Dear friends,

Attached please find the minutes of the latest Telematics for African

Development Consortium Meeting.

Regards

Neil Butcher

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25 March 1998 at the St. Albans College, Pretoria

INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME

The meeting was formally opened by Neil Butcher. He welcomed all consortium

members. The agenda was accepted with a few changes. Due to clashing

meetings and logistical setbacks, the agenda had to be revised with the

Telkom input being postponed. Zolile Ntulwana from Telkom undertook to

forward the relevant information to Neil Butcher for distribution to all

members. The revised agenda was accepted by the meeting.

GENDER AND ICTS

Tina James - tjames@intekom.co.za

Maureen James - maureen@wn.apc.org

On this topic, there were inputs from Tina James (IDRC) and Maureen James

(Women’s net, a project of Sangonet). The following is a brief summary of

the two inputs.

TINA JAMES’s input focused on the ACACIA initiative. This initiative was

started in March 1997 by the Canadian government as part of an overall

strategy of empowering the sub-Saharan African region. There are four

countries involved, namely South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda. The

four areas of focus for the initiative are:

--- policy formulation;

--- policy transformation;

--- building and developing a body of knowledge;

--- dissemination of information.

In order for the initiative to be effective it was decided that there should

be a specific gendered approach build into the initiative. This was derived

from the various needs identified. The initiative aims, amongst others

things, to ensure that :

--- ICTs are seen as enablers rather than marginalisers;

--- there is gender equity at various levels of society;

--- more women become decision makers, users and creators.

Within this context, IDRC developed a guiding framework to achieve the aims

and goals of the initiative. This framework includes the development of:

--- gender guidelines for project development, thus influencing the planning

of projects;

--- support for women’s net;

--- papers commissioned for the ECA 40th annual conference, thus assessing

what’s happening in the region. These papers will focus on strategies for

including a gender perspective in the development of African ICT policies;

developing an approach to sectoral applications of ICTs in health,

agriculture, etc.; assessing the feasibility of using ICTs as tools of

democracy; and widening women’s access to information and technology.

MAUREEN JAMES’s input focused on a demonstration of the Women’s net web site

www.womensnet.org.za and some cursory background information. The women’s

net is a networking support programme, specifically targeting South African

women. It is a joint initiative by Sangonet and the Commission for Gender

Equality. It was initially conceptualised as a mechanism that can make women

in government more accessible to other women, that will develop a website

and provide an information clearing house for women, as well as providing

training to women.

The chief aims of the programme are to :

--- make ICTs accessible to women, especially those from the historically

disadvantaged sector;

--- provide gender sensitive training to women, enabling them to use the net

in a constructive manner;

--- serve, through its website, as a clearing house for information;

--- facilitate networking and linking people, tools and resources;

--- create a platform for women’s voices and issues;

--- facilitate the dissemination of information, made accessible to women

who might not have access to the Internet.

The following summary of Women’s Net is taken from publicity information

supplied by Sangonet.

WHAT IS WOMEN’SNET?

Women’sNet is a vibrant and innovative networking support program designed

to enable South African women to use the Internet to find the people,

issues, resources and tools needed for women’s social action.

MISSION STATEMENT

‘Women’sNet is a project of SANGONet and the Commission on Gender Equality.

It aims to empower South African women to use information and communications

technologies (ICTs) towards advancing women’s equality. Women’sNet will be a

dynamic source of locally generated information and discussion on gender

issues. We will achieve this by:

--- making this technology accessible to women, particularly those who have

been historically disadvantaged;

--- providing responsive gender-sensitive training and support

--- linking projects, people, tools and resources;

--- creating a platform for women’s voices and issues;

--- facilitating the dissemination of information in formats accessible to

women who are not directly lined to the Internet.

HISTORY

In June 1997, a workshop of women from a wide range of gender

equality-seeking groups was held to brainstorm what a ‘Women’sNet’ could

offer the women of South Africa. From that meeting, a plan to build Women’

sNet has been developed and has prioritized:

--- a comprehensive Internet training for women

--- regional technical support centres in South Africa’s nine provinces

--- a program of women’s information resource development

--- a WWW clearinghouse of relevant information and tools

--- a national launch of Women’sNet

RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS

--- Gail Smith, has been appointed as Project Coordinator

(gailee@sn.apc.org) and Lynn Danzig as Information Coordinator

(lynn@sn.apc.org). Both started working full-time on March 2. Strategic and

action planning are under way.

--- The Women’sNet web site, particularly the Preventing Violence Against

Women section, was successfully launched in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape

Town. Feedback has been extremely positive, and we’ve been getting small but

steady media coverage.

--- Women’sNet has a vibrant poster to help get the world out.

