Encouraging life-long learning through formulating ICT4D projects

'Je sais maintenant rechercher des données, les traiter et les présenter sur Powerpoint Je suis armé pour contribuer à la recherche de données sur Internet et ailleurs et finaliser le projet de CRA.'
Participant to the Life-Long Learning workshop, Mali, 2005

Once participants to an ICT4D Roundtable Process have identified potential project ideas on how ICTs could strengthen information and communication flows, the challenge to grow these ideas into a viable project plan has only just begun. What kind of information needs exist? For whom? Which communication bottlenecks need to be addressed? Which technologies could assist and how do we develop sustainable technology plans? Has this been tried before, and how do we find information on what they have learned? What capacities are needed to implement such a system and how do we build those?

Six to eight weeks after a Round Table workshop, IICD's training partners in Africa or Latin America take participants through the 'Life-Long Learning' intensive short course. The training helps make sense of some of these questions and assists participants to further formulate their ideas into viable plans.

The training intervention takes the form of a 4-day workshop, with participants from different public, private and civil society organisations active in particular development themes - Education, Health, Agriculture, Market Access, etc. Typically an organisation is asked to send one employee who has a strategic mandate and can assist with critically looking at an organisation's current and future activities, plus an employee who can contribute from a technical and/or operational angle. Since all participants are active in a particular sector, the complementarities of organisations, mandates and functional competencies present in the workshop generates constructive and critical dialogues.

Participants are taken through a variety of participatory or instructor-led activities to: enhance their understanding of the potential of ICTs; develop practical skills in relevant software and hardware; assist with information flows analysis; appreciate strategic technology planning requirements; become acquainted with relevant resources, and more.

This mix requires various training methodologies leading to a true 'blended learning' approach. The customary first exercise, for example, is a facilitated session in which participants individually write down their perceived barriers to effectively using ICTs in their organisation. Through discussing the ways in which the barriers can be overcome, participants are encouraged to temporarily set aside these constraints and think creatively about what they wish to achieve. Instructor-led exercises on basic ICT skills are followed by participant-led searching for relevant resources online, which could be followed by self-paced computer-based training courses on CD-ROMs. These exercises are always interspersed with a good dose of feedback, discussion and commenting on their project concepts and formulation documents.

'J'ai eu une bonne orientation de mon projet: contraintes, solutions et solutions techniques.'
Participant, Mali, 2005

The workshop consists of standard components which are always included, interspersed with adapted exercises. The aim is to expose the participants to tools and resources that will allow them be 'Life-Long Learners' and to discourage reliance on IICD, ICT specialists or externally initiated training in order to realise their ideas.

The workshop has been refined over time, as certain components did not always work as intended. Adopting a 'prototyping' approach from the software development industry for example, caused a disproportionately strong focus on technology aspects as opposed to encouraging a good analysis of current problems and opportunities.

In earlier years, participants built a prototype of one of the ICT components of the project. Not surprisingly, by focusing exercises on popular technologies like databases and websites, many of the subsequent project plans were centred on the same database and website technologies developed during the original workshop. This approach thus reduced creativity in thinking about appropriate technologies available to help address participants' needs.

Originally, this methodology expected participants to continue working on their ICT prototypes and skills using the training CD-ROMS, and required the participants to come back together for a follow-up day to present their work. This was very costly and the expectation that participants would continue to invest time and effort into further developing the prototype components proved unrealistic.

This workshop also has inherent strengths, such as the collaborative learning and exploration among actors within one particular sector, leading to complementary project plans that together address a sector's priorities and avoid duplication. Informal alliances are built that eventually turn into powerful experience-based lobby groups around ICTs. Other strengths include the workshop's ability to break technology phobias, and the incidental and applied introduction to ICTs while focusing on concrete development problems.

'It assisted me to understand the key role the ICT would help the health sector in Zambia'
Participant, Zambia, July 2006