[UgaBYTES] Are telecentres simply big dreams of science? | on cost-benefit analysis..

[Pamela McLean]

I tend to read this list, but not contribute, as I am rather an "outsider".
However Meddie wrote:
~~~~~~~
If I had to plan another telecentre today, I would do it a lot differently
in several respect - but because I know better what works and what doesn't.
I think too everyone on this list might have thoughts along this line.
~~~~~~~
That has encouraged me to offer my thoughts. Theys spring from experience
with the OCDN Information Centre in Ago-Are, Nigeria, and with the Teachers
Talking introduction to ICT programme (at Fanstuam Foundation in Nigeria,
and in Kenya with David Mutua - thanks to Commonwealth of Learning
http://d4tel.blogspot.com/). Perhaps they have some relevance to
telecentres.

I don't have any connection with telecentres, but I have a vision about them
from reading this list and other information, and I base my comments on that
vision. I understand that

   - They are initially heavily subsidised.
   - They need to become financially viable.
   - They should be more that a simple cyber cafe
   - They often provide training in computer skills
   - They often provide business services
   - They sometimes provide additional services related to local and
   national adminstration (registrations, licenses etc)
   - They sometimes provide other information services.
   - They sometimes provide other communication services.
   - They sometimes provide other training programmes.
   - They often have difficulty in getting the community to fully understand
   the potential benefits of the telecentre.

My suggestion relates to training in order to accelerate community awareness
and  increase uptake of telecentre services.

This is my thinking. In many communities teachers are influential. They are
community leaders, literate, able to speak English and the local language,
active on many community committees, seen as a source of knowledge and
information, aware of community needs through their community role (and
their extended families with their demands on the teachers' salaries). If
teachers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about computers and the Internet
they will influence others, not just their pupils but also their colleagues,
families and communities. If the school children know then they will be able
to tell their families too.

If teaches would be good channels of information - how do we make them
knowledgeable about the potential of telecentres?

In many countries ICT is coming onto the curriculum. This means that
teachers are becoming aware of their personal need for ICT training so that
they will be able to teach the children. Even if a teacher is not really
interested in computers and telecentres there is a need to find out about
them, sooner or later, simply because they are coming onto the curriculum.
Many teachers know that they need to learn about computers, even if they are
not really interested, and do not see any value in computers, the Internet
and such like.

Unlike health workers, or farmers, or other members of the community the
teachers have a need for computer literacy for its own sake. Computer
literacy training for teachers can take many forms. Some teachers will only
be offered the kind of training that is appropriate for an office worker -
word processing, Excel and such like. Such training is a wasted opportunity
with regard to the telecentres.

If teacher training is provided by a telecentre then the training can be
wide ranging and imaginative. It can introduce the teachers to many other
aspects of computer use that are valuable for educational use and for
community use. Training can includes joining online groups, using the
Internet as a source of Information, and so on. Some introductions to ICT
only teach the Technology side of ICT - how to operate a computer. Teachers
are not training to be office workers, and so they have different training
needs. They need a much wider understanding. They need to  understand the
role of computers in the modern world. They also need to understand why
individual people use computers, and not just for administration, but for
other Information needs and for Communication.

Teachers who have come on the TT course are typically rural teachers who are
usually far from cyber cafes (and with no telecentre access either). They
usually love the online part of the course and are sorry they will not be
able to have easy local access to the Internet after the course ends. It
seems to me that if they were trained at the telecentres and were given a
real vision for the purpose of ICT, then they would probably become
enthusiastic users, and would share their knowledge and enthusiasm with  the
community, and the telecentre would have a greater likelihood of
flourishing.

Pamela McLean



2008/8/8 Meddie Mayanja <mmayanja at idrc.ca>

> Colleagues,
>
> Most certainly there are a couple of lessons to learn at Nakaseke
> telecentre
> including design options, community involvement, development services,
> technologies, management...and one can go on.
>
> Reading various reports and reviews about that telecentre and having been
> involved in this telecentre and others in early 1980s I see that there has
> been progress - at a cost. Ofcourse this telecentre was a test lab in many
> aspect. For instance there was no telephone when it was set up, electricity
> was at most very unreliable and the community was emerging from a bitter
> civil war and busy re-organising itself. The telecentre was basically built
> on people's interest and support from IDRC/ITU/UNESCO.
>
> I recall then that even making a phone call from Nakaseke was a novelty so
> the early demonstrations and telecentre promotional activities included
> simple things such as the value of telephone compared to getting on a 50
> kilometer bus ride. Schools in the community never had a library leave
> alone
> know how to use one. Most importantly there were no telecentres to learn
> from on the continent and this field was pretty much emerging. Those were
> days of the launch of telecentres in Buwama, Nabweru (Uganda), Sengerema
> (Tanzania), Timbuctu (Mali), Xinavane, Namacha and Manica (Mozambique).
> They
> were costly undertaking in many respects, it could time to review whether
> we
> have reaped enough or if we had to do it again, how differently could one
> get a telecentre started.
>
> Perhaps the costs - benefit analysis has been done constantly by hundreds
> of
> people who have visited these telecentres, learnt a few things and done
> their telecentres differently. You can say as well - that absence of such
> large investments might have translated into smaller mistakes/attempts all
> over the place.
>
> Yes, there is pletty of room deeper analysis here as well.
>
> If I had to plan another telecentre today, I would do it a lot differently
> in several respect - but because I know better what works and what doesn't.
> I think too everyone on this list might have thoughts along this line.
>
> Best, Meddie
>
>