Research group on ICT for Development - Call for papers out now
To serve as a forum for our ongoing research on the topic, we have formed a research group on ICT for Development. Formally, the group is a subgroup within eLearning Lab; however, we also have a number of ‘alumni members’, namely former colleagues in eLL whom we still collaborate with. We have a presentation website here.
Currently, our main activity in the group is writing a book on the topic of ICT for Development within education and learning. A call for chapters has been put together, as we would like to invite others to contribute - please get in touch, if you have relevant research to present.
Harmattan School 2012 I am in Ghana, participating in the 2012 Harmattan School which is jointly organised by University of Development Studies and GILLBT, both placed in Tamale in the north of Ghana. The theme of the conference is Literacy, Education and Development (see the call for papers here). I have been invited to give a speech on e-literacy, which will take place tomorrow. I will mainly focus on ways of working with e-literacy in teaching and learning, or - in other words - what is it and how can you learn it?
And today I also learned the literal meaning of the word Harmattan, which is the Northeast trade wind which comes in the dry season. And in these parts, dry means dust…!
Participatory approaches to ICT in development - eLL seminar
On May 31st, we had a seminar on participatory approaches to ICT in development. My olleague PO Zander and I were in charge of putting together the programme, and we were fortunate enough to have visiting professor Judith Gregory from Institute of Design in Chicago to give an opening speech. Among other things, Judith presented five principles for succesful international and inter-cultural collaborations, based on her work in the health sector in Africa:
- Smart capability-building is required for richer and sustained collaboration
- Participation is essential; the context of participation must first be constituted
- Mutual learning and reciprocity among design collaboration partners
- Participatory design is a culture of principled argument, in the most positive meaning that critique always offers a proposal
- Respectful dialogue in which difference is valued
- Formal scientific contributions and social commitments in which participatory relations in design are essential
Read more here: Gregory, J. (2010): A Complex Model for International and Intercultural Collaboration in Health Information Systems, Gregory.
Chapter in: S. Poggenpohl & K. Sato (editors), Design Integrations: Research & Collaboration. Chicago: Intellect/University of Chicago, 2010, pp 247-273.
At the seminar it was decided to etablish a research group on ‘ICT in development’ (final title to be decided later).
