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Schools
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Conversations about Sustainability The Four Pillars of Sustainability How to Begin the Planning Process
Resources for Planning
Are you planning a project involving information and
communication technology (ICT)? Is your school or community organization
already running an ICT project and you need some ideas for the best
way to keep it going? This booklet can assist you in your research and
discussions that will lead to an effective plan for a successful project.
We assume that your planning will involve those who are affected by
the project. For an Internet Learning Center (ILC) in a school it will
be the staff, the students and the surrounding community. Schools Online
is interested in the success of your project, and we offer some suggestions,
examples, and options for practitioners. It draws on the advice of people
in the field as well as donors that are supporting ICT projects in schools,
libraries, community technology centers, and telecenters all over the
world. The research comes out of the experience of many development
workers, the people in the communities, and development agencies. While
it is targeted at people in school projects, it can just as easily apply
to those of you starting or running other ICT projects in non-profit
and other community organizations.
Often, the goal of keeping a project going once it has begun is usually expressed as one of sustainability and is frequently linked to the challenge of financing the project. This term has long been associated with a goal of the environmental movement. The term "sustainability" seems to have come into common usage as the phrase "sustainable development" emerged in 1987 with the publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. The Commission's definition was: "Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." If we apply that to information
and communication technology (ICT) projects, it means a community should
undertake one only after considering the effect it will have on the
school and community, not only in the near future but years ahead. Many
agencies, governments, foundations, and companies have included statements
about sustainability in their press releases, planning documents, and
public speeches. These same organizations usually include a mention
of sustainability in applications for assistance in the form of a grant,
loan, or gift to a school or non-profit organization. If you are applying
for a grant, it is important to find out what the organization means
by "sustainability" because the term has become a buzzword
that is rarely defined fully.
One of the problems in ICT projects is the differing expectations between the donor, the school, and the community near the school. While some donor organizations have thought long and deeply about sustainability, others may have only included the rhetoric associated with the term. No assistance programs will continue indefinitely. When a foundation starts a project, it usually has what it calls "an exit strategy" or means to wind down or end the support after a certain period of time. In surveying different foundations, governments, and aid agencies through interviews and web searches, all of them say that sustainability is very important. Some do not define it. They assume you know what is meant by a sustainable project. However, your school needs to discuss this long before you apply for a grant. A typical definition is one from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development:
Some donors will supply equipment and software and initial training in the first few months and then move on to a new project. Others will supply online and telephone support and possibly upgrades over a set period of time (one year, three years, etc). Richard Fuchs of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a donor agency in Canada, says that his organization will help an organization for three years, but demand a strong business plan at the end of the period. Some foundations realize that local resources are very scarce in the projects they support and will continue assistance for ten years or more. The tactic of many non-profits and schools is to spend time writing grants as a way of sustaining a project, but many foundations want to fund something new, not an existing technology projects. They rarely want to spend money on operating and staff costs because they like to be associated with new and different initiatives that meet local needs as well as the agenda of their directors. The cultural change that schools and community
organizations must go through includes the learning of new skills to
manage these projects. A school director or teacher may then deal less
with matters of learning and curriculum and much more with raising money,
meeting with people who can help, and keeping the technology running.
Schools and community groups can plan for their ICT project by considering the full costs of the technology over the life of the equipment. The need for software, training, assistance and support, repairs, paper and toner for the printer, administration, furniture, and housing for the equipment is not always calculated when planning a project. The full costs are known as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). A study by the Gartner Group of an American corporation found that the equipment accounted for only 21% of the TCO. In businesses there are frequently more resources and infrastructure than would be found in a school, but that makes planning even more critical. Recently, Marianne Bakia has published a comparative study of the cost of national education ICT projects in Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, Jamaica, and Turkey. While this may have little value for people in other countries, readers can see the very different goals and assumptions that each national plan reveals. The planned student to computer ratio varied from between 3:1 in Barbados to 68:1 in Costa Rica. Total equipment costs per school ranged from $11,215 in Chile to $451,930 in Barbados, yet the objectives set at each national level were similar in the way they stressed curriculum reform. As Kurt Moses explains in "Computer System Maintenance and Support: They Cost More Than You Think!" support for a non-networked computer system can cost between 30 and 50% of the initial hardware and software cost. That means that a gift of five computers and printer worth $5000 requires the school to find $1500 to $2500 more. When you add in the costs of Internet access, the total cost rises much higher in most countries. As your planning meetings proceed, you should decide how many computers you can support in the new ICT project, even if they are donated. If your resources are scarce, and the cost of electricity is high, it could be a good idea to start small with one or two computers, even if the agency proposes a laboratory with many more machines. For more details on TCO in American schools, see resources for planning section of this booklet. Although there is not much data on costs in developing country schools, there is good reason to believe that the costs will be higher than in the United States.
