Despite the digital divide, nations all around the globe invest heavily in technology advancement and inclusion in the educational sphere. Technological advancement has had a traceable effect on how national educational policy all over the world has changed in the past decades (Kozma, 2008; 2011a; 2011b; Tondeur et al., 2007a; Voogt & Pelgrum, 2005). The first nationwide policies which included the importance of technology appeared in 1981 (Ham & Cha, 2009). Reviewing such documents – more specifically “national/central/federal policies, strategies, and master plans as well as nationwide initiatives and national projects” – of 67 countries, it was calculated that between 1981-85, 11.9% of the countries had some technology-inclusive policies, and this ratio continued to grow (Ham & Cha, 2009, p. 537). Between 1986-90, this number rose to 19.4%, between 1991-95 to 35.8% and between 1996-2000 to 68.7% (Ham & Cha, 2009, p. 537). This change is partly because G8 states quickly recognised the positive impact of technology on welfare and sustainable economic development (Kozma, 2008), and because “our society is changing from an industrial to an information society” (Voogt & Pelgrum, 2005, p. 157) in which individuals handle large amounts of data with the help of ICT devices. Such large amounts of data that are impossible to be processed by humans are also simply called big data, and as a result, these days many private companies and businesses require their workers to be able to work with data mining, spreadsheet operator, and/or other statistical software.

 

 

Although progress has been made worldwide, the pace and source of adopting ICT-inclusive educational policies has been uneven. Despite being originated in the Western world and Western ideology, even Arab, Middle Eastern and North African countries have progressively adapted ICT as a separate school subject in their curricula (Ham & Cha, 2008). Additionally, an existing, highly technology-inclusive policy is not a prerequisite for a paradigm shift (Kozma, 2008); educational reforms concerning technology integration is not always a top-down process. The need for change can also reflect a bottom-up phenomenon, a consequence of social and cultural changes on the macro levels of society (Benini & Murray, 2014; Ham & Cha, 2008), such as pressure from schoolchildren or parents to include technology in their education.