Intersecting Grassroots Radio and New Technologies to Reach Rural and Refugee Women

This panel was divided up into four different speakers.  The first speaker talked about access to the internet for rural women; the second discussed internet access and cell phone applications for refugees in Europe and NY city; the third and fourth speakers, both from Louisville, Kentucky, both discussed a radio channel serving the population in their city. 

The first speaker cited data from Cisco (an Internet-networking company), saying that by 2020, 70% of the global population will have access to mobile internet.  This research, combined with the fact that research done by UNESCO shows that mobile phones are being used to learn on, indicates that many people will have the opportunity to obtain some sort of an education online in the near future.  The speaker went on to explain that “MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses - mostly offered for free, unless the enrollee wants to pay for a certificate proving their completion of the course] are being designed for use on mobile devices.” These MOOCs, and mobile apps built for them, will give learners structure in their learning, compared to allowing users to merely peruse the internet at their will.  The second speaker discussed the possible future and current shortcomings of mobile applications designed to help refugees.

Lastly, the third and fourth speaker, mirroring the rationale of a speaker earlier in the day, explained that radio is still commonly used across a wide audience both in rural and urban settings.  As a result, they are taking their message to the radio. These two panelists both help run a non-profit and volunteer-based radio station in Louisville called FORward Radio (available to people outside the frequency range on SoundCloud).  This station is used in Louisville to deliver PSAs to their large refugee population, as well as to spread a progressive message, among other things.