August | 2014 | TechChange | The Institute for Technology and Social Change

The Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center (A&PI Wellness Center) partnered with TechChange to develop a two-part training course designed for clinical and non-clinical providers to provide HIV education in California. For the first time ever, these trainings combined both the self-paced and facilitated course structures. Participants will be asked to proceed at their own pace through the Articulate Storyline-based APIWC 101 course, before taking part in the four-week facilitated course that features chats with guest experts.

HIV Today – The Context
We have come a long way when it comes to HIV treatment. Thirty years of research and campaigns have transformed HIV from being a death sentence into a chronic condition that permits those who properly manage it to live relatively normal lives. The problem is, only one in four HIV-positive Americans currently follow all recommendations for managing HIV.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), only 25% of HIV-positive Americans reach viral suppression, the current end-goal of HIV treatment. This means that the other 75%, or roughly 825,000 of the 1.1 million Americans estimated to be HIV-positive, are not receiving the support they need to successfully navigate through the obstacles to seek care. As a result, these individuals are not getting the treatments they need to manage and maintain their personal health and consequently, have a greater risk of transmitting the virus to others.

Many agencies have encouraged use of the HIV Care Continuum, also called the HIV Treatment Cascade, as a tool to visualize the proportion of HIV-positive individuals engaged at each stage of care.

Source: AIDS.gov

This cascade shows an estimated percentage of how many people fall out of care at each step along the way to viral suppression. Nearly one in five HIV-positive Americans do not know their positive status, keeping them from engaging in the cascade at all. Of those that are initially linked to care, nearly half fall out of treatment before being prescribed antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Even more important than this cascade is the breakdown of HIV prevalence by race and sexual preference. African Americans, for example, bear the biggest burden. According to a 2013 CDC report, African Americans makes up 14% of the US population, accounting for 44% of Americans living with HIV. The burden is similarly unequal for other minorities and men who have sex with men (MSM).

source: CDC

These statistics highlight the need for responses tailored to the communities most affected by HIV; these groups are more likely to face poverty and racism, as well as distrust with the medical system. When societal challenges are combined with the challenges of navigating HIV, people tend to drop out of care. Diverse communities require varied responses that are culturally aware and take into account the needs of disenfranchised groups.

The Challenge of Scaling HIV Prevention
Response to HIV requires service providers to play clinical and non-clinical roles. Many counselors, social workers, advocates, lawyers, and clinicians frequently work with HIV-positive individuals and in the field of HIV prevention and treatment; it is vital that they understand both the medical and complex social realities faced by their clients.

Born out of a grassroots movement to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis in A&PI communities in the late 1980s, the A&PI Wellness Center works to address the health needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or immigration status. In collaboration with Project Inform, the A&PI Wellness Center developed the California Statewide Training and Education Program (CSTEP), a curriculum that sets the standard in HIV treatment and technically and culturally competent training for clinical and non-clinical providers working in the HIV field.

An eLearning Solution

Participants will advance to APIWC 201 upon completion of the first course (APIWC 101). Hosted on TechChange’s facilitated course platform, this online course will provide more in-depth information about barriers to care and supporting clients in a dynamic era of HIV treatment. The month-long 201 course integrates elements of the self-paced course into the facilitated learning environment – participants are able to review the 101 content as well as slides specifically produced for the 201 course, share their knowledge with other providers in the forums, and interact with experts during live events. The ability to work with experts is what really sets this training apart – participants hear from former presidential advisors on HIV policy, specialists in linking HIV-positive people to care, HIV trainers, and those with decades of experience researching the virus and advocating for those affected.

Participants are able to engage with experts such as Dr. Cynthia Gómez (pictured above) during live events. These events are recorded and made available for later review.

The content of both courses is available 24/7 so that providers are able to take part whenever their schedules allow, while the forums and weekly live sessions add a social dimension uncommon in online learning. As all participants have some experience with HIV prevention or treatment, this course provides a unique opportunity for collaborative learning; providers can learn from the experiences of one another, share resources, and strengthen their networks of HIV prevention and treatment specialists.

