Gender Perspectives in Introduction to Access

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Gender Perspectives in Introduction to Access

• Gender Module 2
• ITU Workshops on
• Sustainability in Telecommunication
• Through Gender Social Equality

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Presentation 1
The Dirty Little Secret About Access
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Outline

• Definitions
• Universal Service
• Universal Access
• Other Key Concepts
• Information Revolution
• Convergence
• ICTs
• (Advanced) Information Society
• Digital Divide

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Outline 2

• Link Between Telecom Development
• Moving Beyond Technological Determinism
• The Dirty Little Secret
• Implications
• Questions

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Definitions

• Universal Service Availability of a phone
  service for the individual subscriber
• Statistically measured as the percentage of
  households with a telephone
• Universal Access Being able to use a telephone
  the affordability and availability of a public
  phone

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Key Concepts

• Information Revolution The globalizing trend in
  networked digital ICTs currently interacting with
  other variables to transform the ways in which
  individuals, corporations, public and private
  organisations create, process, utilise and
  disseminate information and, ultimately,
  reconfigure knowledge for the purpose of adding
  value to their ongoing interactions
• (Babb 2003)

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Key Concepts 2

• Convergence The confluence of the once-distinct
  telecommunication, broadcasting, and computing
  sectors based on the digitization of technologies
  and services
• ICTs Information and Communications
  Technologies. New digital ICTs like the Internet
  are capable of delivering multimedia content

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Key Concepts 3

• (Advanced) Information Society Shares many
  commonalities with the knowledge society
• It is a society that supports knowledge
  formation
• It owes much to the evolution of digital ICTs
• It seeks to address the challenge of social
  justice
• Requires information not only to be plentiful but
  accessible to the entire society

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Key Concepts 4

• Digital Divide The significant/growing rift
  between those who have access to new digital
  ICTs/evolving frameworks those who do not
• Some argue the divide is based on gender, race
  and socio-economic status, with women, people of
  colour and the poor largely shut out of the
  evolving information society

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Telecommunication Development

• Is there a correlation between investment in
  telecom development?
• Causality runs both ways
• ICT investments Economic growth
• ICT investments Economic growth
• Heather Hudson, 1997

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Product Cycles

• ICT policy-making product cycle has moved
• From utopian pronouncements to critical analyses
• Many policy-makers euphoric about ICT potential
• But scholars are becoming more critical
• Yet, there is still a strong belief that new
  digital media hold tremendous promise for
  development
• Ernest J. Wilson III, 1997

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If You Have a Hammer

• To someone with a hammer, the whole world looks
  like a nail
• It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a
  hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail
• -- Abraham Maslow

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Beyond Technological Determinism

• Each society has its own strengths/weaknesses
• Different levels of receptivity to
  technology/change
• Every developmental issue facing less advanced
  economies is not equivalent to Maslows nail
• Nor is its solution necessarily to be found in
  the hammer of a specific technology/technological
  application
• i.e., the new digital ICTs/Internet the
  services/applications they make possible

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• The Dirty Little Secret

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Education, Education, Education

• Access is not just about the technology
• Access is also about education learning
• Basic to advanced literacy
• Basic to advanced computer skills
• Basic to advanced critical-thinking skills
• Social learning

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Social Learning Theory

• People learn through interactions with society,
  using modelling to shape their own lives and
  those of others

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Implications
The Impact of Social Learning on Education,
Equality, Inclusion and Access
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Questions

• Give examples of some ways in which the success
  and/or failure of access strategies might be
  influenced by a persons or communitys level of
  education, literacy and/or social learning?
• Give examples of some ways in which gender
  equality and inclusion in telecommunications
  sectors might be influenced by a persons or
  communitys level of education, literacy and/or
  social learning?

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Questions 2

• Give examples of some ways in which the digital
  divide is reinforced by a persons or communitys
  level of education, literacy, social learning,
  and/or economic development?
• What are your solutions/strategies for addressing
  these challenges?