An outreach venture: bringing computer literacy to rural women in Malaysia

摘要

With each IT/ICT development, the digital divide grows wider between the information "haves" and the "have-nots". In the effort to narrow the gap and to facilitate the adoption of ICT by rural residents, an outreach training course through the Community Communications Development Program was initiated to provide hands-on training in computer literacy to cultivate interest and appreciation in the importance of ICT knowledge and skills. The training was conducted on-site using a mobile unit equipped with 16 computers and peripherals, and was stationed in a selected area for 5 days. Training was divided into morning and afternoon sessions with 15 trainees per session to provide them with one computer each. The men attended the morning session, and the women the afternoon sessions. They were taught for a total of 16 hours on how to operate a basic computer system, Microsoft Word and the Internet facilitated by 3 trainers. The participants had little or no knowledge on IT/ICT and many had never touched a computer before. At the beginning the women had more fear due to their lack of confidence in handling the so-called sophisticated machine than their male counterparts. Compared to the men, women took a longer time to learn keyboarding skills but they had more patience and stronger learning perseverance. There was no difference between rural men and women in terms of attitude and willingness to learn and use the new technology.