In the first month alone, the training attracted over 70 participants from a variety of organizations. Additionally, the combined course has little in the way of overhead costs and can easily be repeated or scaled for different audiences, making it a viable strategy for training providers across California, with the goal of improving health outcomes and supporting HIV-positive individuals as they move toward viral suppression.

To register for these free online courses on HIV prevention training, please click here.

Charlie Weems and Emily Fruchterman of TechChange record a live session at the TechChange recording studio in Washington, DC.

Emily Fruchterman, Catherine Shen, Charlie Weems, and the A&PI Wellness Center contributed to this blog post.

If your organization is interested in developing online training with TechChange, please contact info@techchange.org.

After a summer at TechChange, it’s time for Sean Bae to start his first year at the University of Maryland-College Park this fall where he is considering a major in Electrical Engineering. Before heading to College Park, he reflects on his time at TechChange as a Software Engineer – Analytics Intern where he worked on D3 data visualization projects to make online learning interactive.

1. How did you hear about TechChange?

During the last fall, my dear friend Michael Holachek (a.k.a. “Code Ninja”), currently a rising sophomore at MIT, kindly shared his TechChange internship experience with me. While I was browsing through the TechChange website, I came across the job description of “Software Engineer – Analytics”, which is when I became first interested in working for TechChange.

2. Why did you choose TechChange to spend your summer before beginning college?

After taking an online Machine Learning course from Caltech, I became really interested in not only how to use computational algorithms to find correlations in data, but also how to interactively visualize them in aesthetically pleasing ways that can provide hidden insights for the front-end users.

TechChange’s job opening for the “Software Engineer – Analytics” quickly grabbed my attention because of the idea of being able to work in the cutting-edge web development environment, while learning principles of real-life software engineering practice. The fact that I will be contributing to the company that aims to promote social change, and educate the global community was also a big plus.

3. What are your interests?

I love physics and mathematics. In college, I plan on studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the two subjects that I believe will let me apply my passion in physics and math into solving real-life problems.

During my free time, I play piano, do Cross Country running and play Ultimate Frisbee. Also, I have a longstanding interest in modern European history, and I enjoy having discussions and debates with my friends on various thought-provoking topics such as political philosophy, epistemology, ethical dilemmas, and religion.

4. How did you use your TechChange internship to explore your interests?

TechChange offered me a lot of flexibility in terms of what projects I worked on. While my main projects were developing front-end interactive D3.js (Data-Driven-Documents) visualizations, I also had opportunities to learn about SaltStack server provisioning automation, and work on small back-end Ubuntu server projects.

Surprisingly, computer science wasn’t the only relevant subject in my work! I found my physics knowledge useful when I was working with D3 Force Directed Graphs, which used electric charge model and pseudo-gravity to compute the location of vertices of the graph until they reached the “electrostatic equilibrium”. My knowledge in discrete math and linear algebra also became invaluable when I was developing a social-learning matching algorithm to solve a combinatorial optimization problem that turned out to be similar to the Minimum weight spanning tree problem.

The TechChange team battle each other in a heated game of “Settlers of Catan.”

Apart from work, we had occasional TechChange Board Game days, World Cup cheering days, soccer/Frisbee team-bonding sessions and nearby park strolls that made my time at TechChange much more enjoyable and social.

5. What did you do at TechChange this summer? What was your role at TechChange?

During my time at TechChange, I developed front-end interactive D3.js visualizations for the TechChange online course platform. Some of the major projects include the TechChange social matching algorithm, social matching recommendation visualization, and course-wide point leaderboard system. While my work was mostly focused around the front-end JavaScript design, TechChange’s cohesive tech team structure let me peek into and learn insights from other tech team members’ back-end projects as well.

6. What did you learn during your time at TechChange?

Technical skills weren’t the only valuable assets that I learned during my time at TechChange, but as an overview, I learned:

How to create interactive data visualizations with D3.js
Efficient Git distributed version control (DVCS) team workflow for constant deployment
Advanced JavaScript debugging with the Google Chrome browser DevTools
How to automate virtual development environment creation using Vagrant
WordPress web plugin development with PHP and MySQL
Industry-standard JavaScript Design patterns
Regex (Regular Expression)
Django server structure
Full stack web app development combining Node.js, Express framework, MongoDB and Jade HTML Pre-processor
How to maintain a healthy diet (which was unexpected!)

