APC-member Community Education Computer Society (CECS) has conducted a training for the South African National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) in July 2006, as part of an e-readiness training for community radio stations.
The 1985-launched CECS is an information and communication technology (ICT) non-profit working since the Apartheid for the technological empowerment of the historically disadvantaged.
The NCRF was launched on December 1993 in Orlando, Soweto, to lobby for the diversification of the airwaves in South Africa, and the establishment of community radio stations.
NCRF took CECS to three radio stations to get acquainted with the workings of the stations and train the volunteers and staff in the strategic use of ICTs in the form of interactive seminars lasting a week. Training materials were then developed for reproduction by the NCRF.
Participants were introduced to free/libre and open source software (FOSS), which has become a movement all over the world. A 38-minute video, called the CodeBreakers, was played as a lead-in. Governments, corporations, small business, academia and civil society want to move away from the shackles of proprietary software and so it was thought prudent to introduce participants to the philosophy of FOSS.
At the end of this training module, participants were excited about FOSS and a CD was compiled with a variety of free software to use and share. A special section was reserved to the ways of sharing information beyond the restrictive copyright paradigm. This is was done with the explanation of alternative licensing rights.
For instance, the Creative Commons license provides a new and alternative way of licensing of various kinds of material. Instead of the traditional “All Rights Reserved” licensing, it provides for a “Some Rights Reserved” licensing scheme.
Danny Moalosi facilitated a session on internet research. It covered topics like computer-aided journalism, reporting and research; internet research in the newsroom; how to know when to trust web-based information; searching the web; special searches; Africa-related sites; country reports; and more.
Other sessions in the community radio training curriculum focussed on open standards, technology assessment and planning. In the latter, participants were engaged in another exercise. They had to work in five groups in order to find answers to two questions: Who should be involved in the technology team? Why should they be involved in the technology team?
The fifth day of training was spent on the theme of “Train-the-ICT-Trainer”, as well as on the evaluation of CECS’s sessions.
At the end, participants felt trainers needed a special set of qualities – being innovative and creative; having patience and good listening skills; show leadership and empower participants; be confident with good communication skills; be friendly and have a sense of humour; and be knowledgeable and well-informed.
Among the five "most important things" participants said they learnt were: the whole notion of free and open source software; the application of technology assessment and planning; the ability to broadcast radio over the internet; digital migration; and the policy environment for community radio.
Photo: CECS training at the NCRF premises, South Africa
Credit: CECS