Chasquinet, a non-profit working with community telecenters in Latin America and the Caribbean area says there are four components when considering sustainability: Social, political, technological, and economic. Through planning processes described later in this booklet, you can involve the community. That is the main basis for social sustainability; it means you are listening to the people most affected by the changes and are engaging them in the operation of the ICT project. In many projects there are skilled people who will help out by building furniture, fixing up a room to house the equipment, even if they are not using the center themselves. For many this is a prestigious project for the village or neighborhood. Part of social sustainability is the formation of social capital that the World Bank defines as:
Some non-profits are finding that the social capital developed in an ICT project is evidence that the school or community can work together and will be a good partner for future ventures with businesses and government agencies. The political aspect of sustainability means that local and national politics, policies, and individuals can affect your project in positive ways. An early school networking project in San Felipe, Mexico, was so popular that it surprised not only the central government, the local school administration, but also the telephone company, that had not provided adequate service for Internet access until the school had a weekend computer fair and demonstration at the school. This fair led to invitations to speak in Mexico City at a conference and the town received attention from national ministries. Politicians want to be associated with potentially successful projects. Other communities have received training in telling the story of their successful ICT project at hearings of telecommunications regulators. Authentic voices of people affected by policies can be very influential. Do not underestimate the value of your experiences to have an effect on ICT policy.
On the other hand, a telecenter project started in Asuncion, Paraguay, in 1998, with the support of the then popular mayor who used the technology, interacted with street children using chat, and attended the inauguration of several centers. As his popularity slipped away due to other factors, influential people and enterprises no longer wished to be associated with the project by 2001 because it was so linked to the unpopular mayor. This was unfortunate because the centers were serving many people who could not afford access any other way. Groups of schools and their supporters can affect national policy that results in more funds or beneficial regulations to encourage school ICT projects. In the United States, a federal universal service program called E-rate subsidizes very large discounts on telecommunication costs for schools and libraries in areas of poverty. Schools in other nations may organize to put pressure on legislators to help change regulations or fund programs for equipment, training, or electronic content for school curriculum. Technological sustainability addresses the problem of choosing technology that will serve you for an extended period. It varies greatly depending on the goals and needs of the schools. Because of the pressures within the technology industry to innovate, change products and specifications, and sell new technologies, ICT equipment changes rapidly. Generally, the needs and demands of students and other users of your ICT equipment will change much more slowly. The latest technology is not always the most stable; you may do better by using types of computers or technology (printers, satellites, modems, digital cameras) that have been tested and recommended. Some projects have not been as successful because they were too advanced. Organizers of telecenter projects in South Africa overestimated the interest in Internet access by the users. They found that many people wanted to practice keyboarding and then learn basic applications such as Microsoft programs in order to find a better job. Going online was not a priority for them. In many cases a non-networked computer system might have been adequate, less expensive, and easier to sustain from a technical standpoint.
Accepting as gifts or buying used or recycled computers can save a great deal of initial costs, but repair or replacement may be more difficult, depending on the model. Be aware that there are parts of computers and monitors that can harm the environment. When a system is no longer working, it should be disposed of carefully. There are now programs to allow older models PCs such as 386 and 486 models to run software in a user-friendly windowed interface. When choosing software, you may need to use what others in your district, region or country are using. Although Microsoft products are among the most popular, others are adopting open source applications and Linux because they offer a growing community of local programmers and local support that may be much less expensive that the most popular programs from Microsoft. Some national initiatives include Open Source Schools, a web site where there are many articles and discussions about the use of open source solutions in education. Economic sustainability is so tied to the technology that it is essential that directors have (or learn) business skills in order to make wise choices about purchases and how to use their time in activities that will bring in money and material support for the continuation of the ICT project. Klaus Stoll, head of Chasquinet in Quito, Ecuador, has analyzed the status of an ICT project for street youth in Esmeraldas, a large city with many problems and low-income levels. In "Assessing Community Telecentres. Guidelines for Researchers" Anne Whyte lists the potential sources of money and resources for ICT projects:
If you are selling instruction in computer courses, you will need to offer those that meet the needs of potential students. There may be demand for both Linux applications as well as Microsoft, but you will need to research this before deciding. David Babington-Smith of Oasis Trust's Wire the World project is working with vocational schools in India. All of their sites are in the large urban centers of Mumbai and Bangalore, but the students in Mumbai are more willing to pay for networking classes that bring in more money ($117 per course) than classes in Microsoft Office that only earn $35. The schools keep the equity issue in mind and make scholarships available to many poor children. The higher course fees help cover the tuition for these young people who cannot pay. In Uganda, a number of schools are involved in the use of VSATs for their Internet connection. In order to defray costs, some school fees have been raised, but the demand in the communities for the Internet has generated enough income to pay for anticipated expenses for these school ICT projects. In some schools the schools laboratories are open until 9 P.M. and on weekends. They are offering teacher development courses in computing. As an incentive, the computer teacher who manages the extra services receives 25% of the fees taken in at the center.
