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Post by Dr. Lalit Pukhrambam on Feb 2, 2014 3:12:35 GMT 5.5
Internet Essentials: Promoting Digital Literacy
A brief youtube video on Internet essentials on practical hands on workshops - via private and community partnership and organizations in Philadelphia, USA. Of course, Kakching has to develop its own model suitable locally. Computers can be installed, but an Uninterrupted power supply is the key to such a facility and the Internet accessibility itself (reliable service providers). A possibility is that a Cable TV service provider can be tight up with an internet service provider for home internet delivery.
Not having internet excess is depriving you and your town of the opportunities presented to you globally. The Internet and Computer Literacy will change your life. Use properly the internet is a powerful and an essential tool, and misuse it is a disaster - therefore, the internet is defined as a double-edged sword - just like a knife. Internet can also hurt yourself and your loved ones in ways you will not imagine. Hence, there is a need for proper training and literacy on proper internet use by citizens. Such an internet enrichment place could be in a public facility/local club, school or in a library where rules and regulations of internet uses are established and maintained. There should always be someone in the facility to answer questions during the open hours and show bookmarks on important websites for Education, Business, agriculture, Job Opportunities, People to people connections, Global Communications, Business to business transactions, Banking, and so on. Users can also leave a note indicating what they want to search/find for and the facility can provide the information on a print later with a minimal fee.
Kakching is just beginning to embrace the internet, and it needs a proper guidance and literacy training for the students and public. Most people leave alone, they will end up in unwanted internet sites, more often than you know. Libarary and schools are a good place to begin Internet Literacy and Promote Remote Digital Learning in a small town like KAKCHING, and also other towns in Manipur. KMC, local MLA fund, and Kakching citizens can contribute to open such a digital facility for students and citizens of Kakching and surrounding villages and towns to involve in Digital Communication and Informatics Services.
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Feb 2, 2014 17:45:01 GMT 5.5
You pinpoint the exact area to be stressed, kaka.
Yes, computer and internet literacy (if not proficiency at the sage) is basic and essential for Kakching/Manipur’s overall development now—this skill can no more be done without. Some of us at Kakching Thinks were discussing how we can start an internet literacy drive at Kakching covering school and college students and our educated but internet-illiterate adults, to avail ourselves best of the opportunities provided by the new media, to enable us to mobilize, regenerate and utilize our existing resources (in the form of traditional knowledge embodied by our elderly generation) and channelize our young minds to learn new things from across the globe available for free in the internet.
Computers with internet connection are essential to Kakching’s effort to become part of the global internet community. As not every household may be able to afford a computer and/or internet accessible mobile phone, the MLA, Kakching Municipal Council, and the Library and Information Center, Kakching should join force to plan an appropriate program and provide the necessary infrastructure. Schools in the town should be in the loop, and they should take active part in the process. The local Image TV should also be incorporated into the new literacy drive to provide the necessary communication channel between the project and the people.
Yes, desktop and laptop computers, and internet accessible mobile phones—not that fashionable but serving the purpose—should not be affordable for most of Kakching families. “Usable” computers are far cheaper than the cheapest two-wheelers which most youths of the town are taking to not because these are necessary but as a fashion, and not that expensive than “usable” TV sets, which now most households have. While a computer is a must if you are going to use the internet for educational purposes, you can also buy a cheap, “usable” internet accessible mobile phone, if you can afford, and it will come in handy.
The internet provides unprecedented opportunities. Whatever your interest in life, even if you are a completely new human with a completely different set of interests, the internet will have a lot to give you. Be it physics, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, astronomy, the arts, philosophy, political science, anthropology, history, geography (and what not), you can read everything about it from its beginning till what we know about it till now. Books, articles, videos, interviews… What you need as a student must be available all for free, and that must be enough to raise you (if you really read the material) to a level most people will be surprised by. (Yes, if you need more, you can buy them.)
Download books, articles and other necessary material, study them, and if anything is difficult and you cannot understand it, you can always go to the subject teachers of your school. Any subject expert/teacher in Kakching should be glad to explain that to you if you approach them. If you are not still satisfied by any explanation of the local teachers and experts, look out to the world. There are a lot of free subject forums like Kakching Thinks, and you can always put your queries there, and any expert from anywhere across the globe may give you a satisfactory answer. You can go forward like this.
Parents and the adults who can still manage to learn at least the basics of computer and the internet should do something about this. This will make them smart enough and enable them to monitor and regulate their children’s computer use and internet activities at least to some extent. If our parents and adults do not have these new skills, many of their children and youngsters will easily deceive them in their own face, which is without consequences.
Parents and the elderly people of Kakching/Manipur should participate in forums (educational and developmental), preferably with their children, so that our traditional knowledge is also regenerated and transferred to the children, thereby bridging the currently existing gap between our internet smart youths and internet-illiterate but traditional educated elderly generation.
The authorities of the town and civic societies should join force to see what they can do to spread computer and internet literacy in Kakching for its balanced overall development including everybody, excluding nothing and nobody. |
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Feb 2, 2014 18:07:48 GMT 5.5
Here, on this forum, Kakching Thinks, we are also in the process of creating a resource pool which will cover a fairly large number of Kakching's local intellectuals, teachers or subject experts, professionals, businessmen, public/social leaders, etc. and the people of the Kakching diaspora across the globe who can bring their experience and knowledge back to us in various ways at least through the internet, to provide the most thoughtful answers possible at the moment to queries of various kinds raised from various grounds (by students or otherwise).
Students can avail themselves of this opportunity. |
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