Digital Literacy In The Communities Of Uttar Pradesh
Digital literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility; If we are going to unfold the status quo of Digital Literacy especially in a developing country
like India - we need to first understand that two-thirds of the entire population - 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day which equals 149.67 INR. With the data mentioned, we can assume that the educators, institutions, organizations might choose only the fortunate segments or communities to augment the digital literacy in the country. So, what about the deprived one?
The under-served need staunch help to curb the digital divide and must have access to digital learning. It is equally important to be justifiable and; act on the fact; that, Digital Literacy is just the same universal right for every human on earth. With the support from our potent donors and partners, we at ALIG has come forward to take the charge of providing Digital literacy in the communities of Uttar Pradesh (5 cities).
All they need is a Digital Push
Digital literacy requires handsome expenditure and on the other hand, we are undeniably aware of the ground realities of the children who go to government schools. At ALIG we are working on giving a simple, yet efficient push – i.e., digital push to the children who have been deprived of digital learning in the last two years, since the schools have been closed. This push is motivation, this push is awareness, this push is to provide digital resources so they understand the importance and necessities of being digitally literate in the current era.
On the basis of this vision, we have distributed digital tablets in government schools of Uttar Pradesh, where we have our interventions in. We have provided digital tablets to them so children, as well as their parents, can access various knowledge and information regarding their studies and day to day digital necessities. Take a look at an impact story of this push which is truly building up the underprivileged communities;
Be the Digital Influencer and see results in the community;
A 12 years old girl, Ishu Verma studying in Basic School Jawahar Nagar, lives in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Her father is a street hawker and he couldn't afford to buy a smartphone when schools were closed during the pandemic hit – just as millions of needy people. Ishu wanted to attend online classes as she has always been one of the most enthusiastic children in the class and always wanted to learn without skipping a day. As a digital lead of my organization, I took her story to our partners in order to bridge the digital divide and continue to bring decent learning outcomes despite the closure of schools – our partners supported the initiative resulting in a distribution of digital tablets to the children from government schools that we have mapped beforehand.
Ishu was taught various smart functions, device usage and security parameters that must be followed while using E-learning materials. After getting used to it she has made one of the brilliant STEM projects by using a search engine; YouTube. She could not afford to buy Milton or any cold-water bottle for summers so she herself tried to make it and she had done it by using an old plastic bottle, newspaper and silver foil. With this tablet, she attended online classes, gave online assignments, assessments and secured 1st position in the class.
The turning scene came when she transferred her learning skills to her grandmother. She doesn't know how to write and read properly but as mentioned, just a little digital push they needed. With no age bar to learn smartly, Ishu's grandmother, a 76 years old lady, has started using Voice Google Assistant and also getting her answers through the microphone on Google Toolbar. She has learned where to touch, where to tap, where to double-tap and gets her answers easily. She loves to stitch clothes and cook different types of food, by getting digitally smart she is using all the privileged features of digital tablets to use them in her household work and hobbies. This is human nature, every living being is curious to learn new things whether they are literate or illiterate, as soon as they understand that the innovation is giving advantage, then they get enthusiastic to explore it. An issue is that some get an opportunity to explore whereas some are not privileged to even afford it.
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