ICT Training: A Two-Way Learning Process

The center also plays an important role in teaching local farmers how to use computers to their advantage. Feedback received from other rural projects sponsored by Microsoft in China indicates a tremendous desire to learn about ICT. In a survey conducted by four of the 11 Microsoft InfoWagons in China, it was found that 40 percent of trainees had never used a PC before. Those that perceived computers as having a real value for their lives jumped from 63 percent to over 80 percent after the training. The initial response to the ISC in Guantang mirrors this feedback. The local InfoStaff member Yin Bo notes that despite their lack of familiarity with computers, the local community is keen to learn: “The (ISC) e-library is the busiest room here. It is opened and free for the local farmers to go online and there are people coming and going all day,” he says.

A key reason for this enthusiasm is the style of training offered. Breaking away from traditional methods of computer training, Microsoft, in consultation with rural communities in China, has developed a three-step program with content that is relevant to the farmers, and lessons that allow them to experience instant results as they learn:

•	In phase one farmers learn the basics of using a PC and how to open links to Web pages with agricultural information;
•	In phase two they learn how to search for information within government and agricultural Web sites, save documents and input Chinese characters; and
•	In phase three they practice using e-mail and instant messaging as well as basic financial and supply-chain management tools.

The trainees can put what they are learning into practice as they are learning it by searching for gainful information, such as crop pricing and other market data, on the PCs at the ISC.

“The only approach to take to ICT training in underdeveloped rural areas is a humble one,” says Rau Chang, General Manager of Public Sector Group for Greater China Region. “Our rural projects in China are an experimental process in which everybody is learning, not least of all Microsoft. If we want to encourage farmers in Sichuan to use ICT we must first learn from them how they can actually benefit from it.”