Sean codes D3 data visualization for encouraging interaction and engagement on the TechChange learning platform

7. Did your TechChange experience end up going as you expected?

I was expecting my internship experience to be mostly associated with computer programming. However, people at TechChange seem to follow the “work hard, play hard” philosophy. After working hard, we had times to socialize, play soccer and games together, which made my experience much more interesting. I was also surprised by how friendly and opened people were and how flexible the working environment was at TechChange.

8. Would you come back to work at TechChange one day? Why?

I would love to! TechChange’s tight-knit community and energetic teams have magical power that draws people. Supportive and caring, yet productive, efficient, and techie team members make TechChange a fantastic environment to work on projects that create real impact in the real world.

9. What advice would you give to future TechChange interns?

Search for opportunities: TechChange has many different teams that you can pursue many different projects in international relations, course facilitation, media/video productions, UI/UX design and computer programming. If you find someone else working on a project that you want to take challenge on, then just simply ask.
Explore nearby restaurants: located right across the U Street metro station, TechChange HQ is located in the midst of many spectacular restaurants; there are many places to explore around in U street for lunch, from an authentic Ethiopian restaurant to gourmet falafel place and famous Ben’s Chili Bowl. Take the full advantage of the plethora of exotic choices and try exploring many ethnic food groups!

Online learning for international development is heating up. As educational technology companies raised half a billion dollars in Q1 of 2014, USAID is already exploring how to incorporate new technology with proven development methodology. New attempts to bridge these worlds have given rise to the Global Development Lab, a new entity within USAID seeks to apply science, technology, innovation, and partnerships to extend development impact.

Unfortunately, the government has a shaky record when it comes to management of technology procurement, most recently evidenced during the HealthCare.gov rollout. However, there are hopes that the high visibility of such failures are cr eating an appetite for real improvement in tech management. One such example is RFP-EZ initiative, which seeks to provide easier access to small technology companies to the Federal Government’s nearly $77 billion information technology supply chain so that “government agencies get to work with innovative small firms with solutions that can help make government agencies more efficient and streamlined.”

Video 1: Short animation intro to the World Wide Web 25th anniversary.

But is easier tech procurement the answer when there isn’t a clear path forward? Even universities — the far smaller institutions on the front lines of the ongoing MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) disruption — aren’t ready to embrace online learning, often lacking appropriate teaching methodology, ability to produce multimedia content, or even a clear business model. Not that the situation is any better among edtech firms, where even the leading MOOC provider, Coursera, is barely two years old and still experiencing growing pains in refining a model that combines scalable content with interactive courses.

Enamored with potentially scalable returns of technology, USAID is promoting a cutting-edge approach for development practitioners accustomed to delivering in-person workshops in low-bandwidth environments. But this hope that development organizations can become more tech-savvy if given the opportunity and incentives for process change is running into real barriers of cost for popular, if unproven methodologies.

Video 2: Short animated illustration laying out challenges in ICT4D

But how can technology lower the barrier to entry for development organizations entering the edtech space, as well as minimize the costs of changing strategy to fit new tech options at a later date? The bespoke learning management systems currently being acquired by development organizations may prove costly — not just in terms of technical expertise to maintain, but in terms of limiting options for later pivots.

Worse, the long funding cycles may exacerbate the challenges of fitting the hype-bust failure cycle of Silicon Valley with the conservative, incremental change of Washington, DC. As Charles Kenny cautions in Foreign Policy:

“When working with new technologies and approaches, we should expect lots of failures. Tech entrepreneurs are used to a culture of failure…But the advantage of the system in which they operate is the market test. As a rule, the bad ideas go bankrupt…

But by moving the model to development, we’ve taken tech entrepreneurs’ high tolerance for failure and penchant for hyping harebrained schemes to an arena where the market test is considerably diluted. Ideas get funding from Kickstarter and philanthropies on the basis of their appeal to donors and philanthropists in the West rather than consumers in Africa.”

