Blog | TechChange | The Institute for Technology and Social Change

Featured image credit: Janjua Amolksimranjit Singh

It was an immense pleasure to be a part of the two-day TechChange course ‘Mobile Phones for International Development’ with Nick Martin and fellow George Washington University classmates. Over the course of one weekend, we covered several themes that lie at the intersection of technology and development. We studied several ICT4D case studies where countries were working to develop technology-based solutions for specific issues, and delved deep within the intricate world of International Development as practitioners. Resonating with me the most were our discussions centered on normative practices which (should) go hand in hand with developing sustainable solutions for communities in varying contexts.

Of the 9 Principles for Digital Development, the first, “Design for User” prove how crucial it is for policymakers and practitioners to listen and learn to the needs and proposed solutions identified by the target communities themselves. As practitioners, we tend to view the communities as passive recipients of our conceptualized development framework. For truly sustainable solutions, policymakers must avoid this thinking, and view the target communities as independent agents of change to find avenues for meaningful collaboration, rather than imposing paternalistic policies that perpetuate dependency and powerlessness. The technology-based development approach presents opportunities and challenges that have been generally associated with development policy and practice. Technology can be a potent catalyst of positive change in impoverished communities if the designers and implementers pursue the noble task of aiding these communities as partners with a mutual respect. If we exclude the target population from the designing part of interventions, technology can provide symptomatic solutions at best, without addressing the underlying factors that cause and aggravate the problem in question.

The lively discussions throughout this course made me realize that technology-based development approach can amplify its effectiveness and outreach through innovative participatory community-driven solutions. The answer to the sustainable development puzzle does not lie in a grand design or state-of-art technology, but in home-grown adaptive initiatives. The proposed solutions of target population seem to be the missing link in much of the ICT4D discourse. If we truly want to change the world, our first step is to listen to the ones whose lives will be affected by our policies and projects.

About Obaid

Obaid Arshad Khan is a Fulbright Scholar from Pakistan, and a current M.A. Candidate for International Development Studies at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Previously, he has worked with Interactive Research and Development as a Research Associate for projects focusing on electronic vaccines registry, social business model for Tuberculosis case detection and treatment, and Health Market Innovations. His core research interests lie in the behavioral economics, cutting edge technology, public health and other international development policy and practice themes.

We are very excited to announce console-to-slack, our first package of the year! One of our main goals for 2017 is to contribute more to the open-source community, so it is a good first step to be contributing this early in the new year. As an organization that has invested a lot into the open-source movement, we are excited for its future and how we can play our part.

So, what exactly is console-to-slack and how do we use it here at TechChange? Console-to-slack is a small module that utilizes Slack’s webhooks to send anything that normally is printed to the console to a Slack channel of your choice.

We recently made a push to update our authentication processes to use JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) to more align with a trusted, industry standard for authentication. As we were working on this update, we needed a way to debug our changes in real-time without having to constantly monitor our application logs. In the past, we had tried out a module which would email us with any errors, but a few thousand emails and about 30 seconds later, we decided that wasn’t the best idea.

As an organization, TechChange uses Slack for our team messaging and we take advantage of Slack webhooks to post messages to a Slack thread anytime we update one of our courses. We quickly put two and two together and about 100 lines of code later, we had a module which would post any application errors to a Slack thread, complete with an embarrassing, childhood photo of our CTO.

Our initial use case was debugging the rollout of JWTs into the world, but we soon discovered its perfect use for low-risk error monitoring and reporting. Since then, we have packaged console-to-slack as a npm module, added a few more features, and beefed up the documentation.

Despite being such a small module, console-to-slack has had a large impact on our code base and best practices as a tech team. We decided to be more intentional with our use of logging in order to filter out unnecessary messages. As a result, we discovered subtle mistakes in other sections of code that were unintended behavior.

As a developer, it is a great feeling to contribute to the open-source community and we hope that TechChange’s contributions can help fellow developers as they see fit. We highly recommend that you dig up an embarrassing photo of your CTO, should you decide to give console-to-slack a try. Stay on the lookout for more open-source contributions from TechChange throughout 2017 and enjoy!

I truly enjoyed the four-week TechChange course on Agriculture, Innovation and Technology thanks to Nick, wonderful guest speakers and brilliant classmates. I grasped the understanding of the current status in utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture (ICT4Ag) and challenges and opportunities that lie ahead to facilitate the effectiveness of ICT4Ag. As part of my final project, I interviewed Mr. Vikas Choudhary, Senior Economist in the Global Food and Agriculture Practice (GFADR) at the World Bank.

Q: What do you consider the primary role of ICTs for agricultural processes?

