The latest happenings in our products, customers' activities, events and announcementsKUCHING: Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud is scheduled to launch the Sarawak Rural Broadband Initiative (SRBI) this Friday in Julau at 9.30am. Taib initiated SRBI in February 2007 to manage the issues of digital divide in Sarawak and elevate the state’s status to a well-connected K-economy and K-society.
Since its inception, project implementers Sacofa Sdn Bhd (Sacofa) and Danawa Resources Sdn Bhd (Danawa) have successfully deployed affordable high speed broadband connectivity to many rural and under-served areas in Sarawak, including Julau, Pulau Burit, Tanjung Manis, Mukah, and Matu.
Sacofa-Danawa is committed to pave the way towards building human capacity and increasing rural communities’ self-sufficiency through planned diffusion of information and communications technology (ICT), such as computers and the Internet, into rural communities.
SRBI includes programmes such as Showcasing ICT Development Framework for Human Capacity Building and Demonstration of Cambridge ICT Starters (CIS), Intel Classmate PC (CMPC) and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) by students at SK St Alphonsus.
Part of the challenge of managing the digital divide issues is addressing the ICT adoption gap, which is prevalent in rural communities.
Danawa engages in various international smart partnerships to provide ongoing support to rural communities and the necessary tools (computers for education), skills and knowledge (computer eduction) to adopt ICT.
During the showcase event, Intel Malaysia and Danawa are expected to announce a smart partnership aimed at bridging the digital divide in Sarawak. This collaboration will involve the deployment of Intel CMPCs in rural schools throughout the state.
Intel Corporation and Danawa have also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), which appoints Danawa to implement the Intel Learn Program in telecentres nationwide.
This appointment is highly significant as Malaysia is now the second country in the Asia Pacific region licensed for the programme after India.
The joint effort between Intel and Danawa was initiated last June, when Intel committed to donate 500 units of Intel CMPCs to rural schools in Sarawak.
Danawa is also engaged in an international smart partnership with the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) for the implementation of the CIS programme to rural Sarawak schools.
It is a world-class skill-based program designed to introduce key ICT applications to students in order to acquire ICT literacy and to understand the impact of technology in our daily lives.
The collaboration with CIE has been ongoing since 2001 and to date, 248 educational institutions nationwide are involved in the implementation of CIS.
The success of the programme is affirmed by the award of more than 15,000 modular certificates to students in rural schools in Sarawak and more than 173,000 modular certificates nationwide.
Danawa works closely with the OLPC organisation to promote constructionism learning theory through exploratory and experimental learning using computers equipped with activities developed by world acclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Boston USA.
The OLPC deployment methodology has been extensively field-tested and validated throughout the world, including Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Haiti, Peru, South Africa, Mongolia, Nepal, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Mozambique and many more. More information on the OLPC initiative can be obtained via http://laptop.org.
As part of the showcase, SK St Alphonsus pupils will hold a demonstration on CIS, Intel CMPC and OLPC.
They will demonstrate skills such as playing music and songs, learning arithmetic, exploring basic computer programming software, recording short videos and taking photos.
Thereafter, Taib along with a delegation will proceed to Rumah Jana where they will be briefed on the integration and adoption of ICT into daily activities by the longhouse community.
They will also able to witness how the locals use ICT in their daily activities.
