INFO 4505 - Computing and Global Development

(SSC-AS) (SBA-AG) (CU-ITL)

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with INFO 5505.

A. Vashistha.

To date, most computing technologies have primarily benefited urban, affluent, and literate people in developed regions by empowering them with more information, resources, and agency. These technologies currently exclude billions of people worldwide, such as rural residents, people with disabilities, and indigenous communities, who are too poor to afford modern devices, too remote to be connected, or too low-literate to navigate the mostly text-driven Internet. In recent years, researchers and practitioners have examined how computing technologies can be designed or appropriated to empower such underserved communities. This course introduces students to the field of Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD). Through discussions of case studies from the Global South, students will study how computing technologies are used in different global development domains, such as agriculture, finance, health, social justice, and education. They will gain understanding of socio-economic, cultural, and political forces that impact technology adoption in low-resource environments and will learn to design, build, and evaluate inclusive technologies to empower marginalized people.

Outcome 1: Students will learn to unpack terms like “development” and “poverty”, and the role that technology has played in both, through recent decades.

Outcome 2: Students will learn how specific technologies have played out in key domains of global development, such as education, health, etc.

Outcome 3: Students will learn to identify and critically examine approaches to the design of technology in the context of global development.

Outcome 4: Students will learn to put these approaches into practice and analyze how other initiatives do the same.