Gender and ICT

As part of its 10th anniversary programs, SPACE organised a seminar and workshop on Safe and Effective use of Internet at  at Govt. Women's College, Vazhuthacaud from 11 to 13th Nov 2013.

The pervasive presence of information technology demands a new kind of awareness among women, for whom this technology has opened up new opportunities as well as challenges. Women have become victims to new forms of violence perpetrated by means of technology to the extent that it has escalated into a social issue which has unfortunately not been adequately addressed, as technology is something that confounds many people. Addressing this issue and promoting the safe use of technology among women were  the main motive behind this endeavour. 

 “If you have something that you don’t  want anyone to know, may be you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”, said Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO. Most of us do not think about privacy while using technologies to communicate about us and those around us, until we meet with violation of our privacy. It would often be too late by that time. Internet with its near infinite memory would be having much more information about us that we would want it to. 

SPACE and Curriculum Development Centre, Department of Education, University of Kerala together organised a workshop to review an e-learning module on adolescent education jointly developed by them. A review of this e-module was held on 30 November 2012 at Trivandrum Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram involving experts from State Resource Centre, SCERT, College of Teacher Education, Loyola College of Social Sciences, Kerala Women's Development Corporation, Research Students and NGOs. 

Dhanya, Chinchu and Vineetha, three vivacious teenagers from Arinallur village had never touched a camera before. But now they had nothing less than a DSLR to toy with. Choyikutty mash, the veteran photographer to whom the camera belonged, sent them away with a wave of his hand: Go on! Shoot!

Over 212 girl students of arts and science colleges of Kerala and 40 college teachers were trained in ICT and New Media under a joint programme of SPACE and Kerala Women's Development Corporation (KSWDC) organised from January to March 2012. The workshops aimed to empower girl students in the use of ICTs by creating awareness on the potential of new media and by building their skills in using the web.