Telecentre

After Spain, Colombia is all set to launch a telecentre academy of its own

Introduction

Telecentres are established across the world to ensure better community mobilisation, rural development and information accessibility. The recent initiatives undertaken to create National Telecentre Academies (NTAs) across the world will generate more and more learning and interaction spaces and will involve the use and applicability of ICT tools. NTAs will eventually cater to the needs of telecentre managers and operators and facilitate inclusive learning and training on basic IT education, management strategies, financial administration, community mobilisation and telecommunications.

Spain has already launched its NTA and Colombia and Philippines are prepared to launch their NTAs. The Spanish experience of establishment and operationalisation of NTA is an outcome of the resolutions taken by telecentre.org (a global community of telecentre professionals) and Esplai Foundation (an NGO working on the establishment of telecentres in Spain) during the Delphi meeting held between November 28 and 29, 2006. Esplai Foundation's e-Learning training module (developed over a period of three years) for telecentre managers in Spain provided the initial fillip to substantiate upon the NTA project. The unique feature of NTA in Spain is its content generation and dissemination strategy for 88 e-Learning modules. The Spanish NTA model is created in a way that the participants have their own professional colleagues as their trainers. The model has thus created methodological spaces for explaining the experiences of professional colleagues and aiding transmission of expertise to all the Spanish Networks.

The Colombian initiative

NTA Colombia, another stupendous initiative by telecentre.org and Esplai foundation, is a dream project and an instrumental replica of the Spanish model. The Spanish experience was vital to the establishment of NTA in Colombia because there were very many things pertaining to training, management and coordination that were common in many ways. During the discussions between telecentre.org and Esplai foundation, certain preliminary agreements and resolutions on NTA Colombia project were reached at and subsequent to this, Colnodo, an NGO in Colombia, was acknowledged as the entity with a renowned and consolidated position in the context of Colombian telecentres and as part of the local actors in the development of the project. At the end of the discussions, the following three-band agreement, where each actor can provide its qualities and potential, was identified and structured:

telecentre.org: to provide the follow-up, counseling and the seed capital to develop the NTA Colombia.
Esplai Foundation: to aptly help in integrating the NTA Spain experience and to coordinate learning and training materials for the beneficiary groups as well as for the telecentre trainers, coordinators and tutor personnel of Colnodo. As a part of the project, Esplai is also to supposed to identify and measure the scalability and operational effectiveness of NTA Colombia.
Colnodo: to assume the role of local actor with the mission to empower the development of the project and to organise the elements that will make the consolidation feasible for the future sustainability of NTA Colombia.

Two-phase projection

NTA Colombia has a two-phase projection, in between 2007-2009 period. Each of these phases have been designed to achieve relevant milestones. The two phases are:

First Phase - 2007/08: The first phase is the pilot phase of the constitution of NTA Colombia and calls for the implementation of first educational experiences. The first phase tries to:

form and structure the coordinator team, transmission of knowledge and operational organization.
form the tutor team and create basic tutor team of the new NTA.
implement the pilot phase with two educational/training activities under the care of the two Colnodo coordinators.

Second Phase - 2008/09: The second phase will be the consolidation phase of NTA Colombia and the start of NTA in two other Latin American countries. The second phase will further see the implementation of four educational cycles with a number of (around eight) training activities in each established telecentre. The final part of the second phase will call for global evaluation of the project and an assessment of the possibility to incorporate new NTAs in the Latin American nations.

NTA Components

In order to make the trajectory of NTA Colombia more smooth and to make the entire project fruitful and effective, several vital components have been included as a part of the project. The key components of the project are as follow:

To build a sustainable project: The proposed sustain-ability model is based on the idea of storing a seed capital, which will allow to start the NTA and to obtain the first results. Simultaneously, the mechanisms and dynamics to search for funds to consolidate the continuity of the project will be started.

Professional profiles for the project: This project re-quires two clearly defined professional profiles. To focus and suitably resolve this aspect is a key element to guarantee effective development of the project and to ensure the success in the task of starting NTA Colombia. The proposed profiles are of two project coordinators whose mission would be to promote, manage and consolidate the Colombian NTA. Both the professionals should be aptly educated and should have capacities

to adapt to diverse circumstances and conditions. The two persons, who would form a part of the coordination team, should know the characteristics, dimensions and the social environment of the project
to identify with the Colnodo project and the NTA and be an active elements of motivation
to handle computer tools and other other technological applications
to understand and interact with e-Learning tools and of the related applications
to build, motivate and consolidate a team, and at the same time develop leadership functions
to structure a work network, develop a feeling of belonging
to the project and to establish participation mechanisms
to develop contents in the exercise of teaching

Tutors: With an estimated number of twelve people to cover the two phases, the tutors will participate in the project with a mission to develop and teach specific courses. The required functionalities include capacities in the development of contents, skills on the subject matter of education and the skills of an e-Learning educator. The tutors are also required to have comprehensive knowledge on a wide array of subjects. Tutors are also asked to perform their roles as educators and to facilitate and motivate DIANA (Display Independence and Asynchronous Network Access) networks. As DIANA motivators, tutors should have:

Academic knowledge in general and advanced academic knowledge with substantial experience on the subject matter in particular
Technological skills and the capability of putting the contents on the platform, as well as to manage in a competent manner the back-office tool of education. Besides, it is highly recommended that the tutors should be proficient in computer tools
Access and functional control (through the telecentres) of disposable and non-disposable hardware, software, Internet and communication tools. Command over tools and equipment will ensure employability of the project
Knowledge of the social environment. The tutors are required to play the role of initiators and facilitators and they should develop the capacity of teaching their colleagues
Team commitment. Like the telecentre coordinators, the tutors must have the capacity to work in a team. Tutors should know how to work in a collaboration project

Work style: Another important component of the project is the work style that urges the tutors, educators and coordinators to develop a collaborative aptitude, and to practice mutually benefiting interactions. A well-devised and a coordinated work style not only helps in initiating decisions by consensus, it furthers the distribution of functions and tasks.

The soul of NTA Colombia

NTA Colombia has a soul that encapsulates certain fundamental dynamics. NTA Colombia is supported by promoting entities like Esplai and Colnodo who provide two coordinators acting as the executive core of the project and facilitating team work. One of the tasks of the coordinating team is to prepare a curricular plan which will be the basis of the educational proposals that the NTA will develop, this task is of vital importance. The core is responsible for transmission of knowledge and experience and constitutes the soul and the force to drive the project. The core enhances communication and working together thereby minimising physical distances. The soul of NTA Colombia interacts through electronic mail, IP phones and instant messenger and have common virtual desks (that sometimes allow for quick exchange of materials like courses) to foster e-Learning. Argentinean company e-ducativa, is providing all logistical and support infrastructure to make NTA Colombia a success. At this time, the support is in the form of e-Learning technology to use and the hosting space necessary for its development.

Challenges and inadequacies
The Colombian NTA project involves certain challenges.

The main challenge is integrating diverse organisational cultures and work styles during management and coordination. As the core team consists of the members from different organisations (Esplai-Colnodo), it is imperative to see that there is co-ordination amongst the members. The key concept here is to develop work structures in the network, which facilitates close collaboration.

The second challenge has to do with seeing the material transmission from Esplai to Colnodo. The telecentre realities in Spain and Colombia have different elements that must be considered. Linguistic diversity is another major challenge that the groups have to consider while preparing learning materials.

The third challenge is to ensure the future sustainability of the new NTA. From the initial seed capital, it is necessary, to implement the necessary steps so that in the future the project can continue on an independent basis. Colnodo is focusing on this task, knitting an alliance network with different Colombian universities and organisations that can act as an umbrella and provide support in the future, as well as work closely with Compartel, the government entity that supports most of the country's telecentres. The task carried out at the end of January 2007, in the presence of the Director General of Compartel, allows anticipating good perspectives in the future.

The fourth challenge is the need to document and then methodologically structure the whole process including the evaluations at the end of the phases. This challenge is vital if you keep in mind the future estimate to scale the Colombian experience in other Latin American countries. The initial material that are being developed are the orientation guides for the tutors and network coordinators. These materials methodologically describe the Spanish experience and have served as a basis for the first training of tutors implemented in the month of January 2007. And lastly, the need to organise in a more efficient manner, the administrative decisions and management mechanisms. The future development of Global telecentre.org Academy demands enhanced administrative management that attends to the need of the project and at the same time responds to the efficiency criteria in fund management.

Global Telecentre Movement
Some months back, the Spanish NTA and more recently, the Colombian NTA in its pilot phase, have started integrating in their communications structure, image elements that suggest to their public objective the link to a much broader project. Telecentre organisations in different parts of the world have created spaces for debates and discussions on NTA projects and objectives. Since September 2007, NTA coordinators, both Colombian and Spanish, have gone through a progressive taking of conscience and have tried to create a common telecentre umbrella. Not surprisingly enough, the proposed NTA in Colombia has to be seen as a part of a global telecentre movement that aims to create a Global telecentre.org Academy. It will lead to the creation of synergy among different NTAs to be developed over a period of time. Global telecentre.org Academy will also provide a platform for collaborative work, knowledge exchange, information interchange and mutual assistance. The model of the relationship established between Colnodo and Esplai, goes further to build a training structure in a particular country and marks the elements that configure the collaborative and relationship structures to be established between the Global telecentre.org Academy members.

Implications for Latin American countries
From a functional viewpoint, NTA Colombia project is the first of its kind in any Latin American countries. The project is a pilot study, the results of which will help in the generation of hands-on experience and in the coming years will open the floodgates for other telecentre missions in various parts of Latin American. It can be presumed that the generation of materials and experience will be an important contribution for the future scaling to other countries. Even though the project already acts with the view of scaling the experience to other Latin American countries, it is too soon to identify the long-standing implications of this project.

Conclusion

The articulation of a successful project in the area, will act as a promoter and example to other organisations that plan to articulate NTAs in their countries. It is foreseeable that the success of the Colombian experience places Colnodo and the Esplai Foundation in a moral leadership position in the region, which supports the growth of the Global telecentre.org Academy project and contributes to the objective of one million motivators formed in perspective of 2010.