--- We’ve convened the Women’sNet Advisory Group and had our first meeting.

--- Our Information Strategy Team collectively built the initial Women’sNet

module for other women who will use it as a basis for developing their own

women’s information networking strategies.

FUNDRAISING

Fundraising has been particularly challenging. Funders want to support

specific projects within Women’sNet rather than core programme funding.

Support thus far has included:

--- Mott Foundation - for two members of staff and initial project expenses;

--- DFID for VAW information module and launches;

--- Contribution of initial development of Women’sNet site from Commonwealth

Secretariat and staff time towards launch, and staff time for initial

project implementation;

--- Konrad Adenauer Foundation and IDRC for Information Team training

workshop (December), where Women’sNet site was first built.

In the Pipeline:

--- Follow-on funding from our launch support to build the capacity of women

’s organisations in the Eastern Cape to use and contribute to the VAW

section of the site.

--- Support for the first phase of developing an online business support

centre for self-employed women and women in SMME’s in South Africa and

Mozambique.

--- Open Society Foundation is interested in linking Women’sNet and

community radio, especially Internet training and an information

clearinghouse for community radio broadcasters.

--- Establishing women’s Telecentres and provide content and advice to

existing Telecentres to meet the needs of women.

Funding Priorities:

--- Training Co-ordinator

--- Regional Support

--- General Operating expenses

--- See full Project proposal for details

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

QUESTION: How do these organisations see themselves addressing the problem

of the unequal amount of girls taking technology related courses at a

secondary school level, as opposed to the fairly equal spread at primary

school level?

ANSWER: Women’s net aims to get training programmes off the ground as soon

as possible and will look at extending this programme to schools in future.

They are already involved in a partnership with Women in higher education.

The IDRC through ACACIA is trying to get baseline information together in

order to be able to develop appropriate strategies and interventions.

QUESTION: A major concern is the dissemination of information to communities

without access. How does the women’s net see themselves implementing this

aim and the monitoring thereof?

ANSWER: The women’s net aim to work with organisations that have the

existing infrastructure. Beyond this, they aim to develop contractual

commitments with these organisations as a checking mechanism. They are also

assessing the viability of making their information accessible to these

communities through community radio stations.

QUESTION: How does the women’s net programme aim to develop the balance

between content and utility. Especially within the context of the Internet

being perceived as a white male interest medium, which in fact blocks proper

communication.

ANSWER: The ACACIA project aims to do research on this matter. The women’s

net has done some research and had found that it is mostly women in NGOs and

activist that use the internet. Therefore it seems that use is determined by

whether there is a purpose for the information. Women seems to overcome the

barrier if they have to. There is however a concern of the lack of

sensitivity of information facilitators. It is important to overcome this

and draw in more people.

QUESTION: How does the Women’s net programme aim to deal with the

differences in culture, especially since they see themselves using community

radio stations to reach women who do not have access to the internet?

(E.G. - the Radio Islam debacle)

ANSWER: The programme aims to work with the stations, not only by providing

content but also by assisting them in developing their policies. They are

also partnering with organisations that do media training, in order to

ensure that the training includes gender sensitive workshops. In essence the

team do not view the base problem as cultural, but rather as due to a lack

of skills and understanding.

This session was concluded by a comment directed to the IDRC. The

participant strongly felt that the conceptual guiding framework developed by

the organisation as a guideline for possible funding to grantees is

artificial. Grantees might include gender issues in their proposals because

it is a prerequisite for funding. The suggestion was made that it would be

better for the IDRC rather to assess whether there are existing initiatives

upfront and fund grantees concomitantly.. It would also be important to

distinguish between women’s programme and gender content and societal gender

issues.

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SCHOOLS INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT

Vis Naidoo - vnaidoo@educ.pwv.gov.za

This project is derived from the concern of the national Department of

Education (DoE) about the crisis in education. Funding has been made

available to deal with the crisis. School education is seen as the key

intervention area. The aim is to give schools what is termed as a full

treatment. This means that the following areas will be looked at and

addressed:

--- building appropriate and upgrading of the schools infrastructure

--- developing appropriate management systems and training

--- facilitating the necessary in service training for teachers/educators

--- the promotion of media/library services, including both communication

and text resources

Presently the DoE is in the process of developing a guiding policy framework

for this project, and identifying the schools districts that will benefit

from the intervention. The aim of the project is to shift and improve the

quality of teaching and learning. The DoE also sees itself developing and

working in partnership with other stakeholders to achieve this aim.

Specifically the request from the DoE to the consortium is to provide the

necessary support to the DoE to facilitate this project.

COMMENTS:

The linking up of communities can lead to the creation of new job interest.

