Mobile Internet Unit: Reach Out And Touch

Author : Ms. Kang Wai Chin
Date added : 2000-09-01

Brief Project Background

Mobile Internet Unit: Reach Out And Touch describes the Malaysian experience in bringing the world of the Internet to the doorsteps of marginalised communities through the use of the mobile multimedia cyber learning station. This is because there exists a gap between the info-rich and info-poor communities in the remote areas of Malaysia as well as in the urban poor. Hence, there's a need to provide a solution to bridge the gap. Through the smart-partnership model MIU was first launch by the Deputy Prime Minister on 6 August 1999. To date it has served over 8000 people from all walks of lives. These include the Malaysians as well as foreigners.Some of the challenges and lessons learnt are highlighted. Though bring IT to the people is an uphill task,MIU has received international recognition in the recent "Stockholm Challenge Award 2000" and the concept and model has been duplicated in Malaysia and other parts of the world.

Results

Mobile Internet Unit: Reach Out And Touch (Bringing the world of the Internet to the doorsteps of marginalised communities)

The Internet may be one of the most powerful tools available today for any developing country intending to leapfrog into the Information Age. With its ubiquitous presence and accessibility via a computer, modem and telephone line, there seems to be no reason why it is not possible for anyone to access the wealth of information and resources residing on the millions on inter-connected network of computers around the world. Unless, of course, the access to an Internet enabled PC and knowledge in operating one is a problem to start with.

While countries like Malaysia may be on a fast track programme towards creating a values-based knowledge society via the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor and other IT-related projects, it must be realised that not all citizens are immediately benefiting from it. This is especially so among the uneducated, hardcore poor and rural communities of the country.

Facts and Figures

For example, it was pointed out in a report presented during the InfoSoc 2000 national conference that, 25% of rural households in Sabah and 20% of rural households in Sarawak have no electricity supply. In 1998, 29.5 people out of a hundred had a fixed line telephone, while only 10.7 out of a hundred in rural areas had the same facility. As for Internet access, Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan constituted 50% of the total 'Net access in the country, while states such as Pahang (1.7%), Terengganu (1.1%), Kelantan (0.8%) and Perlis (0.5%) make up less then 2%. Hence, the rural population is at a distinct disadvantage in terms of telecommunication infrastructure as compared to their urban counterparts.

In the mid-term review of the 7th Malaysian Plan 1999, it was estimated that 276,000 households, constituting approximately 1.2 million Malaysians are under the relative and hardcore poor categories who do not even own a television or radio equipment. People in the hardcore poor category earn approximately RM230 per month for a household of 4.6 in Peninsular Malaysia, RM317 for a household of 4.9 in Sabah, and RM272 for a household size in Sarawak. Based on the NITC report, the estimated cost of a PC with an Internet connection is RM250 per month. Subscription to an Internet service depends on the hierarchy and priority of their needs, and entertainment usually supersedes information and knowledge-seeking. Hence, these groups can be considered "marginalised" in ICT terms.

In addition, an estimated 6.678 million or 1/3 of the population is currently in school and should be given priority in terms of ICT facilities. However, statistics show that only 10.2% of primary and 34.0% of secondary schools in Malaysia have Internet access.

About 3.329 million Malaysians in the 15-64 age group are neither schooling nor working. These people are unlikely to have access to ICT and need assistance to "enter the e-world".

Noting the existence of this access and equity gap among Malaysians is indeed important. And finding a workable solution to overcome this issue or at the very least to bridge the gap between the info-rich and info-poor will be the first step towards realising the country's vision of transforming its people into a knowledge society.

Quite clearly, it would be rather impossible to expect the marginalised sector of the society to make the initial move towards acquiring the necessary ICT skills, given the fact that fulfilling even the basic living needs on a daily basis is already a challenge. Hence, there is a need for the government to instead take proactive measures in introducing information and communication technologies (ICT) to the marginalised society.

The good news is that such a move has already taken place in Malaysia, with the introduction of the Mobile Internet Unit (MIU). The MIU is a multipurpose cyber learning station, equipped with a content rich server, 20 networkedPCs, ICT peripherals, audio-visual aids, air-conditioners, Polaroid and digital and cameras, software and courseware, reference materials and Internet facilities. And it is aimed at bridging the existing digital divide between the info rich and poor, particularly the urban marginalised and the rural poor communities.

