Mozzeenet

Have just started my Masters in Social Science (International Development) through RMIT and am getting used to studying again. Memories are flooding back from my undergraduate degree. Lots of reading to do – I’m always amazed at the complexity and sophistication of academic writing, the big words, debating of theories and historical analysis. I wonder how they think of some of the original concepts and ideas. I’m studying by distance this time and I am really impressed at how organised things are.

So far the biggest change I’ve noticed since my last degree (completed 9 years ago – ahhh! Didn’t quite want to face up to that one) is the use of electronic tools for research, collaboration and interaction. When I was finishing up in 1995, the Internet and email were really just coming into popular use. I used a Word Processor for my Honours thesis but that was about the extent of it.

Now, I am amazed at the resources available over the Internet through the libraries; the use of email to communicate and distribute information between lecturers and students; and the provision of an Online Learning Hub which is a secure site with facilities to collaborate online by joining virtual classrooms, download materials, personalise an electronic timetable and diary and access the RMIT library.

I still do miss face-to-face interaction though and hope to do some on-campus courses at some point.

A new European Union (EU) report has been released on a similar topic as my previous post. An article on the EU website titled ‘Women and the elderly are crossing the digital divide, but the poor still lag behind, says new EU report‘ summarises the findings of the report showing that there has been increased access to information technology by women and over-55s but two of the main contributors to the digital divide continue to be lack of education and low income.

The paradox is that access to information eg on the Internet can assist people to escape poverty and improve the quality of their lives but it is education which enables people to reap the benefits of what the Internet can offer. As the article points out, using the Internet mostly requires high literacy (and often specifically English literacy). I discussed this concept previously in Local Languages: Webbed World Wide?