ICTs play a significant role primarily in helping farmers and other stakeholders make effective decisions, and therefore are effective information delivery tools when used in agriculture. Agricultural processes are a sequence of decision making for farmers: what kind of seeds to grow, when and where to grow them, how and where to store commodity, at what price to sell, etc. These decisions have largely been based on farmers’ past experiences and their own interpretation of agricultural conditions. However, farmers increasingly face difficult decision making situations due to irregular seasonal and weather patterns caused by climate change. Therefore, through real-time data collected on various decision factors such as weather, soil quality, and crop maturity, not only can agricultural processes be more efficient, but also the farmers can make better and timely decisions in each process. ICTs also enable farmers make informed decisions in agricultural products transport and marketing by providing information on market prices and reducing transaction cost.

Q: What is the process through which this information delivered to farmers? How does it lead farmers to take right actions?

There are four steps in information delivery that we need to keep in mind for ICT4Ag: data generation, analysis, synthesis and dissemination. Each step, then, requires different considerations to take in designing ICT4Ag (summarized in Table 1). The key to successful ICT4Ag is to provide data in a consistent and integrated manner so that all aspects of information delivery are taken into account.

Table 1. Steps to ICT-led Information Delivery in Agriculture

Steps	Considerations
Data Generation	Data should be high-quality and localized
Data Analysis	Analyze data that is necessary and relevant to farmers (implications)
Data Synthesis	Scientific data need to be communicated in a language or format that is easily comprehensible for farmers
Data Dissemination	Data need to be coupled with recommendation of actions farmers could take; Collaboration among stakeholders is especially important

Q: How is the private sector participating in information delivery in ICT4Ag?

While there are various types of the private sector involved in the ICT4Ag, one of them would be the companies that have been engaging in information selling, such as Reuters and Bloomberg Terminal. These companies now serve as business platforms for agricultural information delivery and are making efforts to provide much more reliable information to their client base. One example is Reuters Market Light service in India, which is a SMS subscription service to sell agricultural information for farmers. Also, there are businesses that buy commodity and seasonal forecast at higher rates. Therefore, there is a market formed among different business actors in information delivery.

In addition, there are new businesses that are trying to come up with different business models. For example, a company would generate big data from the weather infrastructure that the company has set up and makes profits by selling the information to different types of companies with different interests such as FMCG and logistics companies. There are various sectors of the economy for whom the access to reliable, relevant, topical and high quality data is key. The realm that was traditionally considered as public sector is becoming more private sector as businesses set up their own mechanisms for the on-ground weather data gathering, the utilization of satellite data or the combination of both. However, the private sector participation is still in the trial-and-error stage as business models continue to evolve.

Q: What do you consider are the greatest innovation implementation challenges?

Some of the biggest challenges are lack of hard and soft capacities, customization of data and accuracy of information. First of all, not only the current level of infrastructure, but also lack of human capability of understanding, analyzing and interpreting data is the first hurdle to fully unlock the benefits of ICT4Ag. We need to make substantial efforts to build capacity of the local implementing agencies to disseminate data necessary to farmers. Secondly, customization is critical. The provision of information needs to be tailored to specific regions. However, it is still difficult to figure out how to customize certain information to a particular target level. Next, the accuracy of information is another challenge. The predictive tools for collecting data are usually based on the predictive models, which sometimes do not work accurately. And when information is not accurate, the financial loss of farmers can be thousands of dollars. Therefore, ensuring reliability and accuracy of the prediction is very critical as it builds confidence among people. The good news is the accuracy of information is gradually improving as information is validated from more and more data sources, especially through machine learning, which helps refine the predictive models. In addition to overcoming these challenges, providing relevant, not just any, information is also important.

Many times, we are first drawn by flashy and new technologies before thinking about the essence of content. However, content is what matters after all and is key to all processes. We need to be sure about what information we are delivering, how relevant and accurate the information is, how tailored the information is and what the actual benefits that the information can bring to the farmers. Only if these criteria are met, the benefits of the information enabled by ICTs will take off.

Note: You can find Mr. Choudhary’s insights on ICT and Agricultural Market Information more at https://olc.worldbank.org/content/ict-agriculture.

About the author:

Hyea Won Lee works as an ICT Policy and Cybersecurity Researcher at the World Bank, and is a M.A. Candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She recently completed our TechChange course on Agriculture, Innovation, and Technology.

On Monday, we had the pleasure of hosting TechGirls’s Job Shadow Day for the fourth year in a row! TechGirls is a selective exchange program that encourages and supports the desire of Middle Eastern and North African teenage girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). During the 3 week long exchange program, the girls (ranging from ages 15 – 17) travel around the U.S. getting a taste of the various careers one can have in STEM. One of the ways they experience a STEM career in the U.S. is by spending a day at a tech company during Job Shadow Day.

