E-Literacy training in deep rural areas: The Siyakhula Living Lab experience

Gumbo, Sibukelo; Ntšekhe, Mathe; Terzoli, Alfredo

Title: E-Literacy training in deep rural areas: The Siyakhula Living Lab experience
Creator: Gumbo, Sibukelo
Creator: Ntšekhe, Mathe
Creator: Terzoli, Alfredo
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2014
Date: 2014
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431411
Identifier: vital:72772
Identifier: http://proceedings.e-skillsconference.org/2014/e-skills141-154Gumbo824.pdf
Description: Within the discourse of broadband deployment in poor areas (particular-ly rural), very little attention is generally put on the critical enabler repre-sented by e-literacy training that empowers people to use ICT systems, especially in the form of full-fledged machines such as fixed, tower and laptop computers (These machines are still more preferable for growing a generation of ‘producers’ as opposed to ‘consumers’ in the ICT space.) This paper reports on the experience in running e-literacy in a deep rural area, as part of the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL), whose end goal is to diffuse production oriented ICTs in poor areas of South Africa and Africa. In particular it will expand on the feedback given by the par-ticipants to the last edition of the e-literacy course, run in the first se-mester of 2014. The lessons learned from this experience include: the need for linguistic localization of the learning material or at least part of its presentation; the importance of teaching and learning that facilitates (easy) transfer of knowledge gained to other ICT settings (such as mo-biles; or uses to support business); and the importance of face-to-face courses to allow real interaction with the people living in the targeted areas, partly as a strategic means to forging relations towards the reali-zation of the Living Lab vision (co-creation of solutions with empowered users). Altogether, e-literacy courses have proved to be critical to the broad aim of SLL of ‘activating’the segment of society living in poor ar-eas towards self-determination. A small but telling indicator is the trans-formation in the view people have of themselves once certified as e-literate.
Format: 13 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Proceedings of the e-Skills for Knowledge Production and Innovation Conference
Relation: Gumbo, S., Ntšekhe, M. and Terzoli, A., 2014. E-Literacy training in deep rural areas: The Siyakhula Living Lab experience. In Proceedings of the e-Skills for Knowledge Production and Innovation Conference (pp. 141-154)
Relation: Proceedings of the e-Skills for Knowledge Production and Innovation Conference volume 2014 number 1 141 154 2014 978-1-932886-86-3
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the e-Skills for Knowledge Production and Innovation Conference Statement (http://proceedings.e-skillsconference.org/2014/e-skillsProceedingsOnline.pdf)

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Terzoli, Alfredo (Prof)

RU Department of Computer Science

SDG 10. Reduced Inequalities

SDG 09. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

SDG 04. Quality Education

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