SIDSNET
INTERNET TRAINING WORKSHOP
Mauritius
Altaf Dossa
13, 15, 16, 17 September 1999
Background information
After attending the "train the trainers" workshop organised
by Taholo Kami and Hiroshi Tamada on SIDSnet and the working tools of
SIDSnet, we went through a series of meetings for the planning of a
national workshop.
I was called upon to be one
of the trainers and after setting up the agenda with the SIDSnet co-ordinator
and Mr Roland Alcindor, I was asked to handle the demonstration of the
SIDSnet website, the use of the E-Room tool, "advanced" Internet
use/surfing and basic HTML design.
Two workshops of two days each
were organised for about 30 participants.
Course Content / Participants
On the overall, the participants
had a basic working knowledge of what computers are. As to the services
of the Internet or the Internet itself, they did not have an understanding
of the concept or idea around this global network, that is, how are
the computers connected globally and "why does it take so long
for the information to come on the screen" ?
- Online / Offline version
of the SIDSnet website – Let the islands be just a "click"
away !
While going through the online/offline
version of the SIDSnet website, we could see the level of understanding
of each participant to the idea of getting information using an online
or offline service and the methods used to browse through the various
sections of the website. We also had to explain the reasons why the
websites were given to them on a CD. The whole process of sharing information
using means other than a normal diskette is quite new to most of the
participants.
Once these questions answered,
the various themes of SIDSnet were presented to them – Biodiversity,
Coastal & Marine, Climate Change, Energy, Tourism, Trade, Other
Issues. In each of the themes, we went into the News Wire, Interactive
Discussions, Links and Document Search. The participants appreciated
the advantages of the classification of the news articles according
to the different themes. While going through the Interactive Discussions
page, the concept of mailing list / forum was discussed and the advantages
that it could offer to SIDS stakeholders. Emphasis was laid on the fact
that mailing list / forum was one of the methods used to evaluate the
performance of the SIDSnet and that an active participation is required
to keep the network alive.
- Email – Basic service
of the Internet
Most of the participants used
an institutional email address. For the purpose of SIDSnet, we showed
them how to get a free personal email address using the Hotmail service.
The aspects of email privacy and information security were also discussed.
After the creation of the email accounts, I introduced the concept of
"management" of a discussion list by showing the participants
how to add users to a mailing list – mu-training@sidsnet.org, and
what are the various management options that could be activated –
moderated, archiving, digest …
The participants then had the
chance of exchanging email among themselves and also by using the mailing
list.
- E-ROOM – Why work
alone when we have the Internet ?
E-room comes in two flavour a
client side and a server side. As with the web, I went through the explanation
of how the web works and the notion of using a client software like
Internet Explorer or Netscape to get access to an information source
that is stored on a server computer remotely. After getting the attention
of the participant on what technology can do for them, I demonstrated
the use of the E-room client and the various possibilities it can offer.
A demonstration of the web based interface was also performed.
Using the default participant
login and password, the participants then went into the E-room sessions
and started experimenting with the various functions – creating
hypertext links, downloading and uploading files …
- HTML – SIDS stakeholders’
guide to web publishing
Web design was not originally
planned in the agenda but following a general request from the participants,
it was added in both workshops. A non-technical approach was used to
explain the structure of a web page and the design considerations. An
instructional package was used as compared to other WYSIWYG software.
The package used was ACEEXPERT from Visic (http://www.visic.com) and
has the advantage of making the participants appreciate the HTML (Hypertext
Markup Language) language and the notion of HTML "tags".
With the limitation on time,
each participant was able to put up one web page.
Overall appreciation of
the workshop
The server used during the workshop
did not perform the tasks properly. The service provider for the equipment
did not reply to our requests concerning the configuration of the local
area network. To that effect, I had to reconfigure the entire network
during the workshop to be able to access the Internet. Scott Flore had
to spend unnecessary time fixing the rented computers. In order to get
the attention of SIDSnet stakeholders (usually non-Information Technology
orientated people), we should have a proper working network or at least
have a technician on stand-by for any eventual computer failure or have
a proper service
provider.
Time was a constraint but I
believe that in 2 days per workshop, the participants have been able
to get more than what traditional Internet courses can offer to them.
Throughout the workshop, we have made it a point to show how SIDSnet
can use the Internet to bring islands together and share information
on the mentioned themes. The participants also found the tools /applications
that are present on the website to be quite useful.
In order to improve the impact
such workshops in the future, the following could be addressed:
• Increase participation
to NGOs, environmental institutions …
• In the introductory speech, one should stress on what is expected
by the SIDSnet stakeholders at the end of the workshop.
• A reliable service provider for the computer equipment.
• A brief introduction to the working of the Internet.
• Extend the working hours of the workshops
With the setting up of the
mu-training discussion list, we can stay in touch with the participants
and send them updates on the activities of the SIDSnet.
To my understanding and through
the feedback from the participants during the workshop, I personally
believe that we have been able to achieve our goal in this first session
of the SIDSnet national workshop.
www.sidsnet.org
