|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
  |
 |
  |
AfricaLink Reports
>> AfricaLink Home >> AfricaLink Reports >> Mozambique May 1997 Workshop Report
Network Partnerships... SACCAR
Report on AfricaLink Maputo Workshop
by Na'eem Jeenah
Co-ordinator of the AfricaLink Southern African Help Desk
based at SANGONeT http://sn.apc.org/
Introduction
The AfricaLink Maputo Workshop on Introduction to Electronic Communications was planned to coincide with a steering committee meeting of SACCAR’s SARRNET team. In order to minimise costs and optimise the use of people’s time, the workshop was scheduled to be held over three evenings: 20, 21 and 22 May 1997. The workshop was to cater for approximately 20 SARRNET scientists and researchers from the various SADC countries. (Click once on the picture to enlarge in color.)
The Maputo Workshop would be the first of a series of national and thematic group workshops organised by the AfricaLink Help Desk for USAID partners in Southern Africa.
Objectives
The following were some of the objectives for the Workshop:
- To give SARRNET researchers and scientists and understanding of what the Internet is, how it works
- To make participants confident in the use of electronic communications
- To raise and deal with some of the problems participants have encountered with electronic communications
- Through presentations and practicums, to get participants to understand and work with the following Internet tools: email, the World Wide Web, search engines
- To "publicise" the Help Desk and introduce participants to how they might use it to enhance their work, solve problems, etc
Preparations
In preparing for the workshop much consultation was held electronically between the AfricaLink advisor, Jeff Cochrane; SACCAR’s Chris Lungu and myself on the kind of facilities to explore, program schedule, etc.
Arrangements were made to use facilities at Central Informatics, a department at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo.
A questionnaire was developed and sent out to all prospective participants of the workshop asking about their level of computer literacy, the extent of their use of electronic communications – in particular, the Internet, and the hardware and software that they use. Unfortunately, only two responses were received.
The Workshop
The times for the workshop were restructured on the 20 to accommodate the participants who felt that three evenings in a row, after three full days of meetings, would be too stressful. Thus, the workshop was held over the evenings of the 20 and 21 – for two hours each, and on the morning of the 22 – for four hours.
Facilities
The facilities we were provided with by Eduardo Mondlane University were excellent. We used a classroom fitted out with 13 desktop computers. These computers all had live access to the Internet via the CIUEM servers. We were also provide d with a projector that was able to receive a computer connection and project computer data. This was provided at no extra cost by the CIUEM. The CIUEM staff was also very helpful in customising the computers as we required and assisting us when required. The only shortcoming here was that UEM does not run a news server and thus no practical work could be done on accessing newsgroups.
The Participants
The participants averaged 13 for the three sessions of the workshop. They included a few people who had no access to the Internet, not even email, to a few who had email only access, to those who had full Internet access. Some of those who had Internet access were also not very confident of using the net.
The Program
The program covered four broad areas (see program attached):
- An Introduction to Electronic Communications and the Internet;
- Using the Internet for communication;
- Using the Internet for accessing Information.
Inputs were also presented by the technical manager of CIUEM on the history of the Internet in Mozambiqe and the services provided by CIUEM, and a presentation by Enrique Portillo of the Leland Initiative of the Initiative’s work and plans in Mozambique.
A good deal of time was spent on a session not listed above: Participants experience of email and the Internet. We found that participants were very willing to detail their experiences – good and bad – with the Internet. This was particularly useful fo r the Help Desk in pinpointing problem areas and putting faces to names and problems. Issues covered here included complaints that email "got lost", the oft-repeated complaint of being unable to encode/decode, queries about how to find informati on on the web, etc.
By the end of this session participants already began developing some confidence about the technology, even though they had not started any hands-on work.
The Introduction to Electronic Communications session covered questions about what the Internet was, how it started, etc. It also gave an overview of the different functions to which the Internet could be put that were most relevant to the participants viz: email, mailing lists, newsgroups, the World Wide Web. An objective of this session was to get participants to understand the technology and to present it in a way that they could identify with it in terms of their day-to-day activities. Thus, email, for example, was presented as operating in the same manner as "snail mail", except that it’s faster and electronic. This approach went down very well with participants, and their inhibitions about the electronic medium began to lessen.
The session on Using the Internet for Communication covered two main areas: the use of email and mailing lists. Much detail was covered when discussing email. Aspects covered included sending, receiving, replying, forwarding, attachments, netiquette, e tc. The mailing list part, presented by Jeff Cochrane, encouraged SARRNET members to use the lists that they already have, discussed how mailing lists operate and members of lists can involve themselves in discussions.
The Using the Internet to access Information section of the program covered mainly the use of the World Wide Web. Although some of the participants do not have WWW access we felt this would still be useful for them to use and understand. The idea was that researchers, if they understood how the web operated, could use the Help Desk to access relevant information for them even though they might not have direct WWW access. This section covered conceptual issues around the web, kinds of information avai lable, how to access relevant information, the use of search engines, saving, printing web pages, etc.
All of the above sessions were accompanied by hands-on work. Participants extensively used the email facilities to send messages to each other and to their home countries. They also did a lot of web browsing and saw practically how the web could assist them with their own research.
Most of the presentations were accompanied by visual presentations prepared using PowerPoint (download ppt files).
Evaluation
Participants ended the workshop with written and verbal evaluations. The general response was very positive, with participants making certain commitments. Those without any Internet access committed themselves to working with the Help De sk to secure access; those who had access committed themselves to using the SARRNET mailing lists to communicate between themselves; they also committed themselves to using email as a cost-effective option for certain communications functions.
Author Contact Information:
Na'eem Jeenah
AfricaLink@wn.apc.org
Tel: 27 11 838-6943/4
Fax: 27 11 492-1058
PO Box 31, Johannesburg, 2000
 |
|||
Last Updated on: January 23, 2003 |
