IT Training
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IT Training
With the IT revolution and the Internet, many developing nations fear that the digital divide will keep their countries from participating in the world economy. As such, many developing nations will be very happy to have IT professionals enter in if they are going to train their people to use computers. Many of the skills people need to learn are the basic ones:
- Computer literacy
- Office (open-office or MS office)
- Digital Photo management
- Basic networking (home / small office networking)
Mobile Training Centers
Some organizations have built mobile training centers. This is basically a school that can be packed into a crate. Teachers go over as if for a short-term mission, teach, and leave when they are done. While this sort of ministry often does not have the built-in longevity of a stationary school (harder to do follow-through), these mobile schools are able to go to a lot of places a stationary school could not be built. Also, you can often find someone willing to give up a month in the summer for such a trip, easier than you can find a full-time staff member.
IT Schools
Many IT schools teach IT on the side. In that, they also teach English as a second language, and other skills (business, etc). Once you have the infrastructure for a school (building, paperwork with the government, etc) one usually tries to maximize the impact by teaching multiple topics that are needed in the community.
Schools often need to wrestle with a lot of cultural issues. Time management, learning styles, and ethics are amazingly different in other countries. And it is often important to understand where the students are coming from before you can be an effective teacher. So someone who is a good IT teacher from a developed country may find themselves struggling to teach in a developing country.
The self perpetuating Model
The Great Commission says we are to create disciples, and teach them all the commands we have been given. One of the commands we are to teach is the Great Commission. So we are to teach people to become missionaries. IT and teaching can do very well in a self-perpetuating model.
GlobalChristians.org uses an internet cafe model to develop a small business that will support the local church and church outreach. Part of that model is that the owner of the Internet Cafe is supposed to train up others to help him run the cafe. Then, those people can be sent off to run their own Cafe, developing another training center.
Discussion
Choice of Software
There is a lot of discussion as to the best software to use in training. In many developing countries, software piracy is rampant, and it is very difficult to find legal copies of software. One would imagine that open-source software, being legal to copy an distribute, would be what people would choose. The problem is that many of the students learn by rote instead of learning by concept. So if you put a different program in front of them, they will not know what to do with it. You have to teach them the exact piece of software they will be using. A lot of it depends on the duration of the class and the flexibility of learning that the students in that culture have.