One solution could be to replace long-tail technology procurement with simpler service plans. As the world of Everything-As-A-Service eats the private sector, perhaps we can finally start to decouple the ability to write software from the urgency to solve pressing problems for people all over the world.

*Featured image: Rajiv Shah at Global Development Launch. Source: USAID
** Made a few edits on 8/13/14 @ 2:20pm to correct a few typos and rephrase some of the more poorly written sentences.

We had such a blast hosting Nagham and Sondos from the TechGirls program last year, that we’re doing it again this year!

We are very excited to welcome more participants of the TechGirls program to TechChange’s DC office tomorrow to experience what it’s like to work at a fast-paced edtech social enterprise. During their visit, the TechGirls will learn about digital animation, graphic design and illustrations, video production and editing, photography, instructional design for eLearning, web design and programming, interactive infographics, data visualization, and more.

TechGirls is a U.S. State Department exchange program that empower Middle Eastern and North African teenage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Follow us and the hashtags #techgirls and #letgirlslearn to keep up with updates on TechGirls in action. To learn more about the TechGirls, you can follow their program Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

My current focus on tourism development led me to explore how some of the tech tools discussed in the Mobiles for International Development class can be applied in the tourism industry. In particular, a large part of the tourism assessment and development process involves both evaluating the visitor experience in a destination and examining the attitudes of local residents towards tourism development.

Surveys are the most common tools for carrying out these evaluations, but most of the time they result in stacks of papers that need to be keyed into a computer, introducing errors and wasting valuable time. In the M4D class, we saw a physical example of this where a pickup truck was loaded with stacks of questionnaires.

Today, mobiles and tablets are overcoming the challenges faced by paper-based surveys and evaluations as they bring efficiency, a variety of user-friendly survey platforms, and real-time feedback.

1. Quick and easy access to better processed surveys
Compared with paper questionnaires, a more efficient data collection method would be to use the Formhub tool that we learned about during the course. The additional cost of purchasing a few basic tablets and rugged cases could be offset by savings in labor costs for data entry and the added value of the data being processed in a more timely and accurate manner.

2. Variety of user-friendly survey platforms
The advantage of a tablet over a smartphone is that the tablet more closely resembles a paper format questionnaire, making it easy to hand over to visitors or residents to complete. Formhub can also be used offline; completed questionnaires can be uploaded once a connection is reestablished, making it particularly useful in remote tourism destinations lacking wifi or cell service.

Since visitor surveys are usually carried out in places where large numbers of tourists congregate (city plazas, transportation system waiting areas, etc.), the survey-takers often hand out paper forms to many people simultaneously, presenting a potential disadvantage for Formhub if only a few tablets are available. A potential solution could be a QR code to scan that takes tourists to a web site on their own personal smartphones to complete the questionnaire. This method could be used in conjunction with the tablets (i.e. tablets could be used for those visitors without smart phones). There would have to be measures in place to ensure that the same person doesn’t submit multiple questionnaires, but I think that could be designed relatively simply.

3. Real-time feedback
Another way to make surveys valuable to both tourists and destination planners and developers, would be to couple geolocation with an SMS service. Tourists could opt in to the program upon arrival at a destination, and upon entering certain geofences they would automatically receive an informational text describing the attraction with links to more information if they’re interested. For instance, upon approaching a monument a visitor could receive historical information about the attraction, or upon entering a local market the user could receive a link to a detailed map showing where certain stalls are located. This system could be coupled with an SMS survey system like TextIt. This way, the destination could get real-time feedback from tourists about certain aspects of an attraction as the visitor is experiencing it (i.e. rating scale questions about customer service, facilities, etc.). This would help to eliminate the problem of recall bias that often exists when tourists are asked to recall certain aspects of their trip days (or weeks) after it’s over.

There’s obviously a ton of potential for mobile tech in the context of tourism, from the inspiration and planning stages, to booking and experiencing, to sharing the tourism experience with others. I’m super excited to see what kind of apps and novel technologies will be launched in the next few years to further enhance and add layers of value to the tourism experience.

