Internet café as a supportive educational arena

This case study will not be a success without the help of the other people. We are deeply grateful to those who made this case study possible. * First of all, we would like to thanks our adviser Mr. Jonathan Q. Pagurayan who guided us through the whole process of making this study. * To the owner of the Internet Café, Mr. Juan Dela Cruz, without his permission we wouldn’t able to conduct this study. * Our group would also like to extend our gratitude to our batchmates who cooperated and trusted us. * Lastly, we would like to thank our families for serving as our inspiration in accomplishing this case study.

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to interpret a case study of the unexpected educational impact of an Internet Café. Our focus is here to examine the transformation of ICT (Information and Communications Technology). We consider this an interesting illustration of the spread of globalization to a local community in a development country and how learning takes place in unexpected contexts. Therefore the paper takes off from a comprehensive portrait of one Internet café and its management, some users and non-regular users. As a part of a long-term field study this analysis is a first analysis of the project and it also aim to illustrate from conception to realization, and implementation of Internet café.

Our findings show that there is a clear ambition from the management of the Internet Café to enable computer literacy and bridge digital divides, as well as social and educational progress. The main purpose of the management to empower poor people computer literacy is worthy, however doubtful, because it emerges with training and economy. Recent technological development of Internet on the cell phones has challenged the Internet cafés and there are incentives to use the cell phone even for activities that formerly was performed at the Internet Café. If the Internet is in everyone’s pocket the educational arena of the Internet Cafes’ are threaten, but the Cyber´s advantage is tutorial support from peers and management. The Internet Café promotes learning ambitions but it also shows the divides of the knowledge society. Youth with computer skills has got increased access to Internet.

INTRODUCTION
Internet café business is indeed a very popular business. It is one of the establishments made indispensable in an increasingly interconnected world.

Internet café was started with the opening of first Cyber Café, Café Cyberia, in London (UK) September 1, 1994. It was founded by Eva Pascoe. It started with half a dozen of HP Computers, connected to the internet through dial-up modems that were able to transfer data at 9.6 kilobytes per second. As the first Internet café, Café Cyberia got tremendous publicity and additional investments into the business from likes of Mick Jagger and Maurice Saatchi. With the success of Café Cyberia, the Internet café business got into a flying start, and there were over 60 similar cafes over the world by the summer of 1995.

Internet cafes are located worldwide, and many people use them when travelling to access web-mail and instant messaging g services to keep in touch with family and friends. Apart from travelers, in many developing countries Internet cafes are the primary form of internet access for citizens as a shared access model is more affordable than personal ownership of equipment.

The establishment of such kind of Internet café facilitate to users to entertain and grasp information at a time.

New information and communication technology (ICT) is now widely spread and indeed associated with globalization. There is no doubt that in the information age there are a flow of information between people in the world. We can have an intense contact with remote areas, so actually we have to reconsider the concept of remote. An area or region is not remote thanks to ICT instead all on-line communities are to be considered as a very active part in the globalization processes. The 2 impressions of localization and places are challenged by ICT in general, on-line activities and the mInternet (Castells, 2001). ICT has also a key role of development of education. Education is communicative and ICT, as well as educational opportunities, are indeed differently spread globally – there is a digital divide (Arora, 2010). ICT has (at least) a double role in relation to education since it is both a tool for learning and it is an arena for learning new competences.

Internet is the main source for information for learning in western schools and multimedia has a strong influence in the field of education even internationally. Technology is a strategy and an environment for learning; however the focus in this case is on the learning arena. Pedagogical assumptions give us the view that we learn and receive knowledge in school and in the formal education. Outside this formal box there is informal learning and according to a general opinion only learning for leisure. We can call this view for a second hand education. Hence we can be critical to that assumption and there are several different settings and environments to learn a content,and not only from textbooks. Learning is contextual, both in content and form.

What is learned depends on the situation where and when learning takes place. There are opportunities for both increase or decrease of divides as the usage of ICT improves. Internet cafés exist in many countries and are especially prevalent where computers or Internet subscription rates are not affordable for large parts of the population (Cilesiz, 2009), and they may bridge digital divides. An Internet café offers opportunities for low income people to access the Internet (Adetoro, 2010). “Internet cafés —businesses that offer access to computers and the Internet on a drop-in basis for hourly fees — are a kind of informal learning environment where social interaction is at the heart of computer use.” (Cilesiz, 2009, p, 233). Internet cafes’ are spreading rapidly in Africa and offer privacy you don’t find at library or place of work (Mutula, 2003, Sairosse & Mutola, 2004). Availability of mobiles phones, computers, bandwidth and wireless connection is no guarantee that marginalized people will have access to express their voice.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In this paper we will analyze and discuss how an Internet café promotes learning ambitions and present opportunities of empowerment and new life chances for clients visiting the café. Based on the specific case study we will also in more general terms discuss implications on (digital) divides of the knowledge society.

Our research questions in relation to the case study are following:
* What motivates to open an Internet café?
* How does the Internet café function as a learning setting?
* What are the learning outcomes at the Internet café?
* What are the challenges towards the Internet café?

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objective of this study includes:
* Educating the community by on what the Internet has to offer. * The formation of an environment that will bring people with diverse interests and backgrounds together in a common forum. * Providing better cafeteria services at a reasonable price. * Affordable access to the resources of the internet and other online services. * The creation of a unique, innovative environment that will differentiate it from local coffee houses.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study tried to determine the Internet Café as a Supportive Educational Arena.
Specifically, it aims to answer the following questions: