What role do MOOCs play in workforce development? New project launched to find out

March 10, 2015

Online courses have the potential to expand quality education and career training worldwide, but few people in developing countries access them. Now, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and CourseTalk.com, the largest source of reviews of online courses, are launching a two-year, $1.55 million project to investigate and address this unmet potential. The initiative, called Advancing MOOCs for Development, will be driven by research on online course enrollment in Colombia, the Philippines, and South Africa. TASCHA will lead this research, with support from IREX.

ICT4Drinks Seattle September 2014 edition

September 24, 2014

TASCHA is pleased to sponsor September’s ICT4Drinks event by buying the first round of drinks for everyone. We even have a couple of special guests, including Microsoft Research India’s Jonathan Donner. He’ll be in town all the way from South Africa to chat about his research on mobile phones, development, and public access. Don’t miss your chance to hear more about Jonathan’s exciting work! Join your fellow tech & development friends to kick off fall at the next ICT4Drinks Seattle on Thursday, September 25th – the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) is buying the first round for everyone.

What is the role of public access in the post-2015 development agenda?

July 23, 2014

TASCHA’s research is supporting the active engagement of its partners, Association of Progressive Communications (APC) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), in the post-2015 agenda development process. Together with APC and IFLA, we have prepared a briefing paper, “Public access: Supporting digital inclusion for all – Maximising the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for inclusive social and economic development.” Two different versions of the paper were presented in Geneva at The Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), Seventeenth Session, May 12-16, 2014 and the WSIS+10 High-Level Event, June 9-13, 2014

New infographic: Why does public access to technology matter for development?

May 21, 2014

TASCHA is excited to release a new infographic based on findings from the Global Impact Study of Public Access ICTs! Many thanks go to the team at JumpStart Georgia for helping us design what we think is a pretty cool visualization of why public access is so important and why it matters to development. Please feel free to share, promote, and use widely.

Upcoming event: If mobile phones killed the telecentre, what is next for public internet access?

May 6, 2014

TASCHA is excited to announce that we’ll be participating in an upcoming event on public access ICTs, hosted by the Center for Collaborative Technologies at IREX in partnership with Kurante. Below is a description of the event (originally posted on ICTworks by Wayan Vota); space is limited, so if you’d like to join us in DC for this event, please RSVP now.

Libraries & development: Guardian live chat

March 11, 2013

This Thursday, March 14, UK newspaper, The Guardian, will be hosting a live chat as part of their Global Development Professionals Network. From 1pm-3pm GMT, participants are invited to ask questions about libraries as drivers of development, among other topics. The chat will include all types of people who work with libraries in development: from the librarians themselves, to the community organizers who work with the libraries, to the government officials who support them. The chat will be informal, and will take place in the comments thread of an introductory blog.

Perceptions of Libraries as Development Partners: new report and brief released

October 2, 2012

Coinciding with the first Beyond Access event, Local Alternatives for Global Development: Rediscovering Libraries, on October 3, 2012, TASCHA has released the results of its study, Beyond Access: Perceptions of Libraries as Development Partners, in the forms of a brief and full report.