Teachers, Technology and Training - ICTD2010

Paper presented by Laura Hosman at ICTD 2010
Technology, Teachers and Training: Combining Theory with Macedonia's Experience. - Laura Hosman, Maja Cvetanoska

Media Connect Project: a USAID led inititative with the motive to have one computer lab per school. Below are notes from this session:

Points

• "Teachers' concerns advance predictably upon a continuum
• Level of use advances upon a continuum
• Concerns should be addressed as they arise/develop over time
• Leaders/change facilitators must intervene appropriately to support and address teachers concerns"

Finding

• There was a high percentage of teachers using the computers
• The teachers using computers for personal use, to prepare lessons and not in the lessons

Takeaway/Recommendations

1. Innovation is not a one time thing, but ongoing: have yearly ICT plan within the school
2. Education and psychology scholars write about this but policy makers not reading these journals so there is oversight: again we are not talking to each other, need to do so
3. Teachers are key change agents, treat them accordingly: Teachers matter, involve them as stakeholders
4. Teachers need to be supported throughout the process of change, we should take into account their needs, concerns etc.
   

ICTD 2010 2nd Keynote - Geoff Walsham

The development of Information Systems
Geoff Walsham - Professor Emeritus (University of Cambridge)
-these notes are taken from Geoff's slides/presentation either verbatim or paraphrased, may not be perfect :)

What is development?

• isn't a property of developed countries
• isnt only basic needs although they matter
• technology is not a silver bullet
• whatever it is, we need to do better: the poor are still poor

• The technology is not the answer, we need to change structure institution, politics
• we need to think about what development is more than we have
  

Concerns about multi-disciplinary work

• need to draw on theory from multiple disciplines
• interaction at conferences
• joint research is challenging, diff ppl have diff methodology approaches
• also publishing issues: have to publish in your field more than others since

African strategic research agenda

• build infrastructure e.g. HISP on health (Braa et al 2007)
• promote social justice e.g 'ss uprising: mobile activism in Africa (Ekrine 2010)
• support economic activity for the poor e.g. M-Pesa in Kenya (Moraczynski 2009)
• if you provide something that is usable, should be no surprise that it is used
• we insult the poor thinking they are unintelligible
• provide acess to global market and resources e.g. Z(Al-Jaghoub
• need to lift the agenda from single focused projects to a broader agenda: economic structure social justice

Development 2.0
- Need new IT-enableld models
- It has the opportunity to transform the way things work.

• correct the excluded e.g. job adverts via sms
• digital production
• social enterprise

African women and ICTs
[Buskens and Webb 2009 - book]

• shows the diversity and complexity of africans women's experiences with ICTs
• mobiles enable women in several ways e.g; enabiling economic activity
• male-dominated hierarchies persist, mobile does not necessarily enhance
• antidote to both technological utopianism and technological dystopianism

Summary

• Focus on the D for development
• multidisciplinary work
• strategic policy oriented research
• new IT-enabled models of development

Questions and Answer session

• need to focus on ICT for Disabilities more
• boring academics, low impact
• practitioners should transform themselves into reflective practitioners, document
• ICT4D has opportunity to question the approach to dull academic publishing model other disciplines like CS have adopted ; we can create different regimes of truth (e.g. one that encourages collaboration with practitioners)

The Social Media Revolution

Is social media a fad? Just another over-hyped overnight phenomenon that will perish as quickly as it flourished. Or is it a trend that could cause a dramatic (and permanent) shift in the way we communicate and build influence, the way businesses market their goods and services and the way information is disseminated. The following video based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman present some startling statistics that are hard to ignore by well, anyone.
Not only has social media 'overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web' but if facebook were a country, it would be the world's third largest behind China and India.

According to Erik, "We don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we Do it."

Gold Trimmings, Rolex Clocks, yes it's Dubai!

First impression of Dubai, gold trimmings, rolex clocks everywhere, palm trees, yup they have money and they're not afraid to show it. Oh and yeh, it's HOT!! It's a whopping 95 degrees at night.

You definitely feel the stares as a solo female traveler strolling across the airport. But I was comforted by my choice of clothing, a floor sweeping skirt and a nice cotton jacket. A designer bag and I would fit right in, at least in my head. Fashion is eminent here, and the women have the handbags to prove it.

More to come.

- Posted from an iPhone

Destination Dubai/India

En route to Microsoft Research India's (MSRI) summer school on socio-economic development in Bangalore, India. Stuck on a plane right now to Dubai for 14 hrs. If I had any takers I would swap a kidney for a window, and even throw in a liver for first class. I have almost always flown at a window seat, no luck this time, but I think I'll survive. I have about 10 papers to get through before I get there, which is sometime in the next two days.

On the bright side, at least my bag just got bumped to business class...since all the other luggage that went in after mine have now conveniently occupied all the overhead space. Yay me!

See you in the future!

- Posted from an iPhone

Managua, Nicaragua!!

So I'm heading to Nicaragua in Central America. I will blog if I get to some good ole Internet or if my iPhone cooperates. Stay tuned!


- Posted from an iPhone

Lots of reading and more reading

Really not much to say about my research after the first two weeks. As expected, it was FULL of reading. Some very interesting, some not so…well you get the point.

Interesting material I read on ICT4D or HCI:

Gary’s (my research adviser) and Matt’s book:
Mobile Interaction Design

Since I’m looking at implementing the water quality reporting/alerting service on cellular phones (more commonly referred to as mobile phones in Africa), this addresses the constraints of designing for this platform. Chapter 11 is very informative; it warns against developing applications around cultural dimensions like Hofstede’s cultural classification, and suggests an effective approach when designing for cultures over than one’s own is to employ ethnographic or anthropological techniques.

Most people are shocked when they hear that the mobile penetration rate in South Africa exceeds 100% of the population, which basically means that just about everyone (rich, poor, educated, uneducated, young and old alike) has a mobile phone (or even two). So mobile phones provide a good platform to implement information services like the one I am designing since this is the only ‘computer’ many people in South Africa will have access to. For many, not only is their mobile phone their ‘land line’ telephone, it’s also their main access to information. This is true in many developing countries like my home country Jamaica.