Whew, halfway through the week at the Tech4Dev conference at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. It's really interesting to compare this conference to ICTD 2012 at Georgia Tech in March, and seems to underline a distinct difference in the approach to ICTs and development in the United States and Europe. First, what a fantastic mix of … Continue reading Some initial thoughts from Tech4Dev
ICT4D
Presenting at Tech4Dev in May!
Hey everybody, I'm pretty excited to have had a paper accepted to the Tech4Dev conference hosted by the UNESCO Chair at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. I'll be focusing on the impact that distance learning technology can have on knowledge co-creation across geographic boundaries, with a particular focus on technology applications for development and … Continue reading Presenting at Tech4Dev in May!
A video describing my new course at TechChange: Technology for Conflict Management and Prevention
For those who don't like reading, but want to learn a little about my new course TC-109: Technology for Conflict Management and Prevention! TC:109 from TechChange on Vimeo.
ICTD 2012
Just got back from ICTD 2012 down at Georgia Tech, and am excited about the state of the field. This conference is a gathering for academics and practitioners working in the international development and technology spaces. We got to see talks about everything from mapping to public health, mobile phone applications and new open source … Continue reading ICTD 2012
A Good Question
I often try to balance my excitement around peacebuilding, technology and social change with a sober understanding of the limits of technology in this space. Of course sometimes these limits can be easy to forget about, and you need a student to bring you back to earth. For those who haven't taught, having a student … Continue reading A Good Question
A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 2
I ended the first post in this series claiming that Facebook is a space for developing Pragmatic Meaning, while Twitter is not. As discussed in the last post, we are looking at a long-tail process when we set about making meaning in a political environment. In the context of a political movement if we compare the … Continue reading A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 2
Mobiles for education…a memory from Samoa
TechChange has a course coming up that breaks a little bit from the standard “ICT4D” content. It’s titled “New Technologies for Educational Practice” and I was trying to think of how someone would put this knowledge to use. It all seemed abstract, so wracked my brain for cases when I used technology in my own … Continue reading Mobiles for education…a memory from Samoa
A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 1
The title of this website refers to Habermas’s Theory of Pragmatic Meaning, and uses a reference to the coffee house as the place where political meaning is made regardless of class, family, or economic station. With this in mind, I’m currently writing a paper for the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences that draws on … Continue reading A Post on Pragmatic Meaning: Part 1
Using mixed methods to understand a mixed field
So after 13 weeks and 4000 pages of reading, I finally finished all my term papers on December 16. My goal was to explore the world of ICT4D and ICT4Peace in ways I hadn't thought of before. I was introduced to anthropological theories of the person (challenging for me, a dedicated positivist), and critical theory … Continue reading Using mixed methods to understand a mixed field
SwiftRiver: Where Software Meets Social Change
This post was also originally published on the TechChange blog, and was popular; the theme is still relevant especially as crowdsourcing becomes a more prevalent approach to conflict prevention. You land in a country that is recovering from a long war. The infrastructure is limited, but there is a nascent democratic government. To make up … Continue reading SwiftRiver: Where Software Meets Social Change
Charles P. Martin-Shields 