[SPAM] - [Telecentres] School-based telecentres - Uganda - Email found in subject

[Hannah Beardon]

Dear Edmond,

This is an area of particular interest to me, and perhaps we need to
throw it back to the group.

I think the area of impact assessment is really important, as without it
there is no formal downwards accountability and we can carry on
convincing ourselves we are doing great things for the poor and
marginalised without really having to consider what they think and feel
about it.  However it is also the most difficult area, and there are no
right/ wrong ways of doing things.  Instead it is a set of skills
applied and values adhered to.  A recent paper on evaluation of Reflect
(adult literacy and empowerment) argued that evaluation is just a
reflection of the researchers prejudices - who we ask, what we ask and
how we edit the responses - as well as the problem of power
relationships between researchers and participants - with the latter
telling the former what they think they want to hear in order to curry
favour.  I attach the summary of the research with some key issues in
there to provoke more debate.

I think that a large part of the impact we are looking for / at with
telecentres relates to power and power relations.  Information is power
after all! This relates to the relationship people have with the
technology - can they own it and use it to meet their own needs and
motivations, or are they just using it in the way they have been told
to.  If the latter, there may be great initial impacts on livelihoods or
health but the dependency on guidance makes sustainability questionable.

There is much more I could say, but I'll leave it here for now!  Good
luck with your task ahead!

Hannah

Hannah Beardon
Reflect and ICTs Coordinator
www.reflect-action.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 7561 7568





-----Original Message-----
From: Edmond Gaible [mailto:egaible at natomagroup.com] 
Sent: 20 September 2004 22:07
To: Hannah Beardon
Subject: Re: [SPAM] - [Telecentres] School-based telecentres - Uganda -
Email found in subject

Good question. And you're touching on probably both the most difficult
and, frankly, the weakest aspect of the evaluation effort. At schools
that have significant use by community members, we will be getting
information from three non-randomly selected focus groups. These will
differ depending on the nature of the school's community-use patterns. 
In one of the more active and more remote schools, we're requesting a
group of Karamajong women users, another group of doctors from the local
hospital who use the telecentre, and yet another group selected by the
head teacher at his discretion.

Indicators will be users' communications patterns and networks,
primarily, as well as any self-reported impacts in specific areas
including health and enterprise. Of course we'll also look at the
numbers of users over the course of the project in each school, and
whether the schools have made any outreach efforts targeting specific
groups.

In a few of the schools, the main impetus for initiating community-use
programs is financial. We'll also be looking at the various services
offered and the revenues that these generate.

Edmond




On Sep 20, 2004, at 3:03 PM, Hannah Beardon wrote:

> I would be really interested to know more/ discuss about how you are 
> planning to evaluate the impact on the community...
>
> Hannah Beardon
> www.reflect-action.org
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org on behalf of Edmond Gaible
> Sent: Fri 17/09/2004 15:21
> To: telecentres at wsis-cs.org
> Subject: [SPAM] - [Telecentres] School-based telecentres - Uganda - 
> Email found in subject
>
>
>
> Colleagues,
> Greetings from Uganda.
>
> With my colleague, Meddie Mayanja, we are currently engaged in an 
> intensive evaluation of 10 school-based telecentres operating VSAT 
> connections in Uganda. We are investigating financial sustainability, 
> impact on learning, and impact on the community. Our data collection 
> and analysis will be ongoing through December. I look forward to the 
> forthcoming discussion on this list.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Edmond Gaible
>
>
> Edmond Gaible, Ph.D.
> The Natoma Group
> 610 16th Street, ste 506
> Oakland CA 94612
>
> +1.510.444.3800 phone and fax
>
> www.natomagroup.com
> egaible at natomagroup.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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