Responsible Digital Literacy for Women's Empowerment
Jan 21, 2015
Digital revolution has been a powerful driving force to freedom of expression online. Digital technology had been rapidly changing and improving to meet the fast paced lifestyle and need of the human race. It has become a precious commodity for everyday interactions of the human race. For some it has become part of their existence, that they can't live without it. The internet is a product of this digital revolution where we can access the world wide web through a browser with just a click away. The internet has become a melting pot for the online community where we can link with people all over the globe. The internet has become a powerful tool in communication and social interaction.
Since internet offers almost all information including those that are not beneficial, we should be responsible enough of our actions online. Safety online should start within ourselves, because no one can always monitor us all the time but ourselves. Even if we have online policies and laws, we are the one who has the final decision what and how we use the internet. So it always boils down to individual responsibility and accountability. Internet is just a tool ready to be use by all, but it will not stop us from accessing unproductive sites. We are the one controlling the keyboards and and mouse and we are the one responsible all the time of our actions.
So since we have a choice, we can choose perhaps the one that would benefit us and would help us into to become a productive individual. There are loads of helpful sites that addresses issues with specific type of people, agenda, and concern that would enhance and built our personal learning. We should be intentional on what we do online. So in my case since i am passionate about education and women's empowerment, i would always connect with organizations that caters the same agenda. Here are some of the organizations and their websites which i am currently engaged, UN Knowledge Gateway for Women's Economic Empowerment ( http://www.empowerwomen.org ), WordPulse ( http:/www.worldpulse.com ), and Coursera ( https://www.coursera.org ) and many more. Some of this organizations have multiple accounts like they have facebook, twitter, linkdin, google and etc, where you can sign up and easily post and share some of the informations. You can even download some of their resources and contribute to their sites. And some of this sites offer free sign up and they are offering lots of engaging ways on how you can learn, collaborate and share ideas for learning and empowerment. They can also offer opportunies for trainings, entrepreneurial skills development and support for empowerment for free. You can explore productive and learning opportunities from this sites which will help become an empowered individual which will later empower others too. And the best thing is you can collaborate, find new friends, and engage with them online and learn and grow together in the community online. So even if you are on the different part of the globe, you have this connection online that it feels that someone is also have the same passion as we have and it build our confidence somehow. We can share ideas and issues, struggles and how we can resolve it by team work with various perspective and ideas. That what makes me excited and passionate about, knowing that we are not just an island and we are a global team that can share and collaborate in finding solutions and together address issues concerning not just women but life itself. So that online global connection, provide confidence in me that i can go online safely and freely with someone walking with me with the same passion for growth and empowerment. So again it's up to us whether we choose to partner with productive organization and be empowered ot choose to do stuff online which can ruin your life and future as well. The choice is yours.
Again there are still challenges in accessing the internet today even we are in the digital age. One is the basic computer skills where other women lack because they have no capability. For instance women living in the secluded areas and have no access to electricity, computers and trainers. In my community since i am living in the city we have access to the internet because we have facilities here, like electricity and computer cafes. But sometimes women doesn't know how to fully use the internet to their advantage. They are not interested in accessing sites that would help them live productive. Some women use the internet for online dating, showbiz and online gaming. It's not bad though but there is more the internet can offer like learning and skills building other than just doing fun online. I think in my community women should be encourage to access websites and online resources that would benefit them more and would help them be empowered. As a concerned women, the very basic step perhaps that i can do is to let my online friends know how they can access this online tools by semding them links. I would post videos and online resources on their account with their permission so they can open it and look and see if they are interested. Not only that probably in our personal conversation i would make sure that i would include some of the topic online and let them know the importance of engaging and how they can benefit from it. Another is i can facilitate a small training in the community for computer skills and online education. I can provide them training materials that they can bring home so they can review. I can also suggest safe web cafes and hub where they can access the internet for a minimal fee and others for free. We can organize a community based group that would engage often to discuss and facilitate learning and empowerment.
I do believe that great things start with a small beginning, but if consistently done it would somehow progress and finally arrive to it's completion. And that's what empowerment and learning is all about. It's not something that we can immediately get, but it's how we accomplish something along the process that sticks. So at the end of the day it's again our choice to attain growth and empowerment. It's in our freedom of choice to whether to click the tab of empowerment or the tab for destruction. We should always remember to think before we click.