Mobile Information Literacy: The ripple effect in Myanmar
The Mobile Information Literacy project is a growing collection of training materials that are designed to adapt to community and individual needs. The first MIL curriculum was introduced in Myanmar in 2015, and we are now beginning to see the resounding effects this educational program has had which far exceed the expectations of TASCHA and other organizations involved. Reverberations of the original MIL training include:
- Smartphone-centric information literacy knowledge has been spread to 5,000 library users in 2016 through the original 500 MIL trained librarians.
- Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF) has introduced trainings to over 100 civil servants and will continue to train more members of parliament in 2017.
- The Union Civil Service Board, the committee responsible for capacity building of Myanmar’s civil servants, is considering adopting MIL into their regular training. This would translate to over 1,000 civil servants receiving training annually.
- A customized training with emphasis on agricultural needs will be implemented for 1,000 agriculture related personnel, including students and faculty members of an agricultural university and librarians in Myanmar’s predominantly agricultural sectors.
- Trainings are currently being cascaded down from 40 librarians to 100 girls from 16-20 years old under the Tech Age Girls Myanmar Project.
Throughout 2017, TASCHA will continue to adapt and implement MIL curriculum for public libraries in Kenya. While the respective curricula are as different as the communities and cultures in which they take place, we hope to see a similar ripple effect of education and opportunity throughout Kenya and in future MIL projects around the world. For more information on the MIL project and use of curriculum, please visit this page. See below for a graphic illustrating the compounding effect MIL trainings have had in Myanmar:
