Building Blocks: Discussion on the Process of Building the Modules for the AWORC Regional Training

• 20-minute presentation/discussion on what the participants think should be the major blocks/sessions in the June Training and the teaching methods to be used
• Summary of the discussion
• Deciding the major blocks for the Regional Training
• Organizing the blocks (sequencing and time duration)
• Breaking into small groups to work on each blocks

Each of the participants talked about ICT training in their countries, their experiences and, based on these, their recommendations for the Regional Training.

ARIUNA:

• Computer training in Mongolia is very basic. WIRC also conducts trainingon MS-DOS, the Internet, etc.
• The June Training should be made up of two parts, namely, the Basic Partand the Technical Part. The Basic Part will include the women's issues,the BPFA Review, what women need to do for Asian women's network, and AWORC.the Technical Part will include women's experiences in ICT and to encouragewomen to participate in the technology. The first part should take2 days, and the second, 3.
• It is important to include the BPFA Review and AWORC in the Regional Trainingto give the participants ideas about what they need to put into ICT.

JUSTINA:

• First encounter with computers was not good. Found the technologyoverwhelming until she learned to treat computers with contempt - and taughtherself (with support from friends) to use the technology.
• Melbourne On-Line to Beijing was a resource center set up for women toprovide information on the Beijing Conference as it was happening in 1995.Women were invited to sessions on computer-use training. During thesessions, women were taught basic Internet usage and searching. Theactivity was very successful.
• Training should be oriented towards giving organizations (participants)control over their own web sites. Important elements of the workshopshould include kits and templates for step-by-step process and guidance,and code-learning so the participants can learn how to explore.
• RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University has a distributedlearning facilities through its on-line campus. Basedon her experience in training professors to participate in the projects,there are two important on-line training components: platform and standalone web sites.
• Commnunity-building must be discussed in the workshop, specifically inthe discussion about group communication.

WON SON:

• The main objective of the June Training is web page production.
• There should be sessions on: downloading software for HTML (1 day); introductionabout the network/definition of terms; making templates; HTML text (2 days);CGI programming and Java Scripts (1/2 day); simple animation/graphicaltools; and content assembly (1 day).

KIO CHUNG:

• Regional Training Workshop should concentrate on Women 2000. Theschedule of the training should be as follows: 1 day for planning the contentof the web site; 1 1/2 days for HTMl and Information Architecture; 2 1/2days to build the sites; and 1 day to evaluate the sites.
• Participants must know in advance what will happen. They must bringrelevant materials.
• Majoromo training may be part of advanced sessions.

MYLENE:
The Regional Training Workshop should consider the following elements:

• hands on and practice
• a clear needs analysis
• preparation of the trainors and trainees
• focusing on a topic
  the participants being multi-cultural, a levelling-off ( of terms, etc.)
• approachability of the trainers
• follow-up and tutorials

YUKIKA:

• Downloading of software is important. It is also important to teachpeople about free software.
• It is very important for women (participants) to go throught the wholeprocess of downloading, configuration, installation, etc.
• Cited the South African Women's Network experience as a training tool.
• It is important to focus on a topic. For the Regional Training, weshould focus on the BPFA.
• Highlight on the information architecture component/site mapping plus aworkshop on the BPFA.
• Group communication is also important. The Majordomo Owners' TrainingCourse talks about what kinds of mailing lists can be designed. Weshould also discuss the objectives of a mailing list.
• Rules about how to conduct a decision-making mailing list must aslo bediscussed.

RHONA:

• Interested in making the web user-friendly and searchable, and in makingdatabases web-compatible.

PI:

• Former technphobe but eventually learned ICT on her own.
• Duriing the Regional Training, it is important to teach HTML codes, BasicHTML with structured excercises.
• There should also be a session on installation and downloading.
• Information architecture/site mapping must also be discussed.
• There should be one session on Women's Information Services on the Web to give the participants an idea of what women are doing on-line from lowtech to high tech.
• Participants must be able to understand ICT after the workshop.