Recommendations

The recommendations address the issues of limited usability and accessibility of the two IT initiatives for the ESL community. The frame of reference within which they are presented and may be used by ESLARP encompasses the philosophy of action research, purposes of situated evaluation, and the views of the participants of this evaluation.

At a conceptual level....

  • Redefining the roles of UIUC and ESL in the IT initiative.
    • The developers by perceiving themselves as suppliers of information (and the access to it ), and the users as consumers of information, are establishing a relationship of providers and recipients between the UIUC community and the ESL community. The active consultation and involvement of the ESL community as suppliers of information about their city by the professional planners and designers (UIUC), is vital to establishing a critical and collaborative relationship, characteristic of an action research partnership.

  • Moving beyond the notion of IT as a product and in terms of a supply-demand model, to IT as a process and in terms of a dynamic, evolving idea to be integrated into their social practices.
    • Viewing the IT initiative primarily in terms of a supply-demand model invests it with a power to spontaneously effect changes, minimizing the need to understand the context of use which is vital to the objective of improving the usability and accessibility of IT among the ESL community.

    Regarding IT as a product rather than a process may restrict the scope of accessibility to mean merely physical accessibility to equipment, rather than extending the scope of the term to mean people's ability and confidence to access the very idea /concept of IT and the practices that it encompasses. For an innovation to move from an idealized state to a realized form, both kinds of accessibility require to be developed.
    In Varkki's view, " ...having access to the necessary information presented in a way that is easily understood by people who are not planning or design professionals will empower the neighborhood organizations in altering the focus of the city government away from its focus on issues that are not relevant to neighborhoods. Currently, the "truth" is what is presented by officials. Perhaps this will give the neighborhood organizations the opportunity to present an alternative reality. This echoes the views of Jacobs and Klosterman as cited by Heikkila and Clapp (1997):  " The accessibility of new technologies has been linked by planners to issues of access to new forms of political and economic participation."

    However, for this to happen in ESLARP, neighborhood organizations, either individually or collectively under the umbrella of ESL-CAN, require to be engaged in a dialogue about IT and the need for it. Orland's concern, " How can people know what they want when they don't know what the realm of possibilities is..." speaks to this very issue of promoting the idea of IT as a process and therefore drawing the community through the neighborhood organizations first into dialogue about the why and what of IT, and subsequently into collaborative decisions about the its use and access.

    As an illustration, the item 'Computer Access' in the Request for Assistance forms used by NTAC may be introduced and discussed with the neighborhood organization leaders/members, who are likely to encounter it when they approach NTAC for assistance. In addition to encouraging queries about what the scope of the item is and offering specific examples of what can be achieved by using computers, members who have worked with computers with regard to certain information needs can be invited to share their experiences with the rest of the group. An enhanced usability of IT will be significantly dependent on whether and the extent to which its users are familiar and comfortable with the discourse and the work practices surrounding the innovation.

Derived from the conceptual level, at the applied level...

  • Regular, frequent, and explicit networking between UIUC and ESL (represented by the units involved actively or potentially with ESLARP - NTAC, ESL-CAN, Mt. Sinai Church, SIU-E) is required, so that an interrelated vision and enactment of IT practices may emerge.

    • UIUC
    Being the innovators, UIUC will require to continue to take the initiative, as well as actively dialogue with the units in ESL.

    * The community outreach weekend visits to ESL during the semesters provide an opportunity to schedule formal presentations of the website and walk the ESL community through it. Until more people in ESL know about the website, see it, and dialogue about it, it is likely to remain an academic initiative, with passive community involvement.

    * While the ESLARP newsletter is an excellent way of sharing information with the different units in ESL, participation from the units in the form of direct feedback must be sought , before and after the implementation of new features on the website.

    * The user-friendly interface of the website in terms of design and content has resulted in the ESLARP website being accessed and used substantially by an audience outside ESL, both national and international. To foster a sense of pride in ESLARP, and understand the far reaching consequences of the project made possible by IT, feedback received from viewers needs to be shared through the newsletter, at neighborhood organization meetings.

    * Demonstrating the relevance and use of IT for community development issues could be the focus of some student projects, which could serve as pilot projects to be expanded and implemented later.

    * Identify through NTAC and ESL-CAN, members of the community who have experience with computers and/or are interested in working with them, and plan further developments with them.