It is important for the research project to look at integrated development

processes in communities, thus harnessing these communities for broader

development. The project should thus be seen as part of a set of solutions

for development and reconstruction, for e.g. Utilising community centres to

feed into the RDP.

The project should also be consciously where possible be conveying its

vision to the users for if technology is to be effectively used it should

not only be packaged, but the package should be accessible. An area which

the project should look at carefully is the question of ownership, in terms

of physical spaces as well as professional development.

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A POSSIBLE DEDICATED EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CHANNEL

Vis Naidoo - vnaidoo@educ.pwv.gov.za

The SABC and the DoE are exploring the possibility of establishing a

dedicated education channel (radio or television). This notion will be

included in the forthcoming green paper and white paper processes, which

will facilitate public participation. The DoE are about to launch a three

month feasibility study focusing on the model of such a channel, the cost

involved, requirements for user levels, comparative international

experiences, and governance issues.

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THE SABC’S IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING PROCESSES

Neil Butcher - neilshel@icon.co.za

For more information, visit www.saide.org.za/sabc/

SAIDE has been contracted by the SABC to manage a series of research

projects. The aim of the input is thus for consortium members to assess

whether they can participate in this process. There are essentially four

research areas, despite the fact that most of the planning is in its

embryonic stages:

A: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR THE INTRODUCTION TO A SCHOOLS BASED SERVICE

These programmes will be different from the current home based programmes.

The SABC is aiming to introduce a fully fledge schools based service from

January 1999. The potential programme foci includes the following:

? broadcasting support for the curriculum, e.g. focusing on learners

? broadcasting support for educators, e.g. to assist them with the

implementation of the curriculum and the usage of technology

? broadcasting support for administrators and management, e.g. Help with

scheduling, financial management, etc.

The research will not only focus on broadcasting, but will also look at

non-broadcasting issues. The primary intention is to build mechanisms to

assess the effectiveness of the service. It will thus look at the

popularisation of the service, strategies for the professional development

of educators in use of the service, and skills development. The aim is to

also explore how multimedia strategies can augment a schools based service,

since for it to be educationally sustainable it cannot solely rely on live

broadcasting. It will have to look at the full spectrum of Print, internet,

CD ROM, etc..

Four outcome areas have been identified for the research:

1. the development of concrete implementation plans;

2. identifiable strategies for education sustainability, thus defining

conditions for educational success and cost effectiveness;

3. identifying potential partnerships and competitors;

4. identifiable means for resources sharing.

B: ABET

This project has a similar brief as the schools based-project. This is in

terms of programme foci and research outcomes, however this will be in

relation to ABET learners and educators. The specific focus will be ABET

levels one to four.

C: FURTHER EDUCATION & TRAINING AREA

This research project will focus on the education area outside of the

traditional primary, secondary and higher education levels. At present there

seems to be no consensus about what levels this area encapsulates. As a

result the project will aim to develop a conceptual framework for this

educational spectrum, and develop a strategic position for the SABC from

this.

D: DEVELOPING A STRATEGIC APPROACH

This project will assess and suggest strategies that the SABC should have in

place to effectively harness their resources and contribute to the

effectiveness of an education channel as well as contributing to the

elevation of the existing education crisis.

The importance of these issues to the Consortium relates in the main to the

physical spaces necessary for such a service to be effective. Members need

to evaluate how they can assist at these levels. Several members have

implemented surveys or projects and can thus contribute to the development

of baseline information. These projects also allow for potential

constructive partnerships and this need to be actively explored.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

QUESTION: Will members and the public have access to the information

generated and published?

ANSWER: The Consortium will get access to the draft information, as it

becomes available. However at the present moment the research team is

putting strategies in place for broader public participation (see for

example the web site established - URL above).

QUESTION: The schools-based project will impact on classroom content and

methodology, thus impacting on the work hours of educators. What is being

done to involve teacher trade unions in the research project from the start?

ANSWER: At present the projects are in their first phase, which is planning.

A general framework has been developed, but stakeholders are being involved

to get from them their suggestions around possible focus areas. Both of the

major teacher unions have already been involved in some initial planning

processes.

QUESTION: How will SAIDE try to overcome the rural/urban divide in this

project?

ANSWER: SAIDE is quite conscious of this difficulty, since there is a

tendency to develop urban solutions and merely transplant them to rural

areas. It will thus try to focus on rural schools specifically, and engage

people with extensive knowledge of conditions in rural schools.

COMMENT:

--- SAIDE should try to get details of the Rosslyn ABET related programmes,

since it is a very realistic way of training workers for economic viability.

Thus linking ABET with concrete economic enhancement strategies. (NOTE:

There will be a report on this project at the next TAD Consortium meeting).