Some practitioners in developing countries
have reacted to demands for financial sustainability by pointing out
that many places do not have enough people with money to spend on
the needed services. Some countries have a large rural population
living in poverty. The low population density and lack of market indicate
that if the projects are important that does not mean they are sustainable
without external help. Some see that outside donors are temporarily
filling in by supporting a basic function (the right to communicate)
that should be paid for by the State. Another rejects outside consultants
and donors who recommend that volunteers carry the load for community
ICT projects. As she points out, these experts earn in a day what
paid local instructors get in one month, yet they continue to promote
volunteerism.
If your school or your organization wants to use Information and Communication Technology in the classroom, or if you are already running such a project such as an Internet Learning Center, it is critical to plan for the continuation of the program. It is best to begin this process long before you actually focus on the technology. The project that you plan should fit in with the values of your organization. The values determine the goals and the kinds of projects that help you reach those goals. Many of these goals may not deal with technology but with other activities in the school. When a school or other organization begins a project, there is a goal, either explicit or implicit: to build a football field, to add a classroom, to install a satellite system, to offer new courses, to attract students, to improve performance, to hire new teachers, or to go on a class field trip. Some of these projects have a start and a finish (the field trip), but many projects are begun with hopes that they will benefit the students and the school year after year. Sometimes a project is thrust upon a school from the outside: the education ministry decides that all schools must be connected to electronic mail; a local benefactor donates some computers to the school, or your town is wired for electricity. In other cases, there may be an opportunity to apply for a grant with a short deadline, or money becomes available without much notice. This is why it is important to have your goals in mind before planning such a project. Obviously, not all schools have the autonomy to set many of their goals. They will be decided at a district, regional, or national level. In many cases, communities that had the power to set their own goals and make many decisions contributed to the success of projects. This devolution of responsibility is taking place in different countries but not in all of them.
In Tanzania, the government's water
policy specifically allowed community participation in the development
process. Working with WaterAid, a British agency, the government,
the local participants, and the NGOs helped start and keep running
86 community water projects. These succeeded where centralized water
technology projects had failed (for many reasons). Can we compare
water supply networks (ponds, wells, irrigation pipes, pumps) with
information networks (servers, modems, satellite systems, phone
lines, and computers)? In some way, yes, but everyone understands
the critical nature of water while the value of computers and networks
is still not evident to most people in the world. Those of us involved
in ICT projects value it, but it is more complex than the technology
to provide an adequate supply of water. This presents us with the
challenge of helping others to understand the potential of ICT and
to enlist their assistance in the planning. However, the ability
of a community to take responsibility for much of the planning can
help pave the way to a successful project. Planning, asset-mapping, needs assessments, and goal setting examples When a school or other non-profit intends to implement an Internet Learning Center or other ICT project, there will usually be one or more people who are more knowledgeable and enthusiastic than others. Sometimes the idea starts locally with one of these advocates. It might be a young staff member who has had training in networked computers at the university or in the capital city; it might be a director who is introduced to the projects in a professional training session. However, it might also be a student who has used a computer at home, or it might be a parent in the community or someone from a local business. Even though a project begins with a small group of people who see the benefits, there will be several cultural changes during the process. The first is involvement of community members in the planning process. The second is the nature of the technology itself, and the third is the change a school may go through in order to become more entrepreneurial and provide new kinds of support to make the project sustainable. There are many methods and tools for involving your local community in the planning of a project. Some of these methods will help you arrive at your values and goals, while others are more project-oriented. While Schools Online does not endorse any one method, it does believe that participation by the community will strengthen the school and it technology projects. We believe that you need community support in order to have effective and stable technology projects. Some schools have weak ties to their communities, but many have strong ties, if only because the parents live there and are involved in the support of school activities. These planning methods can help strengthen the existing ties. The methods require you to invite others to take part, to convene meetings, and to guide the group through an ongoing process. It might be called a "citizens advisory group" or "technology project planning board" or it might be an existing school-parent organization. There may be adults with no children in the school, but who have an interest in helping with technology projects.
