Raymond -Info wrote: > I would like to propose a question to the group. What would it take to > solve the digital divide here in America and abroad if the resources were > available. Please keep in mind, I don't see digital inclusion as merely > making access to technology available, I define it as having the majority of > the country effective users. By the way, loved the Airplane analogy > mentioned the other day. > > Raymond Waynick
Sandra Latherbenson wrote: > Due diligence and education with lots of financial resources. > > Sandra Benson Claude Almansi wrote: Granted the resources are there (Raymond's premiss), of course, Sandra, you are right about Due diligence and education. But for people to be educable, they need to be motivated. Abstract courses about "using Office" or "surfing the Net" tend not to work. Schemes like the European / International Driving License may be a little more efficient, because people get a certification that theoretically can help their carreer, and that's a motivation. But the problem with the courses leading to ECDL/ICDL I have seen the material for is that they are content-centered rather than knowhow-centered: if a given function gets moved from one menu to another one in a new version of a program, people feel lost. The best approach seems to be project-centered, i.e. centered on a project that is not mastering IT resources per se, but mastering them towards a goal: economic, cultural, educational... However, here again, motivation is crucial. The goal must be formulated by the users, not imposed from outside by the project conceptors. The movingAlps project in Switzerland www.movingalps.ch worked, because the organisers took time to survey the needs and wishes of the people involved before they actually elaborated the project. Also, there should not be too great a divide between project conceptors and tech people providing the IT infrastructure for the project. Conceptors should have a basic IT literacy themselves, in order to avoid misunderstandings with the tech team. Maybe - hopefully - things are different elsewhere, but here in Switzerland, tech people got trained with commercial use in mind, so left to themselves, they tend to make "posh" products (with a crass indiscriminate overuse of Flash, for instance). As a result, neither conceptors nor users can gain real mastery of these products and they remain dependant on the tech team, which defeats the goal of bridging the digital divide. But the linguistic factor plays an important role in aquiring this basic IT literacy. Switzerland is a rich country, but with 4 national languages, which means that many conceptors of projects involving IT literacy don't know English well enough to follow what is happening in IT through lists such as this one, because they first learned the other national languages. When blogs were first discussed here, I thought they were too complicated for me and only filed the messages in the DDN folder. After a few, though, I decided to have a go and opened one for ADISI at blospot.com: simpler than I thought. Same, later, with RSS feeds and podcasts. Claude Almansi I totally agree with with you Claude. Motivation is a key factor in the education of people. If all the resources are made available ( as stated by Raymond) and there is a lack of interest among the people, then every effort in bridging the Digitaldivide may be futile. One way for countries to significantly narrow the Digitaldivide gap is to find ways and means of stimulating people's interest, then provide education through hands-on interaction with technology. It is also important for everyone involved in bridging the gap to work hard, help each other and share all resources (Knowledge, finances, materials etc) willingly. Sonia Swaby [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:55:28 +0100 >From: Claude Almansi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [DDN] Digital Inclusion Question >To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Hi Raymond, Sandra and All > >Raymond -Info wrote: >> I would like to propose a question to the group. What would it take to >> solve the digital divide here in America and abroad if the resources were >> available. Please keep in mind, I don't see digital inclusion as merely >> making access to technology available, I define it as having the majority of >> the country effective users. By the way, loved the Airplane analogy >> mentioned the other day. >> >> Raymond Waynick > >Sandra Latherbenson wrote: >> Due diligence and education with lots of financial resources. >> >> Sandra Benson > >Granted the resources are there (Raymond's premiss), of course, Sandra, >you are right about Due diligence and education. > >But for people to be educable, they need to be motivated. Abstract >courses about "using Office" or "surfing the Net" tend not to work. >Schemes like the European / International Driving License may be a >little more efficient, because people get a certification that >theoretically can help their carreer, and that's a motivation. > >But the problem with the courses leading to ECDL/ICDL I have seen the >material for is that they are content-centered rather than >knowhow-centered: if a given function gets moved from one menu to >another one in a new version of a program, people feel lost. > >The best approach seems to be project-centered, i.e. centered on a >project that is not mastering IT resources per se, but mastering them >towards a goal: economic, cultural, educational... > >However, here again, motivation is crucial. The goal must be formulated >by the users, not imposed from outside by the project conceptors. The >movingAlps project in Switzerland www.movingalps.ch worked, because the >organisers took time to survey the needs and wishes of the people >involved before they actually elaborated the project. > >Also, there should not be too great a divide between project conceptors >and tech people providing the IT infrastructure for the project. >Conceptors should have a basic IT literacy themselves, in order to avoid >misunderstandings with the tech team. Maybe - hopefully - things are >different elsewhere, but here in Switzerland, tech people got trained >with commercial use in mind, so left to themselves, they tend to make >"posh" products (with a crass indiscriminate overuse of Flash, for >instance). As a result, neither conceptors nor users can gain real >mastery of these products and they remain dependant on the tech team, >which defeats the goal of bridging the digital divide. > >But the linguistic factor plays an important role in aquiring this basic >IT literacy. Switzerland is a rich country, but with 4 national >languages, which means that many conceptors of projects involving IT >literacy don't know English well enough to follow what is happening in >IT through lists such as this one, because they first learned the other >national languages. > >When blogs were first discussed here, I thought they were too >complicated for me and only filed the messages in the DDN folder. After >a few, though, I decided to have a go and opened one for ADISI at >blospot.com: simpler than I thought. Same, later, with RSS feeds and >podcasts. >>-- >Claude Almansi > >_______________________________________________ >DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >[email protected] >http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide- [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
