TUCP LAUNCHES
DISTANCE EDUCATION II:
USING INTERNET CHAT SESSIONS
TUCP launched phase two of its pilot distance education
program on core labor standards last June 29, 2002.
Twenty-two
verifiers and members of community support groups, seventeen women, took
additional lessons in internet access and messaging in a 4-hour session as
preparation for engagement in the internet chat education sessions.
The group then engaged in a two-hour chat discussion on
core labor standards and compliance by multinational enterprises in the
Philippines covered by TUCP's Anti-Sweatshops campaign.
The
next day June 30, a batch of 23 union volunteers (nine women) from
different unions in Bataan, Cavite, Laguna, Subic, Clark and NCR started
their three-Sunday course on computers and distance education. They
are expected to be on stream and joining the chat education sessions by
July 14, 2002.
TUCP expects 100 verifiers, union officers and
activists, and community support groups participating in chat education by
September 2002.
TUCP has used text messaging and e-groups mailing
intensively in information-gathering, workers education and organizing
since 2000, and chat education is its latest foray into using 21st
century technology in workers education.
The program gets support from the American Center for
International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center). The original
phase of distance education was supported by the International Labor
Organization (ILO).
Twenty-two
verifiers and members of community support groups, seventeen women, took
additional lessons in internet access and messaging in a 4-hour session as
preparation for engagement in the internet chat education sessions.
The
next day June 30, a batch of 23 union volunteers (nine women) from
different unions in Bataan, Cavite, Laguna, Subic, Clark and NCR started
their three-Sunday course on computers and distance education. They
are expected to be on stream and joining the chat education sessions by
July 14, 2002.