IATP Monitoring and Evaluation Report - IREX

H. Analysis of ICT
“Adaptors” and
“Laggards”
Although IATP centers are packed with visitors, the
priority remains to expand centers’ reach to a wider
range of talented, active, and concerned citizens to
help prepare them to become leaders in their communities’
development. On the other side of the
spectrum, focus groups discussions were not only
conducted with IATP users who had successfully incorporated
ICT in their daily lives, but also with
“laggards,” or those who had yet to do so. IATP was
interested in learning what still held these outliers
back from using ICT in their lives.
The problem does not seem to be that laggards had
not heard about the internet. Even in the most remote
mountainous regions, most had some basic
idea about the internet and at minimum knew it was
a means of communication and way to access information.
But for one 61-year-old engineer named
Dorobsho Zurobekov, who works in Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
he believed the internet had no use for him
and was not really serious, “All the information on
the internet is useless for harvesting or for mental
processing – it is not serious—it’s more like playing
games…I work in the electrical engineering sector—
we don’t need the internet.” 69
Nina Yurchenko is a 55-year-old lab assistant at a
tuberculosis hospital in Balkanabat, Turkmenistan,
who was a laggard before coming to the IATP center
but nevertheless desired to learn ICT. She shared her
experience when she tried to talk someone else into
going with her to the training, “She said, ‘Are you
crazy! We’re too old to learn!” But Yurchenko was
not disheartened and replied, “I know if I will show
her something interesting she can do with the internet,
then I think she will come with me to the center.
We all will use ICT in our lives, I am sure.” 70
Even Olga Rudenco a 62-year-old librarian from Chisinau,
Moldova, said, “Nowadays life cannot be imagined
without computers. This means of communication
is very developed. Internet ensures access to
information as well as a lot of other services. You
can do so much with it—even call someone without a
phone!” She went on to explain that the problem
was a lack of access. “In our library there is only one
computer connected to the internet, but there are a
lot of us.” 71 Another librarian in Moldova, Anna
Pnevscaia, noted their problem was a lack of equipment,
“Internet is a very necessary tool. At present,
we remain behind because we don’t have computers
at our library.”
There were focus group laggards who clearly understood
the benefit of ICT. Irina Aghenosova, a 46-
year-old librarian from Chisinau, Moldova, said, “If
you can use the internet, you have the key to all
kinds of information.” 72 Nazokat Alokhgerdyeva, a
47-year-old gallery worker from Shirvan, Azerbaijan,
said, “The internet is a window to life.” 73
Some participants explained their problem was having
no access to quality ICT training—or any training
for that matter. Irina Aghenosova, a 46-year-old librarian
from Chisinau, Moldova, talked about her
failed attempts to learn computer skills,”We tried to
study the computer by ourselves, but we couldn’t do
it, even though there are special books. There is
computer training at a library science school but
there were only a few lessons. In effect, we only
learned how to turn a computer off and on—that’s
it.” 74
Others were discouraged in their early attempts to
use the internet. In Tiraspol, Transnistria, Moldova,
Lubov Raport, a 53-year-old librarian reported she
attempted to use the internet once, searching for
information in library collections on the Web, but
failing to find what she sought.
69 Midline focus group discussion, Internet laggards group, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, October 20, 2008
70 Midline focus group discussion, Internet laggards group, Balkanabat, Turkmenistan, November 28, 2008
71 Midline focus group discussion, Internet laggards group, Chisinau, Moldova, April 2, 2009
72 Midline focus group discussion, Internet laggards group, Chisinau, Moldova, April 2, 2009
73 Midline focus group discussion, Internet laggards group, Shirvan, Azerbaijan, April 10, 2009
74 Midline focus group discussion, Internet laggards group, Chisinau, Moldova, April 2, 2009
28