Indigenous technology design and its challenges
Christopher Hoadley, Educational Communications and Technology program at New York University
Tuesday, September 13, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, Second Floor
While many well meaning efforts bring technology design to bear on problems in developing economies, such as Google People Finder, One Laptop Per Child, etc., fewer efforts involve local participants or settings in the design process. I share some of our work on collaboration with youth, NGOs, and technologists in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and highlight some of the challenges in trying to create indigenous design capacity in places like these. I explore an ecological metaphor of 'invasive and non-invasive species' for different types of technology in new settings, with an eye towards discussing what makes a technology 'invasive' and how healthy technological ecosystems might be developed.
About Christopher
Dr. Chris Hoadley is an associate professor and director of the Educational Communications and Technology program at New York University. He designs, builds, and studies ways for computers to enhance collaboration and learning. Hoadley has degrees in cognitive science, computer science, and education from MIT and the University of California at Berkeley, and currently his research focuses on collaborative technologies and computer support for cooperative learning (CSCL). Other interests include research on and through design, systems for supporting social capital and distributed intelligence (especially for educational reform), the role of informatics and digital libraries in education, the psychology of computer programming, sustainability education, and science and engineering education.
Hoadley is the director of dolcelab, the Laboratory for Design Of Learning, Collaboration & Experience. He is an affiliate scholar for the National Academy of Engineering's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education (CASEE). Hoadley previously chaired the American Educational Research Association's Special Interest Group for Education in Science and Technology (now SIG: Learning Sciences), and served as the first President of the International Society for the Learning Sciences. For the 2008-2009 school year, he was a Fulbright Scholar in South Asia studying educational technology in rural Himalayan villages.
Links