[governance] [New post] The Dead Hand of (Western) Academe: Community Informatics in a Less Developed Country Context

[Charity Gamboa]

Just my take on this as I am in the education sector. As far as I know, as I
am in graduate school here in the US, is when you get into a program you
develop a portfolio. Your portfolio will focus on what you hope to achieve
from the program. I grew up in a developing country so I essentially worked
on my goals and how I may be able to fit my training abroad to what my home
country needs. I have developed my portfolio the moment I started so if that
helps, then it is something some of you might consider. There are basically
two things you might want to zero in:

[1] elaborate the significance of being a learner, leader and collaborator
[2] reflect on the impact of your study to your community

It does help sometimes to plan ahead. You should be on top of everything,
too. I mean it's very simple - why major in "*underwater basket weaving*"
when you cannot apply that to your home country?

But let me give you an example that may be applicable to developing
countries: In the state of Texas, we have introduced STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) projects even on the secondary
level. Some of the schools have been designated as STEM schools and have
incorporated most of the courses within the curriculum. We have established
our own learning models, and part of that is doing efficient Internet
research as part of "exploring" concepts (We employ the 5E instructional
model - *Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend* or *Elaborate*, and *Evaluate).* .
Few years back in the Philippines, we had some Dutch volunteers who brought
some Lego (learning building blocks) to a high school in the Philippines. We
incorporated that into the Science and Math courses. Here in the US, they
usually start with the Lego Mindstorms in Science. So just saying that It
really is easy to incorporate STEM. Maybe work on a portfolio, gear that
towards your community, and apply it in your home country. Hopefully, it
should fit within your country's developmental plans. Mold it within the
system if you can. It's always worth a try (and hopefully this makes sense).
Plus, everyone wants to be globally competitive nowadays, anyways.

Regards,
Charity

On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 12:13 PM, Nyangkwe Agien Aaron <
nyangkweagien at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I just returned from vacation
>
> The problem lies with the education policies and the environment where
> a person is educated.
>
> Take for an example some obtaining an MBA from a highly economic
> competitive environment like Britain or the US having to operate in a
> corrupt environment. That person will not find its feet in applying
> the notions acquired and developing them.
>
> In defining development geared education policies, most leaders take
> their environment into consideration. And countries that have such
> policies develop. Look at Japan, most of their resource persons are
> not trained outside.
>
> I am not against foreign human ressources but this must be blended
> with local ressources or else we arrive at the situation highlighted
> here
>
> Aaron
>
> On 6/9/11, Sonigitu Ekpe <sonigituekpe at crossriverstate.gov.ng> wrote:
> > Dear All,
> >
> > Michael is very correct.
> > I think this maybe due to quest for funding that make majority studying
> or
> > conducting researches that are not the basic need of less developed
> > Countries on one hand and the order is lack of coordination within the
> LDC
> > policy makers and other stakeholders to articulate programs that can
> bring
> > in specialization among professional players.
> >
> > Many other factors also influence their relevancy.
> >
> > It is also a great problem in Africa.
> >
> > Warm wishes.
> >
> > Sonigitu
> >
> > On 9 Jun 2011 20:58, "Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro" <
> > salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > It is interesting that you raise this Michael because we have been having
> a
> > most interesting discussion on the PICISOC mailing list where on one hand
> > you have a person from the organisation that is custodian of the Digital
> > Strategy within Oceania stating that the region is the most overstudied
> > region and on the other hand you have people like me arguing the
> irrelevance
> > of some of the approaches and studies done.
> >
> > Sala
> >
> > On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 4:23 AM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> There may be som...
> > --
> > Sala
> >
> > "Stillness in the midst of the noise".
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________
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>
> --
> Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
> Journalist-OutCome Mapper
> C/o
> P.O.Box 5213
> Douala-Cameroon
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