Mooted by Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) in 1998, the MIU project is currently supported by various parties based on the smart partnership model involving the government, non-government sectors and the community at large.

The initial funding of the project was provided by APDIP / UNDP via a grant of USD75,000. In addition to that, the National IT Council (NITC)/MIMOS Berhad committed another USD182,000. Meanwhile, a member of the private sector, the Automotive Corporation Malaysia (ACM/HICOM), helped fund the project by donating a USD163,000 built-to-order coach.

The Selangor library chipped in by providing books and other reference materials.

NITC/MIMOS Berhad, as the lead agency, is also entrusted with the task to develop and manage MIU project implementation. This includes areas such as the design and development of the state-of-the-art Cyber Coach, research agenda, ICT training curriculum, reference materials and delivery systems, MIU activities and educational contents, project management, evaluation and monitoring systems.

To date, there are three MIUs under the management of MIMOS - one luxurious model belonging to NITC/MIMOS and two smaller ones belonging to the Kuala Lumpur City Council. There are also currently 10 full time staff assigned to the MIU project - four from MIMOS and 6 from the City Council.

Since its official launch on 6 August 1999 by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, the MIU has made visits to at least 40 selected schools in the State of Selangor and the capital territory. These schools were selected based on several criteria, namely its remote location, lack of computing facilities and Internet access but with a desire to acquire new skills and knowledge in ICT.

Living up to its tag line of "reach out and touch", the MIU has effectively brought ICT to school communities in the urban marginalised and rural areas of Malaysia. The MIU can be used to provide ICT training to 140 clients per day or 51,100 clients per year.

In addition, the MIU has provided basic ICT literacy training to 6,352 individuals and intensive coaching in ICT to 2,100 school communities (including parents, teachers and students). And all these services are free.

During the visits, the MIU and its staff would introduce basic ICT literacy programmes to the students and teachers. This programme includes:

· Introduction to basic computing skills
(eg. click & drag, cut & paste, creating folders and files, saving & renaming files and folders)

· Introduction to basic Internet skills
(eg. email, Web surfing & searching, creating Web pages)

· Integrating ICT in learning process for self- improvement
(eg. creating their own educational Web sites with links to relevant educational resources; using the Internet to learn and search for information for school projects)

Challenges

Naturally, there were several challenges that had to be overcome during the process of implementing the MIU project. Having to contend with the learning attitude of participants was a major task since the acquisition of ICT skills via the MIU was not part of the formal education syllabus.

Because of this, students and teachers tended to swap classes whenever they liked and most chose to attend only classes related directly to the Internet, forgoing others such as word processing skills.

From an operational perspective, scheduling classes effectively was also quite difficult since the demand always exceeded the supply capability of MIUs. Apart from catering to schools, the MIUs also receive numerous requests from other communities to serve their needs for ICT access.

If a session with a particular school is missed or had to be re-scheduled, it would be very difficult to find another appropriate time to accommodate the needs of the school, students and teachers. Basically, participants would prefer not to attend sessions held during the weekends or school holidays.

And since most ICT classes conducted by the MIU are held outside of the daily school teaching period, students and teachers would sometimes find it difficult to attend the classes, especially when weather conditions are unfavourable.

Most importantly, is the commitment required from the community leaders. Although many head of states/organisations have been briefed on the benefits accruing from participating in the MIU project, yet not all decision makers have made a concrete commitment to extend and expand the MIU facilities to serve their people.

Lessons learnt

Based on the above challenges, the MIU project leaders have realised that several elements need to be in place in order for them to effectively carry out their objectives.

Namely, the elements required are:
1. A smart partnership model involving the government, private sector and communities.
2. A multi-disciplinary team capable of handling all aspects of ICT skills.
3. A concerted teamwork and commitment to deliver quality product/services on time
4. A good communication platform to disseminate the necessary information to all partners and participants effectively.
5. A strong leadership and support from community heads involved in implementing the project.
6. A combination of "top-down" and "bottom-up" approach is most effective in ensuring the success of MIU activities.

Achievements

Despite the many challenges, project manager Kang Wai Chin has noted that the progress made by the students and teachers has nonetheless been quite overwhelming. She says that although the participants are exposed to ten hours of ICT literacy training session each, they are now more IT-literate and comfortable when interacting with computers and the Internet.

"The MIU project schools are also encouraged to build their own Web sites as well as start initiatives to acquire computer labs, form cyber clubs and promote e-learning activities in their schools," she adds.

