Message-ID: <362C9A4A.61577280@bellanet.org> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 10:12:26 -0400 From: Sam Lanfranco <mailto:SLanfranco@BELLANET.ORG> Subject: Re: Knowledge Is A Double Edged Sword - A View From South Asia To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------5B9EE94889E86527DC228173 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bitKunda Dixit's PANOS article titled "Knowledge is a Double Edged Sword" is particularly disturbing for what it doesn't say. First of all, the quote from the scriptures - as included in the article - goes on to say "..and wisdom is a shield.". What is disturbing is: and what about wisdom?
Kunda starts with the circumstances of a dehydrated Nepali child in a remote hamlet and parents who believes that water should not be administered under any conditions, and then moves on to the increased globalization and concentration of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to observe: "But going by past examples, ...the poor will be the last to use the technologies, or benefit from them."
One purpose of wisdom is to learn from the past, not to repeat it. As ICTs create an electronic venue which supports collaborative work across time and space the challenge is: Are we wise enough to use it to good ends and resist its bad tendencies? The practice of withholding fluids is usually based on the fact that diarrhea stops when fluids are withheld - but of course the child frequently dies. The challenge here is one of appropriate knowledge.
Using ICT to good ends here does not involve trying to place a radio, TV or computer in the remote Nepalese hamlet, whether in a home or a community telecentre. It starts by asking two questions. First, what is the best learning process here, whereby this parent can learn about diarrhea, dehydration, and appropriate local oral rehydration therapy (ORT)? Second, what information and knowledge delivery process will best serve this learning need?
One of the problems in the example of the remote Nepalese hamlet is that those delivering services are not asking the right question. They tend to have things backward. They focus on delivery centered models of 'teaching' and not learner centered models of delivery. There is a wealth of information on ORT techniques - appropriate to local resources - and a wealth of information on how to convey the idea that more fluids, not less, are the appropriate response to diarrhea.
In most cases the 'instructional material' is a single page with a few lines of instructions on one side, and a simple graphic on the other side. Some graphics show ORT as stepping stones across a stream, from diarrhea to health. Others show ORT as waystations up a mountain. The same sheet can be used to train the trainer, train the worker, or teach the family. In some cases the learner is a community worker, in some a parent, and in others an older sibling.
A single file, or floppy disk, can contain numerous examples of how to format the text and graphic. This can be in multiple languages and as web pages can be - at a minimum - Hindi script for Nepal's many cultural groups. The challenge to those with resources, i.e., the development and human service agencies, is how to collaborate in the production, distribution and use of these materials. Collaboration here involves not re-inventing the wheel. Text or a graphic can be used, edited, or a source of inspiration for new materials. The ICT pipe may stop in Kathmandu, in a highway village, or a hill station. At some point there is a transition from digital objects to printed page, or directly to the mind of an outreach worker.
Wisdom comes into play at three levels here. The first is to be smart enough to realize that while ICT has a role to play, it does not require access and connectivity to the home, or even the village. It means asking "what role can it plan in a learn centered anti-dehydration strategy as part of some larger plan around health, development, empowerment, and the like. The second level is to realise that one should work from within a learner centred strategy that starts from where the learner is - in that remote hamlet - and works outward to appropriate resources.
The third level is to realise that most wisdom has to do with how people work with people. It is more than just the technical mastery of this or that tool or knowledge. Intervene with one parent and you save one child. Educate a village and you empower a community. Intervene using isolated service delivery workers and you relie on the wisdom and skills of that worker. Make your workers part of a collaborative network and you relie on the collected wisdom of the group. At some level, that collaboration makes most sense using this electronic venue. It make sense to use it for just-in-time learning, based on immediate needs, and just-lurking learning based on the ease of access.
In the end only part of the success, or failure, of pressing ICT into the service of sustainable development will depend on the 'star-wars' fights over control and ownership of the ICT infrastructure. A large part of success, or failure, will depend on how we mobilize to use this electronic venue, as a collaborative workspace and social process arena. Standing back and complaining about ICT, or taking a pass on ICT, at both levels, is not a wise option.
Sam Lanfranco Bellanet & Distributed Knowledge
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