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ICT for Development The importance of place: language, culture and identity

ICT for Development The importance of place: language, culture and identity. ICT4D Lecture 16 Tim Unwin. Outline. Places and languages Literacies WSIS ICT4D Forum Local content issues Lessons from COL’s literacy project COLLIT Bangladesh mobile boats Languages of disability.

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ICT for Development The importance of place: language, culture and identity

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  1. ICT for DevelopmentThe importance of place: language, culture and identity ICT4D Lecture 16 Tim Unwin

  2. Outline • Places and languages • Literacies • WSIS ICT4D Forum • Local content issues • Lessons from COL’s literacy project COLLIT • Bangladesh mobile boats • Languages of disability Lecture 16

  3. Place in a globalised world • Globalisation as tension • Between the local and the global • Between one’s own identity and the identity of the masses • The challenge of democracy: • Individual freedoms and majority decision making • The importance of literacies in an increasingly globalised world Lecture 16

  4. Local languages • My original thoughts • Make everything available in relevant local languages • Enable local communities to communicate • But in practice • Many people want to use new technologies to communicate with ‘others’ • Hence the importance of ‘English’ • Need for balance Lecture 16

  5. Literacies • Traditional meaning of literacy • The ability to use text to communicate across space and time • In modern context • Reading and writing at a level to communicate at certain levels of a society • Other kinds of literacy • Digital Literacy (Gilster) • The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers • Visual literacy • Numeracy Lecture 16

  6. Literacies • Challenges for the future • Will people need to learn to read and write? • Computers reading to you, and writing your voices? • Will computer literacy become the most important literacy? • Literacy and ‘development’ • Literate people can be trained less expensively than illiterates • Hence, literacy contributes to development • But earlier research on effects of literacy on development are now challenged Lecture 16

  7. WSIS-ICT4D Forum 2003 • Lessons learnt: local content and knowledge • ICTs can empower disadvantaged language communities • New technologies can sustain nomadic cultural systems • Different lifestyles may imply different notions of time and space affecting design and use of ICTs • Importance of documentation of knowledges • Local content development can empower local communities • Importance of networking local content Lecture 16

  8. WSIS-ICT4D Forum 2003 • Trends and innovations • Shift to enabling local communities to develop their own solutions • User-centred learning is changing our notions of literacy • Linguistic diversity on the Internet is increasing • Priorities • Cell phones and easy communication enabling sense of belonging • Need to facilitate use of non-roman scripts, domain names and e-mail addresses • Need to enhance status of local languages Lecture 16

  9. WSIS-ICT4D Forum 2003 • Key questions • How can ICT4D projects aimed at linguistic and other minorities be made sustainable? • How can the right of individuals to use their language in the Information Society be ensured? • How can we foster cross-cultural/linguistic information flows? • How can local and indigenous knowledge be shared avoiding negative economic, social or cultural impact on the local community? Lecture 16

  10. COL Literacy Project • Pilot project in India and Zambia • To explore how literacy projects might be enhanced with appropriate technologies • Main finding • The most profound impact of these literacy initiatives was the effect it had on the learners’ self-esteem and on the way they used their newly acquired literacy skills. Lecture 16

  11. COL Literacy Project • Findings • Most learners start to use new literacy skills immediately • Bus schedules, adverts, signs • Reading used more than writing • But ability to sign name and doing small written tasks enhances self-esteem • Numeracy skills valuable for money • Most profound effects on people over 40 • Parents who were involved developed a more positive attitude to schooling Lecture 16

  12. COL Literacy Project • Use of ICT • Computers, digital cameras, some Internet, cassette recorders • Used mainly for word processing and PowerPoint lessons • Many problems • Connectivity, delays in setting up, lack of electricity • Focus was largely on hardware rather than on learning • Value of use of ICT • Unclear? • Impossible to calculate accurate cost-benefit figures Lecture 16

  13. Bangladesh: Mobile Internet-Educational Unit on Boats • Shidulai Swanirvar Sangstha (NGO) • Boats for students in riverside areas • Using computers and projectors • Education programmes • Library facilities • Micro-enterprise development • Evening educational programmes on large screens • Distance education for farmers • Particular focus on girls • Literacy lowering abuse and earlier marriages Lecture 16

  14. Use of ICT for people with disabilities • Different kinds of literacies • Potential for ICTs to enhance communications • Signing for people with hearing impairment • Visual impairment • Accessibility • Hardware and software • Mac Universal Access • Seeing • Visual enhancement • Spoken user preferences • Voice commands • Text under mouse Boy playing games in school for deaf people in Ghana Lecture 16

  15. Lecture 16

  16. Conclusions • ‘Literacy’ now used in many different ways • Need to be clear what we mean by it • The local and the global • A place for both • ICTs have much to contribute • To enhancing local cultural recognition and communication • For overcoming disabilities • Enhancing literacies Lecture 16

  17. Opportunity for questions and discussion

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