Situating Learning for Digital Inclusion in the Social Context of Communities

An approach to support learning for digital inclusion has been developed which situates learning for digital inclusion in the social context of communities. Central to this approach is a commitment to a view of learning that emphasises the role of the context in learning and points to the importance of learning in authentic situations. While digital inclusion programs tend to focus more specifically on teaching people how to use computers and the internet, the approach presented in this paper takes a different perspective. According to this approach, to be effective learning for digital inclusion has to be situated in the social context of the learners and be based on authentic activities of project development that address issues of these social contexts. This makes it possible to connect digital inclusion to social inclusion in profitable ways, improving the possibilities of underdeveloped communities obtaining social inclusion through digital inclusion, and creating self-sustainable forms of social development. The approach is being applied in a program of digital and social inclusion that is being carried out in a rural community of agricultural families in the Brazilian Northwest.