And to help these schools get started, MIMOS would provide a free PC, 5MB of Web space with free hosting, Internet connection and an additional 10 one-hour ICT literacy training sessions.

"We want them to continue to experience and utilise the benefits afforded by ICT so that students can further enhance their skills and interest to create values," notes Kang.

Apart from visiting the schools to introduce the benefits of ICT, the MIU project also attempts to assess and collect data on the IT potential and capacity of the teachers and students. Kang says that the pre-test data will be used to measure the existing ICT skills and knowledge among the info poor. This, she adds, will help provide an indication of the digital gaps that currently exists.

The post test data, on the other hand, will provide a gauge as to how much skills the participants have actually acquired within the given time frame. This will be an indication of their potential in learning ICT skills, and it will also help MIMOS devise the 'how to' portion of closing the digital gap in the urban marginalised and rural communities in the country.

"In general the data will be a guide for us to devise future strategic programs to address issues of equity and access in Malaysia," adds Kang.

To ascertain the effectiveness of the MIU, a study was conducted among 20 info-poor schools in Selangor. A total of 100 info-poor teachers and students from each school underwent the MIU's ICT literacy training programme. The training programme was specially designed to suit the info-poor school communities in Malaysia and a survey was conducted to gauge the effectiveness of this ICT training program.

In December 1999, the first batch of MIU project schools in Sepang District, Selangor filled in the questionnaire. The preliminary findings, based on the data collected, showed an overall increase in the following areas, i.e.

PRE-MIU POST-MIU VARIANCE
Internet awareness 5.1% 100% 94.9%
ICT skills (MS Word) 40.9% 94.6% 54.0%
E-Learning concepts (web-based learning) 3.6% 90% 86.4%
E-mailing habits 2.2% 3.6% 1.4%
Sense of ownership 0 70.1% 70.1%

The findings revealed that the MIU has certainly been an effective means of disseminating ICT skills and knowledge to info-poor school communities. During the survey, the MIU team also gathered valuable feedback from people on the ground. According to teachers and students in Sepang, the low rate of emailing is due to the fact that many do not own a PC. Poor quality phone lines and slow data transfer are another deterrent. However, they said that email would be their preferred means of communication once conditions improve.

Future plans

Kang also noted that, at the moment, the MIU project is only implementing its first phase of activities, that being on promoting ICT literacy. Phase 2 will stress on 'Net applications and this will involve projects that allow participants to interact actively with the Internet.

Upon the successful implementation of Phase 2, the MIU project will enter its last phase whereby participants will be trained on the aspects of value creation. The programmes under Phase 3 will include multimedia content development, software cottage industry initiatives, computing/networking services and maintenance.
"That will complete the big picture of the MIU project on human capacity building for the ICT era which is aimed at complementing the government's effort to achieve Vision 2020," says Kang.

Obviously, other plans are already in the pipeline to enlarge the scope of coverage of the MIU to other parts of the country. For one, NITC/MIMOS have presented the case to the Strategic Thrusts Implementation Committee chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, and have recommended that it be implemented nationwide and that the future mobile library be upgraded to the MIU.

The Deputy Prime Minister has also said that he would like to see at least 20 MIUs established by the end of the year.

The National Library has also declared that it will be building 5 MIUs this year, and the Sabah State Library has announced that it will be looking into plans to build one. Meanwhile, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak is going to build a MIU in the shape of a boat to serve the remote and rural communities located in the Borneo State.

While all these plans are currently underway, a residential community within the satellite town of Petaling Jaya in the State of Selangor has already taken the initiative - with the assistance of NITC/MIMOS - to launch an ICT literacy program for senior citizens and housewives, named CyberCom.

Kang says that the long-term objectives of the MIU project is to ensure that every individual who utilises the MIU will eventually acquire the necessary ICT skills to "graduate" as a netpreneur one day. And hopefully these acquired skills will enable them to create values that will provide a better livelihood for themselves and the community.

Lessons

For more information, please visit:
1. MIU Home Page (http://www.miu.nitc.org.my/)
2. MIU events for 1999 & 2000 (http://www.miu.nitc.org.my/main.htm)
3. List of MIU Project Schools (http://www.miu.nitc.org.my/list.htm)
4. Media news on MIU (http://www.miu.nitc.org.my/pressreleases.htm)

Project Information

Total budget in US$ : -

Contact Information

Ms. Kang Wai Chin

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