This is the Annual ICT4D Postgraduate Symposium second session briefing. It took place in Egham, September 14th, 2006, afternoon. Here come the notes I took on the fly:
Peter Rawsthorne, Memorial University of Newfoundland
The role of the critical technologist within ICT4D
Critical technology = technology + pedagogy + development (ICT4D = technology + development; critital pedagogy = pedagogy + development; constructivism = pedagogy + technology)
Critical Technologist:
- Can dig a well as esasiy as teach a grade six clas or setup a wireless LAN
- no fixed idea of the solution
Sian Aggett, Royal Holloway University of London
Onwards Youth
Participatory video: communities doing their own films, where the process is as important as the product. The (research) question being: can participatory video empower the community? and if yes, how?
Empowerment:
- Engaging with external resources
- Development of critical consciousness and community awareness
- Group cohesion
- Creativity
- Shaking off fear
- Sense of efficacy
David Crespo
David Crespo, Royal Holloway University of London
mHealth: some Challenges
The quickes way to get off poverty right now is to have one mobile telephone
(Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank)
The most urgent task befor us is to get medical and health knowledge
(James Grant, UNICEF)
Adavantages of cellular phone (for development):
- Low infrastructure investement
- Ease to use
- Energy
- Affordability of services and devices
- Overcoming unfavorable geographic structures
- Less vulnerability to vandalism and “natural” disasters
Besides:
- if there’s great connectivity/coverage of signal, perhaps cellular is better than PC, whose connectivity might be not that good.
- PDAs have been tested for e-Health/Telemedicine… with increasing processing capabilities of cellulars (+connectivity), why not go mobile?
Good practices: Voxiva technology
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