Asset-Based Community Development Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) was developed by John Kretzmann and John McKnight at Northwestern University in the U.S.A. after years of experience in community development. Instead of starting with the idea of a community with a deficit and specific needs, ABCD starts with a survey of assets and capacity. What are the skills of those residing in the community? The web site includes an introduction to the practice and the capacity survey that is from the workbook by the founders. This survey can be modified to local activities and local economies and translated into a local language. This technique was used by neighborhood groups in Asuncion, Paraguay, which were setting up local community learning centers called Amic@s (Aulas municipalies de información, comunicación, y Aprendizaje) W.K. Kellogg MIRA project (Managing Information with Rural America) involved dozens of citizen groups in small towns around the rural U.S.A. It was based on a similar project carried out earlier in Slovakia. These groups of citizens were not organized at the start, but they received training in a wide variety of topics related to project planning, living with change, managing community technology projects, and human and electronic networks. Very diverse groups of people learned to work together. The groups had to organize in order to attend the training in towns far from their home and design an ICT project. Those teams who attended all the sessions received $15,000 for a local technology project of their own design. Many of the teams included teachers, school directors, and young people, and some of the projects were in schools while others were in libraries, retirement homes, and community centers. The MIRA technology centers projects that resided in institutions such as schools and libraries had a higher rate of success than the ones started independently of an existing organization. People in these projects encountered a variety of problems including staffing, cost of technology, and an underestimation of the complexity of such projects.
Reflect is a synthesis of methods originating with Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educator and reformer and a technique called participatory rural appraisal. It was developed and promoted through training, human networks, and web-based information by ActionAid, a large British development agency. Since 1995 it has been used by 350 organizations in 65 countries, most of which are using the process to create a forum for discussion and to help strengthen local projects including many literacy initiatives. The staff in the United Kingdom said that most groups work with a facilitator who is familiar with the process or take a training course, many of which are given in developing countries. The web site has a concept paper describing the way a Reflect ICT project might happen in a developing country. Their online magazine, "Education Action" includes a variety of articles and reports describing how the methods are used in formal and informal learning environments. There is also an online guide, known as "The Mother Manual" which explains the techniques in great detail. ActionAid said that a new manual for Reflect Action will be available later in 2002. Readiness for the Networked World This web site is run by the Center for International Development at Harvard University in the U.S.A. Their readiness guide is available for download in several languages, or you can follow the steps and answer the questions online. There are nineteen categories where you rate your community from lowest to highest in the areas of access, learning, society, policy, and the economy. As with other community assessments, this is best used with a group of people to discuss the answers. The learning category includes sections on school access to ICT, enhancing education with ICT, and developing the ICT workplace. As the present guide is being written there are versions in English, Spanish, Chinese, Bangla, Polish, Russian, and Romanian. Several other countries have submitted high-level assessments that can be viewed on the same site. Online Community Development Toolbox As organizations and communities undertake technology projects, they use a variety of methods to plan ahead. The Laboratory for Community and Economic Development (LCED) at the University of Illinois has developed a community development toolbox online. There is no charge to use any of these tools, some of which may be more useful to you than others. Many groups will not use the tourism evaluation tool, which is not discussed here. These tools have been written for use in rural areas, but could be used in urban neighborhoods, and some tools may not be applicable in developing countries. To use the toolbox you enter your email address. The system will remember this the next time you log on to use the tools and it will take you to the section that was completed at the end of the last session. While you can use these surveys alone,
it will be more effective if you involve others in your community.
Print out copies for the other participants and then meet to discuss
the answers. Because few people know all the answers to these questions,
the group may provide a better starting point or benchmark than
a single respondent. Ideally, the group can view the web site on
a projector and a facilitator can help guide the discussion, but
it can be done only on paper with the final results entered online.
