[Telecentres] RE: [Telecentre's] Basic Telecentre Items

[Don Cameron]

>> in Australia Telecentre is a medium to engage the Youth. While in
Countries like India, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso  & others who are struggling
with twin issue basic literacy -(read and write) and adapting to ICT tools
(snip)

 

Hi Ashish, all,

 

My apologies if by example I have given the impression Australian
Telecentre's are limited to youth engagement. This is just one function of
one Telecentre cited for reason of highlighting diversity. Australian
Telecentre's are as diverse as the community's they serve - from affluent
urban centres to very remote indigenous communities with all the problems
associated with isolation, literacy, poverty, lack of services, and the more
than 280 native languages spoken by indigenous Australians.

 

>From a historical perspective the term 'Telecentre' is accredited to
Scandinavian efforts during the 1980's however the concept of Telecentre's
across the globe predate these efforts by many decades. The first Australian
Telecentre's (places where people would congregate to use ICT's for
community, education and tele-health purposes) were widely in use during the
1930's and comprised of communal homesteads on large rural Stations (a
Station being a large farm of several thousand square kilometres
historically populated by dozens of indigenous and immigrant families).

 

The technologies deployed at Station homesteads were the type of
pedal-powered radio invented by Alfred Traeger and linked by the Royal
Flying Doctor Service wireless network to community's in other Stations as
well as to nurses and doctors able to offer remote tele-health services.
During the 1950's the network was expanded through the efforts of John Flynn
and Adelaide Miethke to include tele-education through the formation of
Australia's School of the Air. This development resulted in the Station
'Telecentre' of the 1950's offering much the same range of services as many
of today's Telecentre's even though they were not named as such. The year
2001 was the 50th anniversary of this type of Telecentre in Australia, and
for my part as a rural Australian is a legacy of our parents and
grandparents. There is certainly nothing new to this concept, and the long
history of communal ICT access centres probably explains why we have so many
different names for the concept we now call a Telecentre.

 

Tying this to the WSIS declaration - I must disagree with your assessment
that "Based on the demographics & literacy level, it will be a long time
before individuals can be at a stage to use the ICT tools independently". If
by such you refer to the use of computers and the Internet then I agree -
however ICT's are not limited to computers and online interaction; a simple
pedal-powered radio can offer a wealth of benefits with very little learning
or literacy requirements if supported by an appropriate network. Too often I
think we seek to drive change at the macro level rather than focusing on the
necessary micro developments required to achieve macro change. It would be
foolish to attempt to introduce a reliance on computers and the 'net to
people in poverty who cannot read, write, or who speak many different
languages. Such an effort would not be supportive of a managed approach to
development nor would it be an empathic approach. ICT tools can be used
independently by anyone providing we provide the right ICT tools for the
given stage of development. Learning will occur, and in time more advanced
ICT's will be appropriate, accepted and deployed.

 

Rgds, Don    

 

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