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ICTS AND PHYSICAL SPACES

Shelagh Nation - snation@csir.co.za

Shelagh Nation gave a brief input on the impact of the kind of physical

spaces we need to physically secure ICTs. The context in which this needs to

be looked at is the following:

--- At present it is estimated that 30% of South Africa’s population are in

schools. However some schools enrol four and five year olds to boost their

subsidies and other have several matric repeats, which thus boost this

number.

--- Another issue is the fact that 93% of the educational budget goes to

servicing teachers salary. At present, the teacher learner ratio is 1:40, if

we cut down on the teachers bill we could be looking at a ratio of 1:80.

Louis Croucher seconded to the DoE states that SA teachers are paid 4.5 time

more than their counterparts internationally, but in relation to

professional competitiveness they are paid too little. It is also a fact

that in SA we need more teachers.

--- To normalise the physical infrastructure of schools, it is estimated

that R71 billion is needed. This amount excludes the building of new or

extra schools.

--- Another fact is that we have +\- 29000 schools which can only have 40

students per class

The main issue raised was the fact that given the above situation, more

thought needs to be given to utilising the electronic medium for teaching.

However people tend to focus on the medium and not on the physical spaces

required. This is compounded by the problem that schools are not designed to

keep expensive equipment, which means it is often very quickly stolen.

The importance of this issue to TAD members is related to the fact that most

members are concerned with the delivery of education via technological

means. It is thus important for members to give sufficient thought to the

design of learning sites to provide secure storage for the essential

technological learning aides. The Consortium has the capacity to bring this

very crucial yet largely underrated issue to the table. Specifically,

members can also look at how the space can enhance methodological issues

such as the sharing of equipment and ideas, etc. It is also important to

introduce the issue of community ownership, since no building can ever be

100% secure.

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STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF ICTS

Ron Beyers - beyers@stalban.pta.school.za

St Albans College has developed their own intranet. Students and teachers

and students are encouraged to use the technological centre for learning.

The premise underpinning this move is that learning takes place everywhere,

therefore teachers need to ‘unlearn’ how to teach. The crux of the St. Alban

experience is this change in the teaching approach. The school is also

involved in limited outreach programmes with less fortunate schools, and in

this way are sharing their resources.

The internet can be used for all subjects, but only certain subjects at the

College are utilising it. Amongst others are Biology and English. The

meeting was given a demonstration by Biology students, who were assigned to

develop sites as projects. The BIONET is part of the intranet. Students took

the initiative and did a lot of the design work at home. They acknowledge

that there were several positives and negatives experienced in the process.

On the positive side were the access they had to an enabling infrastructure

both at school and at home and the fact that both results of students

involved in developing sites improved. One of the major negatives relates to

problems of copyright, because students are only allowed to use their sites

on the intranet and not on the internet.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

QUESTION: Did the project improve the students knowledge base of the subject

areas?

ANSWER: Students felt that it did indeed improve their knowledge base, for

they had to know the subject area quite well to develop a proper site. They

also felt that it is better than the static textbook, therefore there is

learning improvement. The teacher also commented that not only did the

project group’s marks improved, the average of the whole class improved.

QUESTION: Besides the animated images, what makes the internet different?

And how can you improve on your projects?

ANSWER: The internet’s interactivity is it’s major advantage, it is far more

interactive than a textbook. The projects can be improved by requesting

feedback from the users and having interactive quizzes as well.

QUESTION: How does the students see themselves drawing in other students?

ANSWER: The students acknowledged that background knowledge and familiarity

with the technology is important. However training can happen and once

students learnt how to use the technology they have generally become more

interested.

COMMENTS:

--- The issue of copyright is generally blown out of proportion. 90% of all

information is probably not copyrighted, because it should be registered

before copyright can be legally enforced. Most writers do not bother to do

this.

--- Internationally there is a growing new perspective on copyright. The

major question is now how best to ensure that all information is made

accessible. It was also felt that the students project pushed the boundaries

of what can be considered to be the canon of knowledge. It pushes away from

copyright, because in any case most of the things being written are not

substantially new.

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NOTICES

--- The International Schools Contest is continuing as planned. At present

there are 10 South African schools participating. The Consortium will

receive invitations to the presentation.

--- The SA Information Development Initiative wants to share with the

consortium some of their interesting developments. The website for SAIDI is

www.rdp.org

--- The World Bank sponsored World links for Development already has ten

countries which it is sponsoring in Africa. Learning centres will be

constructed and, as a means to facilitate this, teachers are being trained

on the internet. Training is starting from April 8th. The project is also

looking at Schoolnet SA as a possible partner.