunities and digital providing a snapshot that limits our understanding of
literacy, rather than solely reducing costs. long-term trends and causality. Future research should
explore longitudinal data to better capture these dynamics.
For example, the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative,
which aimed to improve educational outcomes by Future studies should investigate longitudinal data to better
distributing laptops across the Americas from 2007 to 2010, understand the dynamics of internet use over time,
failed to achieve its goals, primarily due to the lack of especially leading up to and following the COVID-19
digital literacy training [21]. This demonstrates the pandemic, when global efforts to expand internet access
importance of education in driving meaningful internet use. reached a fever pitch. Further research could also benefit
The initiative's shortcomings have been largely attributed to from incorporating more robust data on digital literacy and
the absence of key capability inputs such as digital literacy examining smaller, more homogenous samples to address
training and considerations for point of access [22]. This biases in secondary data sources. Special attention should
research corroborates qualitative findings: enhancing digital be paid to the actual use of internet following any project
literacy proves more effective in increasing actual internet intended to expand internet access, for the benefit of
use than would providing the hardware alone. intended beneficiaries, policy makers, and development
practitioners.

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