The TRI (as LCED calls it) is in three parts: a self-survey that gauges your own comfort level with telecommunications technologies, another part measures how the community has integrated ICT into its activities, and the third part is an inventory of telecommunications services in your community. While these reflect the needs and values of rural America, it will also be useful for other areas of the world. Groups using these tools can re-visit the surveys after six months, a year, or two years to see what changes have been made as a result of their planning. Much of the value will come from the discussion (as in all self-assessments), and the action that follows will further community or organizational goals that have been set. If you take the first part,
you may find that you own comfort index is a reflection of personal
choices about using or not using technology. Because some people
choose not to use some technologies, they may not score as high
as some technologists might. Some people without the personal or
community resources may have no choice in such matters and also
have a low score, so it would be a mistake to consider a low score
a bad one. The developer of these tools, Julie Fesenmaier, is open
to having the tools modified for use with other language groups
and other areas of the world where the values implicit in the questions
can be changed as needed.
The path to a successful and long-lived project is complex and cannot be prescribed by others than those seeking the path. Every agency and foundation searches for models that can be packaged and applied in diverse locations. However, the different conditions, politics, economics, and personalities combine to form unique dynamics from which others can learn, but you will have to take the pieces of the puzzle and assemble them in a way that makes sense. One of the valuable activities you can take part in is sharing the narrative of your own efforts to make your school ICT project work over a long period of time. There are sites such as the Dutch IICD development stories web site and numerous regional mailing lists and web sites where other educators can learn from each other.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation MIRA Project. Grass-roots groups planned training sessions and the ICT projects in dozens of communities in the rural United States between 1998 and 2000. Asset-Based Community Development Institute. This site has plans for community assessment and descriptions of special printed materials that can be ordered. There is a mailing list that is helpful for those planning on implementing this form of community planning. http://www.northwestern.edu/IPR/abcd/abcdciforeward.html Readiness For A Networked World. Guidebook
for connectivity projects. Available in multiple languages. The International Institute for Communication and Development. http://www.iicd.org/stories Community Development Toolbox. A suite
of tools and assessment of individual and communities. Contact information
for the director: Julie Fesenmaier http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~lced/toolbox/ Reflect Action. This web site is the
home of ActionAid's program. It includes newsletters, a manual on
the Reflect method, white papers on various aspects of this technique.
Bakia, Marianne. "The Costs of Computers in Classrooms: Data from Developing Countries" A look at national data for six countries in different parts of the world. Moses, Kurt. "Educational Computer System Maintenance and Support: They cost more than you think" TechKnowLogia. January 2002. Moses' organization <www.aed.org> has been involved in many ICT education projects in the developing world. Key point: even computers as gifts have a high cost attached to them. Issue Number=15&FileType=HTML&ArticleID=369 Stoll, Klaus. "Telecentre Management
and Self-Sustainability" Realistic and detailed summary of
budget items, costs, revenue, and management issues in an ICT project
in a barrio in Ecuador. This list is a good starting point for school
directors to learn what sort of technology supplies are required. Open Source Schools is a web site with information about education projects that use Linux and open source software and projects such as collaborative encyclopaedias, libraries, schools applications, and interfaces. http://opensourceschools.org http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=520&CATID=15 Ann Whyte, Assessing Community Telecentres:
Guidelines for Researchers. IDRC, 2000 Chapter 3 "Indicators
in Telecentre Studies" includes useful sections on demand for
services 3.2.2; service performance 3.2.3; and a discussion of sustainability
3.3. The full text of this book is online and also in French. Education for all: meeting our collective commitments. This framework was agreed upon at the conference in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000. World Bank on Social Capital. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/
Steve Cisler's background is in libraries where he worked for 14 years before going to Apple Computer in 1988. He was a member of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple and ran the Apple Library of Tomorrow Program that provided equipment and software for innovative research and demonstration projects in all types of libraries. Within the Advanced Technology Group, he was involved in national information policy issues and helped to persuade the FCC to free up radio spectrum for public use for what is now called Wi-Fi or 802.11b wireless networks. He is a founding member of the Association For Community Networking, formed in October 1997, to assist local community networking advocates. His current interest is how cultures can be preserved and even enhanced using the Internet, as well as the establishment of public sites for Internet access. He has lectured extensively in many countries and has worked on projects to increase public access to information and communications technologies. He worked as an advisor to Tachyon, Inc., a satellite Internet services carrier, and most recently has concluded a study of a Kellogg Foundation project called Managing Information With Rural America. Steve co-chaired the Internet Society annual
conference in 2001. He serves as an advisor to somos@telecentros, a
group of non-profit Latin American telecenters, based in Quito, Ecuador. He can be reached at cisler@pobox.com
I appreciate the help from Johan Rubens of
Schools Online and these individuals whose writings, comments, and interview
answers helped shape my own opinions and recommendations in the booklet. Manuel Acevedo, United Nations Volunteers, Germany |
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