New Learning Technologies: Promises and Prospects for Women

We in Canada have a history of government involvement in facilitating communication and community interaction: the CBC, the NFB, radio and telephone communications have all been heavily subsidized. It is essential that the public sector maintain a commitment to democratic participation in our culture and communications. The human and the technological must be appropriately balanced.

Heather closed with a dream of women and women's organizations, CCLOW especially, formed into an extra-parliamentary opposition and policy making body to ensure democratic involvement, human interaction, and the protection of our interests in the regulation and proliferation of new technologies.

Questions

A participant raised the issue of knowledge and learning becoming quickly obsolete with the constant introduction of new and upgraded software programs and hardware. Heather cautioned that though rapidly changing software and hardware can be intimidating, the basic knowledge required to run a computer or to use software does not change from machine to machine or program to program. Perhaps what women need is the confidence to know they can learn and manipulate the technology, as well as some resources to bridge the gap between older technologies and applications and newer ones.

Presentation of Paper: Jennifer O'Rourke, Linda Shachter
Linda and Jennifer co-authored the discussion paper which was the first step in this project. They presented their findings as a starting point for small group discussions to take place in the afternoon. The main areas covered in the paper are: Community Access, Institutional Access, Costs and Use of Resources, Opportunities for Learning, and Tools and Strategies.

The approach behind the paper is to identify the pros and cons of the use and introduction of new technologies. This is done by mapping out the necessary connections, supports and cost requirements of new technologies and examining, on that terrain, what areas may get overlooked or bypassed and what may be opened up.

A number of barriers stand in the way of the use of new technologies, from an individual to an institutional and national level. The costs for programs, equipment and connections are, on the whole, more expensive and also require a cost outlay if adequate equipment and programs are not already in place. Costs on an individual level include the purchase of a computer, modem, Internet software, connection to an Internet Service Provider and, in many cases, a separate telephone line. Costs at an institutional level can include the same list as well as the purchase or development of programs for delivery and staff time and training necessary to support new programs. At a national level, costs include the provision of single line telephone service, greater bandwidth service and satellite connections across the country.

Other barriers include geography (there tends to be less service in remote or rural areas), gender (women have less access than men), ability (appropriate software or equipment is often not available or is too expensive), skill or education level, and language (new technologies are primarily English-dependent).