We were lucky enough to host Nada Abdelaziz Mostafa Abdelaziz and Lydia Ferial Oukid, who have interests in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, this year at our DC office. Both hope to learn more about the technology and engineering fields, and aspire to be leaders in both their local and international communities. We were able to show them a bit about what we do here at TechChange, and hosted workshops with our creative, industrial design, tech, and communication teams.

Nada and Lydia began their day by working with our creative team to create their own animated assets!

Check out what they created below:

Afterwards, they were able to learn about the projects that our tech fellows have been working on this summer.

As per TechChange tradition, we had lunch at a nearby Ethiopian restaurant.

After lunch, Lydia and Nadia worked with our instructional design team, and were able to create their own online course in Articulate! Check out Lydia’s articulate and Nada’s articulate.

Lastly, they learned how to build their own webpage in HTML, with the assets they created throughout the day, from our tech team!

All around, we at TechChange had a great time with the TechGirls! We look forward to hearing more of their future accomplishments — best of luck Nada and Lydia!

Last week, the mobile data collection service Magpi released its latest addition to the platform: data visualizations. We sat down with the founder and CEO, Dr. Joel Selanikio, to talk about the new feature and what Magpi has in store for the future.

Magpi prides itself in taking the programming out of data collection tasks. As a medical doctor concerned with global health, Selanikio is always looking for ways to add more user-friendly features. He would ask himself, “Wow, we keep taking these things that require programming and taking out all the programming. What else is there we can do?”

The obvious answer was to add an intuitive data visualization layer to Magpi, so that users could easily access, understand, and communicate the data they were collecting.

“Before, we thought that if users wanted to visualize the data, we can just let them export the data and enter it into Microsoft Excel. What we didn’t realize was how time consuming a process this can be for our users, so our new release will allow users to generate beautiful reports instantly,” said Selanikio.

For the past year, the programmers at Magpi have been working hard to make user-modifiable data visualizations which can be easily embedded and shared. Some sample outputs from the new data visualization system are shown below – these graphs can be automatically generated whenever a user creates a report from their data.

“I am super excited to show this to people,” said Selanikio. Users familiar with HTML can also further customize the visualizations, and magpi will be adding more data visualization features based on user feedback.

“We’re making it so that if you’re using Google Sheets, you can add triggers so you can enter data in a Google Sheet and it will automatically update your Magpi report.”

In the future, Magpi is hoping to add features such as video, the ability to read barcodes, and more! Stay tuned for more exciting updates to come!

Next Tuesday, July 26, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM EDT, Magpi will be hosting a free webinar on how to use the new reports feature: click here to register.

In partnership with the World Resources Institute, TechChange has built a seven-module online course for the Compact of Mayors, a global coalition of mayors and city leaders committed to sustainable local climate action. By providing a standard, public method of reporting emissions and efforts, the Compact aims to capture and accelerate impact. To announce the course, TechChange produced an animation that was presented at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

The animation shown in Paris was a compilation of scenes from seven other animations, each developed to capture the key takeaways from one of the seven modules. Designed for a broad audience of mayors, city sustainability officers, and environmental policy advisors from all over the globe, each animation provides a quick overview of a module for learners seeking a basic understanding of the Compact of Mayors.

Diving deeper with interactive content

For those interested in a more in-depth understanding, TechChange developed interactive exercises, infographics, maps, graphs, and resources for each of the seven modules. Coupled with videos, avatars, backgrounds, and narration, these ten to thirty minute “deep dive” modules walk the learner through what the Compact is, how a city can become Compact-compliant, and why a city would benefit from becoming Compact-compliant.

In total, the course takes 3 hours to complete, or longer if the learner chooses to explore the numerous resources provided throughout. In order to retain learner engagement with course material, TechChange employed three main instructional design strategies: epic learning goals, flexible learning paths, and frequent opportunities to apply material through practice exercises with instant feedback.

1. Epic learning goals

In order to visually reflect the course’s epic goal of empowering city leaders to make a difference in the climate trajectory of their city, TechChange designed each module to take place in a specific part of a virtual city. As the learner progresses through the course, the city becomes visibly improved; each module’s location becoming more vibrant while trees, flowers, and wildlife begin to appear. The visibly improving virtual city, displayed at the beginning and end of each module, provides a subtle reminder to learners that their efforts to complete each module reflect a much larger local effort to improve real cities on a global scale.

2. Flexible learning paths

Providing nonlinear learning paths allows learners to structure their own learning experience. For example, to learn more about the role of cities in combatting climate change, the course invites the learner to click parts of a city scene. Every time the learner completes a section, the learner is invited to pick the next section that piques their interest.

