5 BASICS OF INFORMATION DISSEMINATION BASICS ... - …

1 BASICS OF INFORMATIONDISSEMINATION45 BASICS OF INFORMATIONDISSEMINATION5 Importance of INFORMATION Problem-centered Nature of Adult Nature of INFORMATION DISSEMINATION for Adult Customizing INFORMATION for Issues of Relevance to Adult INFORMATION Types of INFORMATION for and language for Approaches to INFORMATION 1: Searching Indexed 2: Non-indexed 3: Establishing Public Platforms for Reaching Out to CommunityMembers (Nicknamed Choupal ) Database First Record for Creating Apply what you have IntroductionUnit 5 pertains to acquiring skill andapplying the same to your professionalactivities and we hope that Unit 5 willbe of especial relevance to your day-to-day work at adult learning DISSEMINATION is a proactiveWe hope that after going through Unit 5, you will be able to Form your own understanding of various aspects of INFORMATION DISSEMINATION .

2 Share your understanding of the BASICS of INFORMATION DISSEMINATION withnon-governmental organizations (NGOs) organizing adult education projectsand programs. Facilitate the NGOs efforts to develop skills and techniques required fororganizing INFORMATION DISSEMINATION services for the benefit of the M DHAWANL earning ObjectivesS M DHAWAN46information service designed to educateand inform focused groups of users onsocial, economic and educational issues,problems, and opportunities of interestto them. It requires systematic planning,collection, organization, and storage ofinformation for its delivery to the targetIt is a fact that survival and self-development are the major issuescentral to several adults in manycommunities. The need to raise theirsocio-economic status is thus necessaryand urgent.

3 This requires empoweringadults, the under-privileged andeconomically weaker sections of societywith technical skills and , organizing programs meantmainly for raising awareness, education,and training are INFORMATION andcommunication dependent. Informationdissemination as such constitutes animportant and critical factor for thesuccess of adult education and often than not, organizers perceiveinformation DISSEMINATION to be a one-way form of communication, circulatinginformation and advice mainly throughmass media in a cost-effective andtimely manner. In some cases, the mediaare posters and pamphlets, while insome others reliance is exclusively ontext-based print medium. However,two-way form of communication isrelatively more relevant and effectivefor organizing awareness programs andactivities in adult Problem-centered Nature ofAdult LearningEssentially, adult learning is more of aproblem-centered rather than content-centered activity.

4 In content-centeredaudience using different media andcommunication us now discuss the importance ofinformation DISSEMINATION beforemoving on to a community s Importance of INFORMATION Disseminationlearning, the emphasis is on refiningknowledge that already exists, upgradingexisting level of skills, and nurturing andshaping innate potential and talent ofindividuals and groups in a society. Inproblem-centered learning, the emphasisis on applying INFORMATION / knowledgeas well as skills for finding solutions tothe problems and issues confronting theadult us look at the special character ofinformation DISSEMINATION for adults ina Special Nature of InformationDissemination for Adult CommunityIn the context of this Unit we have usedthe phrase adult community to referto the groups of adult people, who havesomething in common such as low levelof literacy with a higher level ofknowledge and skills, yet poor livingstandards and poor economic features of disseminatinginformation to adult community are asfollows.

5 INFORMATION DISSEMINATION programs,organized mainly for adultcommunity, need not be always oneway such as through mass mediaalone. For vitality and impact, adulteducators need to organizeinformation DISSEMINATION activitiesin classroom mode and structurethem around face-to-faceBASICS OF INFORMATIONDISSEMINATION47interactions. One of their aims couldbe to offer services such ascounseling, referral, practical help,advice, advocacy, communityeducation, etc. Counseling may be on livelihood issuessuch as employment, occupation,marketing, and new sources ofrevenue. Practical help may mean aids suchas facilitating and liaison withdifferent government agencies toaddress day-to-day problems. The scope of informationdissemination could as well expandto training and educational programsto improve employment potential ofadult-learners.