About Jason Kreiselman

When he’s not backpacking through far-off corners of the planet, Jason Kreiselman works as a digital marketing specialist with Brand USA in Washington DC helping to promote international visitation to the U.S. He also works with the International Institute of Tourism Studies conducting tourism research for public and private sector clients. Jason spent four years in Ecuador as an ICT Advisor to the Peace Corps where he worked to promote small businesses and secure grants for organizations focusing on environmental conservation and sustainable development.

Jason holds a Master of Tourism Administration degree with a concentration in Sustainable Destination Management from The George Washington University. You can find him on LinkedIn here.

Interested in learning more about this topic of digital options for surveys and evaluation? Register now for our Technology for Monitoring & Evaluation online course, which runs 26 January – 20 February 2015.

The gatekeepers of gaming are suddenly in the middle of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the past few days, Google Play has removed several games relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, claiming that they violate Developer Program Policies. In one example, the “Bomb Gaza” game [Pictured] was removed following a social media backlash against a game that appeared to reward dropping bombs on Gaza from an Israeli jet. While the app comments for Google Play ranged in perspective from criticism to support, media reports described the game as seemingly intending to offend, including matching a rating appropriate for children with a mandate for killing civilians as well as insurgents.

There’s no guarantee that the game won’t reappear. Even after similar outrage shut down an “Angry Trayvon” game about the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, you can still find games like Angry Trayvon: Revenge available for download on Google Play. And even if gatekeepers such as Apple and Google refuse to grant access to official app stores, plenty other distribution options exist. For example, insurgents are already promoting simple browser-based games to depict Sunni fighters blowing up Iranians or attacking the Saudi government.

Of course, the line between violent propaganda and video game experience has never been perfectly clear. Back in 2002, the US Army spent $32.8 million dollars developing a free-to-play video game to serve as a recruiting tool for the US army. Not to be outdone, Hezbollah released a low-budget first-person shooter Special Force, in which the player fought the IDF.

Gaming wasn’t supposed to go this way. Jane McGonigal’s famous 2010 TED Talk on Gaming Can Make a Better World [embedded] encouraged the audience to harness the 3 billion hours a week gaming to solve major problems like hunger, climate change, and violent conflict. McGonigal’s follow-up book Reality is Broken spoke to the 174 million gamers in the United States alone, claiming that “the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games.”

But what kind of future will that be?

One possibility is that gaming will experience the same fragmentation as digital media. As games are becoming more accessible to both gamers and developers, concerns are that the role of gatekeepers like Google Play will diminish as gamers seek out experiences that conform to their existing world view. In the same way that social media circles rarely intersect on the topic Gaza (with the exception of a few bridge nodes like Ha’aretz) and community gatekeepers like Wikipedia lock Israel-Palestine pages to prevent vandalism and edit wars, we could be witnessing the phenomenon spreading to video games.

Of course, evangelists like McGonigal have evangelized that the best way to predict the future of gaming is to invent it, and that the beneficial qualities of video games will only emerge if people invest and experiment. Efforts to promote serious games for solving conflict include initiatives such as PeaceMaker, a turn-based computer strategy game that lets players simulate decisions made by the leader of Israel or the Palestinian Authority.

Published in 2007, Asi Burak recently revisited his involvement in the game in a recent interview with Kotaku:

“Perhaps the most important aspect of a game like PeaceMaker is its audacious statement: making peace is as challenging and compelling as making war. Great leaders could break the vicious cycle by boldly asking themselves and their people: are we really taking all the right actions?”

It may be no coincidence that while games simulating violence are simplistic (Drop this bomb! Blow up this IED!), games simulating peacebuilding are often complex and nuanced — as much about teaching a point of view as arriving at a solution. That’s no easy task, but the payoff could be immense. A December 2012 report by the Wilson Center on Gaming Our Way to a Better Future found that in the US alone:

“Video games are a promising route to reengaging these millennials-the 46 million 18- to 29-year-olds who constitute the largest generation in the nation’s history.”

