ICT and Literacy: Who Benefits? Experience from Zambia and India

This 132-page report is intended to assist practitioners with planning of information and communication technology (ICT) applications in the context of community-level adult literacy development. It includes a comprehensive description of Commonwealth of Learning Literacy Project (COLLIT), detailing the experience of implementing it in two different contexts - Zambia and India - and analysing the outcomes and the insights gained.

COLLIT - funded by the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) in collaboration with country partners that, in Zambia, included the University of Zambia and the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development, and, in India, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation and the State Resources Centres in Jaipur and Indore -
was conceived in the context of what Professor Alan Rogers describes in the Foreword to this report as a "fault line" that is appearing in developing countries as a result of contrasting world views about the purposes and processes of adult literacy. He states that on one side of the fault line there is the view that adult literacy is analogous to adult schooling with programmes set within the educational sector, using learning materials that have been developed by "experts," and with the essential elements of the learning process controlled by the providers. In contrast, others conceive of adult literacy as inextricably linked to social and economic development with more of the control of programmes, and the determination of content, resting with the literacy learners. The emphasis here is more on the use rather than the acquisition of literacy skills; it is not a case of progression into continuing education, but of learning literacy while engaged in community development, self-help groups, or sustainable family and individual livelihoods.

This report records the experience of literacy workers in India and Zambia who, with support and technical assistance from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), used modern ICTs to design, create, develop and deliver literacy programmes in the rural parts of these 2 Commonwealth countries over a 3-year period. The various programmes implemented in these countries illustrate different strategies along the lines of the "fault line" described above, and are detailed in this report, which is based on data collected by in-country evaluators during the term of the project as well as from a follow-up study a year later.

Some of the key findings are that ICTs can be used very creatively to produce locally relevant learning materials; learning to use the equipment is both easy and highly motivating for learners; and the sustainability of ICT access centres is greatly enhanced when local communities are enabled to take responsibility for managing them and when use is shared with other community agencies. The research also found that the "fault line" has implications regarding the use of ICT in literacy programmes. Those who see literacy as education would be more likely to use the technologies to produce curriculum materials for use in classrooms and, perhaps, to assist in classroom teaching. Those that view literacy education as an ingredient of socio-economic development would be more likely to put the technology in the hands of the learners and to encourage applications that are meaningful in the context of their daily lives.

In conclusion, in the COLLIT project, the use of ICTs appeared to contribute to a blurring of this "fault line". For example:

• When learners and their tutors were provided with the tools and skills to produce their own learning materials, the focus of their learning shifted to the issues and outcomes that were priorities for them rather than those of the programme provider.
• The enhanced self-esteem and personal confidence resulting from becoming computer-literate appeared to foster teamwork and collaboration among learners as well as a greater degree of involvement in the development of their communities generally - and, presumably, a demand for greater control over their learning.
• The need to share the costs of providing ICT appliances, related infrastructure, electricity, connectivity and training became an incentive for inter-agency collaboration in order to achieve sustainability. This seemed particularly evident at the Katete centre in Zambia where the involvement of different agencies led to collaboration on the development of learning materials for use in a variety of contexts.

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