[Telecentres] what are your favorite telecentre initiatives?

Tue Apr 26 02:39:56 BST 2005

Hello all,

With only a little bias, I'd like to nominate the Beanbag network's
digital short film festival, "KickArse", as one of my favourites :-).

The Beanbag Centre program is an initiative of the Inspire Foundation,
partnering with existing youth centres in disadvantaged urban areas, to
ensure that young people who use the centres have access to high-quality
ICTs, and training to help them to make great use of them.

The primary objective of Beanbag is to provide access to ICTs, and help
young people learn to use them, thereby assisting them to compete in the
employment market, as well as to stay in touch with friends and family,
and to continue to learn about the things that interest them.  However,
the program also aims to provide a compelling additional way of bringing
young people into youth centres, and of maintaining young people's
connection with them, as these centres are an important local source of
assistance and support.

Recognising that the mere presence of internet-connected PCs, plus
training on basic functions such as word processing and email packages,
was not sufficient to engage young people in the way we had envisaged,
Beanbag launched its digital short film festival in March 2004.
Following distribution of cameras and editing software, centre staff
received short training sessions in film-making, from story-boarding
through to camera techniques and editing.  Throughout the year, centre
staff worked with young people to create a short film at each centre.
By the October closing date, eleven of the 15 centres had submitted
films, with an additional two very close to completion.  All had
significant involvement from young people, ranging from four films which
were entirely the work of young people, through to films which were
primarily conceptualised and filmed by young people, but which were
largely edited by staff.

The films themselves were amazingly diverse:  Six young people in outer
Sydney made a documentary about their experiences with local mental
health services;  four young people in Perth made an animation about the
dangers of too much tv and not enough exercise;  indigenous students in
Brisbane interviewed each other and local elders about life in their
area;  and students in an Adelaide alternative education program created
an action/comedy about skating.  Other films included a tour of Darwin
with two local highschool students, a look at a Melbourne program for
refugees from Sudan, and some more personal views of life in Hobart.
Films were shown at each centre during a screening festival in November.

At screenings, we conducted evaluation interviews with staff and young
people.  We heard that not only had the young people involved found the
project an engaging and useful way to build skills and confidence with
using ICTs, but also that for many of them, the opportunity to tell
their own stories and see the finished product had been particularly
powerful.  In addition, we heard that staff consistently felt the
project had helped them connect with the young people involved, and that
many of these young people have gone on to play important roles within
the centres, such as serving on advisory boards, volunteering to help
coach participants in this year's festival, or simply spreading the word
that the project is a great thing to be a part of.

Following this evaluation, a bigger and better KA'05 has just kicked
off.  We now have 19 centres participating, where two-day training
programs designed specifically for young people are currently in
progress.  We're aiming for a completion rate of 100%, and looking
forward to the screening festival in November.

Obviously happy to provide further detail - if you're interested, please
feel free to contact me directly.

All the best,
Helen

Dr Helen Lawson Williams
Director, Research and Evaluation
Inspire Foundation
PO Box 1790
Rozelle NSW 2039
AUSTRALIA
 -
Phone: +61 2 9818 3055
Mobile:  +61 400 136 003
Fax: +61 2 9818 3855
Web: www.inspire.org.au

Reach Out!:  www.reachout.com.au  Beanbag:  www.beanbag.net.au  ActNow:
www.actnow.com.au 

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Carvin [mailto:acarvin at edc.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:36 AM
To: telecentres at wsis-cs.org
Subject: [Telecentres] what are your favorite telecentre initiatives?

Hi everyone,

As part of my efforts to identify interesting telecentre initiatives for

the upcoming IDRC/EDC telecentres book, I'd like to ask a question for 
general discussion on the list: What are your favorite telecentre 
initiatives, and why?

Do you see it as a model for other telecentre initiatives? Is it 
breaking new ground in some way? Is it successfully integrating 
learning, public health programs, e-government, media production, 
economic development activities, or other services into its mission? Or 
did it start with a development mission of its own and simply embrace 
telecentres as a strategy for accomplishing that mission?

I'm very eager to engage members of the caucus in identifying 
interesting, creative telecentres around the world. The book will be an 
important opportunity for us to demonstrate the role of telecentres in 
global development, and how they're more than just simple public access 
points to the interest. So please post your thoughts to the list; I'd 
love to hear what you think.

thanks,
andy

-- 
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.tsunami-info.org
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
-----------------------------------
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