    * Tap the potential of Mt. Sinai Church and the instructional media unit at SIU-E as links to the community. Both, the pastor of the Church and the instructional media specialist are members of ESL community and of two different neighborhood organizations. Their involvement in the IT initiative is vital.

    * Develop and support IT in a single neighborhood organization, in terms of equipment, training, and personnel, so that it serves as a "model" for other neighborhood organizations, and the IT initiative in ESLARP can be gradually and consistently scaled up.

    * Explore similar initiatives with IT that have been pioneered in other local communities, network with them, and borrow relevant practices. Two promising projects described on-line are:
    i) Information footpaths: Grassroots technology for local economic development by Heikkila, E. & Clapp, T. (1997).
    ii)Putting neighborhoods on-line; putting academics in touch: The urban university and neighborhood network by Stoecker, R. (1996)

    NTAC
    By virtue of the purpose it serves, the equipment it houses, and the acceptance by the ESL community of the staff members as facilitators, NTAC occupies a strategic position for planning and implementing the training of IT, and facilitating its use by the ESL community.

    * For the community to take advantage of the training workshops offered on topics involving the use of IT, a more dynamic "marketing" strategy must be employed. Details about the workshops must be made available well in advance to the other units, so that they may advertise them to members of the community they interact with on a regular basis. For instance, the workshop schedule must be announced/made available at the ESL-CAN meetings, at neighborhood organization meetings, and through events at Mt. Sinai Church. Flyers with details about the workshops can be sent home with children who visit NTAC.

    * In addition to informing the community about the workshops, a preview about what the workshops will entail can be provided at ESL-CAN, neighborhood meetings, before a community event at the Church.

    * Issues of immediate importance to different neighborhood organizations can be used as the focal point for workshops.

    * Brochures/printed matter illustrating simply the uses of computers/Internet for community development issues can be made available along with the other printed matter in the NTAC office, which visitors can leaf through and/or carry away with them.

    ESL-CAN
    Representing the ESL neighborhood organizations, ESL-CAN has the opportunity to discuss and disseminate issues about the IT initiative with and among the individual organizations.

    * ESL-CAN meetings can be used as a launching pad for the IT initiative - introducing developments, providing updates, as well as serving as a two-way communication channel for concerns about IT between NTAC and the neighborhood organizations. Issues on the meeting's agenda that require, or have the potential, to make use of computers/Internet must be used as opportunities to discuss it further among the members present.

    * A few members could be enlisted to participate more actively in the IT initiative, in ways considered unanimously important: asking for demonstrations/workshops on specific issues, forming a coalition of youth from among the organizations who can receive training from NTAC and, coordinate and consult with NTAC on behalf of their organization. All of this would require close interaction and planning between NTAC staff and the director of ESL-CAN in particular.

    Youthlink at Mt. Sinai M
    While the ESL community has not had a specific role to play in introducing the IT initiative, its potential to do so by way of Youthlink as a computer/Internet access point located within the premises of a community church (Mt. Sinai Baptist Church) has not been tapped adequately. Youthlink at Mt. Sinai must function independent of UIUC's brief presence on work weekend visits.

    * If Mt. Sinai Church has to become a model for other community organizations, accessibility to Youthlink as a community "computer center" by means of recycled but serviceable computers is not sufficient , and must be supplemented by personnel, training, and involvement of the community. Further dialogue with the pastor Rev. Watson about his request for assistance from the University can define the scope and purpose of this access point in the community:
    I mentioned... about writing some type of a proposal...the proposal would also hire a person from the community- whose responsibility would be to just be accessible certain hours every day and kids can come in for tutoring, programming - that would be beneficial to the kids in terms of their homework- math, science, English - and if we had a person here then we would really benefit our community and the church- I've got to tie our church in because in the past in our community, black community in the inner-city, the church has always been like a catalyst of the community...so if the Univ. could help us write some proposals to hire some people, maybe we can actually set up a computer school - I think that would really benefit the community.

    Conclusion

    Evaluating the IT initiative in ESLARP marks in some measure the mid-point of the spiral of self-reflective cycles, that is, reflecting on the processes and consequences of change, necessary to a participatory action research project. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation may be further used to move on to the next cycle in the self-reflective spiral; attending simultaneously to the other key features of participatory action research mentioned earlier in the report.

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