3. Real-time feedback

In addition to emphasizing the epic nature of the learning goals and empowering learners to customize their learning paths, the course aims to capture learner attention by providing ample opportunities for learners to apply material through practice exercises with real-time feedback. In a knowledge assessment included in Module 5, the learner receives a certain number of points based on how many attempts it takes them to get the correct answer and how many options the question contained. A scoring meter provides a visualization of the learner’s cumulative score. Coupled with some simple sound effects, it’s a basic but effective mechanism that results in the learner’s effort directly impacting their visual and auditory experience, and hopefully motivating them to try again or keep going.

Putting strategy to the test

In order to test the effectiveness of these strategies in the Compact of Mayors course, TechChange will be tracking and analyzing virtually every click a learner makes while taking this course. Do learners actually go through content in unique ways, or do most follow suggested learning paths? Do learners who failed several times during practice exercises persevere or is the feedback mechanism not enough to inspire completion? Being able to answer those types of questions will not only help TechChange improve this course over time but also inform how TechChange can most effectively design new courses in other topic areas in the future. To try the course yourself, register for an account at compactofmayors.course.tc/learn.

Isabel has recently joined TechChange as our Community Manager, working specifically with our service design team. Prior to coming to TechChange, Isabel went to Swarthmore College, and graduated with honors in Political Science and a minor in Asian Studies. While she’s not working, she enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and is starting a politics blog called, “Informed Dissent”. She also coordinates the Facebook page of the Delaware County Symphony and plays trombone.

Welcome to the TechChange team, Isabel!

Please join us in welcoming Amelia, one of our new summer fellows here at TechChange! Amelia graduated this past May from Yale University with a math major. Some of her most rewarding experiences she had at Yale were focused on teaching computer science: working as a peer tutor and TA for computer science classes, as well as designing a training program for students to learn how to repair computer hardware. She is so excited to be a tech fellow this summer and to continue to work at the intersection of education and technology! She is from NYC, so her free time is primarily spent eating the world’s best bagels, and trying to convince herself that it’s about time to learn how to drive.

Welcome to the TechChange team, Amelia!

Earlier this spring, TechChange partnered with the SCORE Association, also known as “Counselors to America’s Small Business”, along with their sponsor, the Deluxe Foundation. SCORE’s nationwide volunteer network provides small business development resources at no cost to entrepreneurs. Kathryn Kelly from their Field Operations team said this about their mission:

“Small business is the engine of our national economy through business formation, job creation and wealth building. In 2014, SCORE mentors helped start up over 56,000 businesses and create over 47,000 jobs. SCORE provides direct support to entrepreneurs and small businesses, which is critical to the development of vibrant communities throughout our country.”

The partnership entailed developing e-learning modules for SCORE’s Mentoring Skills Track, a vital training pathway for volunteers with advanced business experience to share their advice one-on-one with new entrepreneurs.

“The majority of our volunteers come to SCORE with high business acumens in such areas as finance, marketing or accounting. However, they do not necessarily have a background in mentoring,” Kelly said. “Our goal is to ensure volunteers have access to training on soft skills such as listening, facilitation, learning styles and peer learning.”

With these needs in mind, TechChange developed two scenario-based modules based on the first-person perspective of a new mentor learning from other more experienced SCORE mentors:

The user could test their learning while running through a branching conversation with their first client – a new business owner seeking advice for the first time.

Depending on the path selected, varied feedback would address the nuances of each possible response.

SCORE utilizes a variety of resources, including local workshops and in-person seminars to train its volunteers and meet their community’s learning and development objectives. However, online learning has become an increasingly important part of their blended toolkit. Kelly added this about SCORE’s training philosophy:

“Lifelong learning is one of SCORE’s key values. Our e-learning program helps our volunteers stay relevant to the latest business trends and tools to ensure they can provide our clients with the support they need when they need it.”

At TechChange, we agree with SCORE and echo their commitment as we strive to create the best possible interactive resources for today’s ever-changing professional development needs.

-by Michelle Marshall, TechChange

Is your organization looking to train your teams online? Besides online facilitated courses, we also also create custom offline computer training that can be used in settings where internet connectivity is a non-starter. See our different projects on our Enterprise page and feel free to reach out to us enterprise@techchange.org.

Please join us in welcoming Tahmid, one of our new summer fellows here at TechChange! Tahmid is a rising senior at Swarthmore College, double majoring in Math and Computer Science. He will be working with the tech team this summer and is excited to learn Node, JS, and React while tackling the many projects, known and unknown, that lie ahead. In his spare time, he likes drawing and painting, solving math puzzles, playing ultimate Frisbee, and sharing fun facts.

Welcome to the TechChange team, Tahmid!