The report concluded with a quote from President Lyndon B. Johnson on establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967 to address the promise of TV: “We have only just begun to grasp the medium.” As a new venue for change it is reaching only “a fraction of its potential audience–and a fraction of its potential worth.”

As we were wrapping up a live course event with MAMA (the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Ac tion) yesterday, we learned the exciting news: Facebook announced that MAMA has been included in the Internet.org app, along with other important women’s rights resources such as WRAPP (Women’s Rights App), and Facts For Life by UNICEF. Starting with Airtel subscribers in Zambia, Internet.org users will have a free Internet connection for accessing MAMA services, such as receiving vital health messages to new and expectant mothers in developing countries via their mobile phones.

In the past, efforts to spread internet connectivity through projects such as BRCK and Loon have focused on creating prototypes for spreading global internet infrastructure. The Internet.org app solves a different challenge: Making internet access affordable. The Facebook announcement explained the reasoning:

“Over 85% of the world’s population lives in areas with existing cellular coverage, yet only about 30% of the total population accesses the internet. Affordability and awareness are significant barriers to internet adoption for many and today we are introducing the Internet.org app to make the internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services.”

As with previous announcements by Internet.org, there that there are concerns that offering these services could create a censorship backlash towards Facebook among governments wary of social media meddling among the otherwise disenfranchised. Others, such as Evgeny Morozov, expressed skepticism that Internet.org app represents a Facebook gateway drug where “development becomes just a means of making a buck.”

Still, there remain ardent supporters of the initiative. In responding to skepticism about the initiative, Internet.org released quotes from prominent individuals, such as Michele Barry, Professor of Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine:

“Connectivity is a powerful tool for change. The Internet.org app will help to connect people living in low-resource settings to basic information that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access. For example, enabling mothers to access basic health information can lead to significant declines in child mortality and better health outcomes for the family. By providing free access to health resources like MAMA and Facts for Life, the Internet.org app will make a real difference in people’s lives.”

Pictured: The MAMA team after the August 4, 2014 event at TechChange

What do you think? Will Internet.org serve as a tool for empowerment or is it another way to make a buck? Are the two mutually exclusive? We hope you’ll tweet @techchange to share your thoughts!

No matter your conclusions, we hope that you’ll take this opportunity to learn more about the exciting work being done by MAMA.

When we last featured TC309: mHealth alumna, Lauren Bailey, on the TechChange blog, we shared her mHealth final project on the potential of WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) in using mobiles for public health. Since then, Lauren has landed a position at International Medical Corps as a Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, where she works with colleagues who are also TechChange mHealth alumni.

This week, we visited Lauren at the International Medical Corps office in Washington, DC where she shared her latest updates on her mHealth career.

What did you find useful from your TechChange course, mHealth: Mobiles for Public Health?
The TechChange mHealth online course gave me a solid background in the use of mobile phones for public health. I became familiar with different organizations and companies that develop or use mHealth programs, and I feel comfortable talking knowledgeably about mHealth with others.

What impact has TC309 and TechChange had on you and your career?

1. Connecting to future employers
I applied for a position at International Medical Corps (IMC) that had an mHealth component in the job description. During the interview process, I connected with my now supervisor and colleague who were both in the middle of taking the same TechChange mHealth course I had taken 6 months earlier. They were both impressed with what they had been learning in the course, and I feel that the TechChange connection was one of the reasons I was offered a temporary position at the organization. I have been an active member of the organization’s mHealth interest group.

During my first week at IMC, my supervisor forwarded me the most recent WASHplus newsletter as a resource for a project I was working on. To my surprise, my TechChange project was featured in the newsletter! She was very impressed that the course had led to this feature in the newsletter.

2. Connecting to like-minded professionals passionate about WASH
I am thankful to have met many motivated and interesting TechChange colleagues and alumni. I reached out to a fellow TechChange alumnus with whom I had connected during the course. He and I share a love for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Talking with him gave me great insight on his work in WASH and gave me ideas for future work in the sector.

3. Crowdsourcing knowledge for primary research
Recently, I have used the TechChange Alumni group on LinkedIn to crowdsource information on the use of mHealth for behavior change. The network is full of accomplished and gracious people with diverse backgrounds willing to help others learn. My final course project, which coincided with a master level global environmental health course, served as a stepping stone to the qualitative research I am currently conducting on the use of mHealth for behavior change communication.

