Can current telecenters reach out to more users by many folds and really close the digital divides?

[Alan Foo]

Telecenters generally have been effective to bring about better connectivities and bringing ICT to many rural areas. These bring with them a lot of facilities otherwise impossible to many rural poor. One of the most important of these is ICT for education.

It is accepted that millions have benefited tremendously from telecenters around the world.

However, if we are to look very closely into the effectiveness in actually reaching out to the rural areas, one wonders if the numbers reached can be multiplied many folds without costly expansion in the number of such telecenters? Many efforts are being employed to do this. However, fund for expanding the number of telecenters are limited.

Use of current latest technologies with respect to education/learning are leapfrogging so fast that the poor rural areas are left farther and farther behind and there seems little can be done about it except trying to lay out expensive broadband all over the country.

Having telecenters are good and do go a long way to close the digital divides troubling many developing countries. The problem is, most telecenters' systems require students to continuously be present at the telecenters to access information or use the contents.
Once the time is up, they have to go home instead of being able to bring the interactive contents home.

This is because a lot of contents are online and one needs to be online to use. This prevents users from bringing back to their homes or villages to be shared since broadband Internet access is out of reach for most of them. If the access speed at the telecenter is slow, this prolem is compounded. The number of available online computers is another issue.

This thus limits the number of students able to benefit from each telecenter. Not all users can come to telecenters nor can they come everyday.

The way to overcome this is to use contents and modules that can run offline without the need for Internet connection and yet small enough to be saved in diskettes, pendrives, CDs or any media. For telecenters without broadband, these contents can be had in seconds through slow dial ups for hours of interactive animated instructions. That means such educational telecenters can be set up wherever there are mobile telco connections or a slow dial up land line. Of course if broadband is avialable it is much better. Expensive Satellite link is thus minimised.

Can one imagine, every laptop with an Internet connection through mobile phone, land line or wireless can be potentially become a mini mobile telecenter.

Users of telecenters can then just conveniently copy the contents/modules and use them at home besides using them in the telecenters on ALL computers with or without Internet connections.

When time is up, they can then copy the contents to others who are unable to come to the telecenters which may be days of walk away. Imagine a simple pen drive can contain hundreds of subjects and years of contents. All without the need for expensive online connection - dial up or broadband.

Reaching out to the most remote through telecenters would be no problem and telecenters can become the center of distribution to schools around. They can provide technical assistance to schools too since many schools lack the resources and knowhow to uplift themselves to the next digital level.

That means through telecenters throughout the country, students of all economic status can have access to digtial contents that would help them in their school work without the need for broadband. Telecenters now instead of needing students to come to the telecenters to access contents can now actually distribute outwards such contents to many more users than before.

Such small sized modules using older tech is now available. We call it AGE... All Genius Educator. A single pendrive can store hundreds of subjects from Additional Maths to English etc.

It thus lightens the school bags ! It is even flood proof. Best for Bangladesh where floods never seem to end. Imagine the amount of savings in text and exercise books being washed away every year. Schoolbags in a pen drive... the child can even swim in the flood with it.

This project is currently being piloted in telecenters in Malaysia. It is opened to all telecenters and schools around the world.

Have a look at this powerpoint to understand the underlying reasons of AGE
http://www.paperlesshomework.com/ppt/AboutAGE.ppt

Alan
CTO
www.paperlesshomework.com
Specialist in closing the digital divides.

Submitted as an entry to the telecentre.org Blog Contest.

[Alan Foo]

Thank you Rose for your comments.

Yes the biggest problem for any telecenter is sustainabilities. Most in rural areas are finding it very difficult to be sustainable.

In Malaysia practically most of the telecenters are government funded and is costing a lot of money to maintain. They are trying very hard to make these telecenters sustainable on their own. They are able to cover the basic costs of electricity, water and other minor expenses from their daily charges from the users in rural areas. However the major cost is the salaries of the operators... the human part that is costing a lot.

So what we are proposing to make these centers profitable would be to get them to reach and support the schools around using our contents and tools. Engage the teachers to go paperless for a greener world and save lots of time and money for schools, students and teachers. With more exposures thus created would bring many times awareness among the surrounding people.

This then would automatically create better traffic to the telecenters to obtain good and easy to get contents home. Better traffic means better opportunities for telecenters to earn from their other services besides the profit gained from registering the students of the schools.
When more people become aware of the benefits and how their children excel in schools, words would spread. Traffic to your telecenters would surely result.

Your idea about Question Box is simply fantastic! It comes from a simple idea of overcoming the cost and illiteracy of the poor to access to info. They know how to talk but do not know nor afford the cost of using ICT. Brilliant.

The cost however has to be borne by someone. Your cost would be the communication cost as well as the time provided by the operator. The latter would be your major cost... and I think it forms a big chunk of your operating budget. Am I right? Unless of course you can get reliable volunteers to man it regularly or get donations to finance it.

Warmest regards
Alan

[Rose Shuman]

That is a great initiative, Alan. It gets to the heart of an important issue - that ICT centers can only go so far while being sustainable. Our group, Open Mind - Question Box, is using a novel tactic to extend the reach of the Internet. We have set up live, local language hotlines that connect callers to agents in front of the Internet. Our system is a simple way to expand the reach of telecenters that provide important information to the community. We welcome any and all discussions with interested groups! www.questionbox.org