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Technology and Development: A Classroom Exercise
Exercise description
This is an in-class exercise that I developed for The
Internet and Politics, a third-year undergraduate political science
course at the University of British Columbia.
It was received very enthusiastically by the students, and succeeded in
fostering a solid grasp of the material.
The exercise had four purposes:
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Complement course reading on the use of diverse telecommunications
technologies as development tools.
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Expand discussion of ICTs beyond a narrow focus on the Internet.
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Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
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Foster a sense of ownership of development issues and challenges.
The exercise is a group-based simulation exercise that asks each group
to develop a development application for a specific technology. In the
first part of the exercise, students are given a scenario, and work
as a group to create their own technology-enabled development project.
In the second part of the exercise, students learn about the real-world
outcome from their scenario, and compare the real-world outcome with
their own solution.
I conducted this exercise in an 80-minute class period. I broke students
into five groups, with six or seven students in each group. The 80 minutes
we had available is the minimum I would recommend for a class this large;
a longer class period would accommodate greater group discussion and
a more substantial full-class discussion of each group's results. My
suggested time allocations are:
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Introduction and breaking into groups (5-10 minutes)
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Handing out/reading scenarios (5-10 minutes)
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Group discussion and problem-solving (25-30 minutes)
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Handing out/reading real-world outcomes (5-10 minutes)
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Group discussion of real-world outcomes (10-20 minutes)
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Group reports to the full class (20-30 minutes)
The results of the exercise were very encouraging. The group discussions
were very lively, and many students quite impassioned about their preferred
solutions. A number of groups asked for additional information about
their scenarios, which gave us an opportunity to hone Internet research
skills by looking online for the missing information. The student solutions
to the assigned scenarios were generally creative, and the process of
comparing their own solutions with real-world outcomes helped students
think about "missing data" problems and policy constraints.
Several students changed their final paper topics to address issues
raised in this exercise, and the results of the final exam showed a
solid grasp of the material covered in the scenarios.
How to use this exercise in your classroom:
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Break students into five groups, and assign a different scenario
to each group.
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Give each group the case description for their assigned scenario.
I recommend making multiple copies of each case description, so
that each student can have his/her own copy. Give students a few
minutes read the case descriptions.
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Explain that each group has been assigned a village and a technology,
and must come up with a development project. Make sure to tell the
students that they will report back to the full class, so each group
needs to write down its project description.
The instructions for each group (which are included in each case description)
ask the students to create a development project that uses this new
technology to improve their village’s economic, social, or political
prospects. Ask them to describe:
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how the technology will be used
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who will have access to the technology
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who will be helped by the project.
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Once the groups have had a chance to discuss their scenarios,
ask each group to write down a description of its proposed project.
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Give each group the "solution" sheet describing the
real-world outcome of its scenario. (Again, it is helpful to have
multiple copies of each scenario solution.) Give students a few
minutes to read the solutions.
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Ask each group to discuss the following questions, and to write
down their ideas for their reports to the full class:
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What did the real village do?
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What advantages does their project offer (compared to yours)?
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What are the problems that your project addressed, but theirs
did not?
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Which project would you ultimately choose?
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Dissolve the groups and return to a full-class discussion. Ask each
group to report back to the class, and make sure that each report
begins with a brief description of the scenario.
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If time allows, ask for lessons from the exercise. Some possible
questions for discussion:
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What did the scenarios have in common, if anything?
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What were the major obstacles to envisioning solutions to
each scenario?
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What mattered more, the technology available or the social
and economic situation of the village?
Tips:
You may want to search the web for up-to-date information on the projects
covered by these scenarios. This information was current as of March
2002, but some of these projects (especially the Simputer) continue
to evolve.
If possible, conduct this exercise in a classroom with a live Internet
connection. This will allow you to help students search for additional
information about their scenarios as needed.
Circulate throughout the classroom while group discussions unfold.
You can provide additional information about the scenarios, and break
any deadlocks over competing solutions.
Don't let yourself (or your students) get bogged down by missing information.
If students feel they need additional information about a village's
economic or political context, encourage them to make whatever assumptions
will allow them to continue their discussion.
Post the group reports on your course web site, and let students know
that they will be able to see their solutions on the course site.
Encourage students to go online to find out more about their cases,
and to continue the discussion on the course bulletin board or listserv.
The scenarios:
Scenario
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Real-world outcome
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