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

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