What advice would you give to students taking TC309 or any TC course?
1. Pay extra attention to Alain Labrique, one of the top speakers in the course. He gives an excellent introduction to the mHealth landscape. His lecture and research is part of the motivation behind some of my interests in the different uses of mHealth.

2. Be diligent and set aside time every day to log into the course — even if you can only spend 20 minutes. Try to attend live events and make sure to ask questions that enhance the discussion.

3. Make connections. Be sure to reach out to classmates and find out more about their backgrounds and career paths. It’s great to have connections from all across the globe!

About Lauren Bailey
Lauren Bailey is in the midst of completing her Master of Public Health degree in Global Environmental Health at George Washington University where she is conducting qualitative research on the use of mHealth for behavior change in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. Lauren’s passion for global health began five years ago when she defended her undergraduate thesis that used malaria as a case study for how health impacts poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. She acquired an interest for mobile health upon entering her graduate program where she learned more about the different uses of mobile phones for health purposes. Lauren originally hails from Massachusetts and is an avid baseball fan.

Are you also interested in mobile phones for public health? Join us for our upcoming Mobiles for International Development and mHealth online courses here.

Photo credit: TextIt

I am not tech savvy. I do not keep up with the newest phones or gadgets and I have no idea how to build a website. However, I have been texting for many years and I know that if I can master the SMS system and stay connected through messaging, anyone can. Which is why I was so impressed by TextIt, a messaging platform that is simple yet can achieve so much- from surveying dispersed populations to disseminating life-saving information that may not have otherwise reached its target destinations.

When learning about the tool and using it in the Mobiles for International Development class, I was thinking about access, a main concern of mine within international development. Not only did I find TextIt accessible to me as the creator of a campaign in terms of the ease of building an SMS flow (again, if I can do it, most people can), but also in the array of possibilities of its relevance. Whether it is access to clean water, healthcare, education, or safe roads, TextIt provides a platform for people on the ground, even those in the most remote areas, to communicate their experiences and needs through the tips of their fingers.

In my own field of interest, namely providing access to education to marginalized populations in developing countries and humanitarian settings, I believe TextIt could be an asset. I can see it being used for purposes of teacher training, of understanding if a regional school system is being inclusive of the community’s children with disabilities, or even in a post-disaster situation, letting communities know about impromptu schools being set up by organizations and finding how many children are not in school. The possibilities are countless.

TextIt has the potential to expand more widely in several areas. Currently, it only operates on Android phones and I would hope that the developers are working to make it accessible to other mobile companies so as to increase access. In addition, survey taking may not be familiar to some cultures and seeing the large-scale success of TextIt could take a lot of time. Though the SMS system may be quick, cost efficient and reach many people, it does eliminate the human aspect of international development and the nuances of person to person conversations are lost through the mobile devices (for example, you can survey a group of villagers about the infrastructure in the area, but unless the person developing a campaign physically goes to see the area, much of the reality is lost). Moreover, a survey that is not well-planned or well-worded or inaccurate information is being sent out could cause mistrust of the system and the senders and people will stop using it.

Overall, I think using TextIt as an international development tool encourages more creativity, pushing professionals to think beyond traditional methods of interaction with their beneficiaries. Personally, I see myself finding a way to incorporate TextIt in my future projects and hopefully with that, I will become just a bit more tech savvy.

About Yael Shapira

Yael Shapira works as Assistant Director of International Relations, Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University and recently completed TC105: Mobiles for International Development. Yael received an M.A. in International Education from GW in 2012, with an academic focus on providing access to education to marginalized populations in conflict and post-conflict settings, specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has lived and worked in Ethiopia, India, Israel, Niger and Switzerland, where she planned and implemented educational projects for refugees, street children, children with disabilities and other populations. Yael received her Bachelor’s in International Relations from Boston University in 2009. She was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel.

Interested in learning more about TextIt and other mobile platforms in the context of global development? Join us for an online course on Mobiles for International Development.