6 The two-way form of communicationneeds to dominate informationdissemination activity, with focus oncontents relevant to problems of theadult community. It is essential that communicationwith adult community takes place inthe language that they understand. It is essential that informationcontent in verbal and writtencommunications to the adultcommunity should be of a type ofinterest and relevance to adultcommunity (Type of informationcontent as discussed under ). Adult educators may also offercontent-oriented services mainly forthe benefit of the NGO staff engagedin education, research and trainingin adult education and Box on the possible aims ofinformation DISSEMINATION Aim of INFORMATION DISSEMINATION Oriented ProgramsInformation DISSEMINATION oriented programs, for the benefit of the adult community,may pursue the following aims.

7 To sensitize adult learners on the importance and relevance of INFORMATION To give practical INFORMATION for problem solving To spread awareness in adult community about their rights and privileges as wellas responsibilities To assist adult community in identifying markets for their produce, products, andskill sets, and introducing and publicizing such produce and products in theidentified markets To supply and popularize among the adult community members relevant marketdata on best market prices To educate NGO staff on the intellectual property rights issues and theirmanagement (Intellectual property rights refer to protection given by law tointellectual property such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets.) To apprise all NGOs engaged in adult education on recent and major developmentsin adult Customizing INFORMATION for DisseminationFor organizing informationdissemination programs for the benefitof the adult community, the first stepis to assess and understand theirS M DHAWAN48information needs based on issues ofrelevance to adult community, and tocustomize the INFORMATION accordinglyfor Issues of Relevance to AdultCommunityAs per local community members choices, needs, aspirations, an adulteducator is likely to arrive at a veryspecific list of needs.

8 All the same, wemay say that broadly the issues ofrelevance to adult community withdiverse cultural backgrounds, cover awide spectrum, ranging from rights andprivileges matters at one end to health,housing, education, market andmarketing issues on the other. We findsome of the following issues have beenwidely reported in literature(Venkatappiah 2004, Vashishth 1995,and Kumar 2004). Community profile including cultural,civilization of the local area Redressal of grievances contactpoints, government agencies/departments, etc. Rights, privileges, duties,responsibilities, welfare measures,legal matters Consumer services, daily necessities,provisions of grains and foods atreasonable rates Environment INFORMATION , family,health and safety, governmentinformation Health care INFORMATION :immunization, hospitals, admissionprocedures, fist aid, grandma sremedies, sanitation, hygiene Housing and schemes mainlyintended for disadvantaged groups Government welfare schemes for weakersections, rural development, etc.

9 Transport, bus, rail, and othermodes Sources of finance, banks,government subsidies, loan schemes,and other money matters Privileges of senior citizens, women sissues and their solutions Youth problems, citizens rights andduties Education, skill development andtraining programs, admissionprocedures, and costs, grants andscholarships Self-employment schemes andprograms, rural developmentschemes Sports INFORMATION , games, arts Agricultural INFORMATION such as newfarming methods, seeds,insecticides, fertilizers, weather,vermin-culture, Recycling of waste material Market INFORMATION , product,produce prices INFORMATION Ongoing trends in the field of adultlearning Content oriented INFORMATION foreducation, research, and Assessing INFORMATION NeedsYou may adopt participatory approachto assess the issues and problemsconfronting the community and tounderstand their INFORMATION needs.

10 Theadult individuals in the community maynot be in a position to articulate theirinformation needs as clearly as researchand academic communitiescommunicate. However, by holdinginteractive sessions with the communitymembers, adult educators can identifytopics of relevance to their survival, andaccordingly judge/interpret the kind ofcontent going to be of use to them,understand their linguistic concerns andpreferences, and their mediapreferences for communication, may also use the data in pastreports on adult literacy program,research papers published on the subjectBASICS OF INFORMATIONDISSEMINATION49to update and supplement findings madefrom interactive face-to-face sessionswith adult community. While identifyinginformation needs, adult educator wouldassess what types of Types of INFORMATION forCommunicationTheoretically, INFORMATION generated forcommunication and DISSEMINATION is ofdifferent types as stated , not all types are of relevanceto the adult community.