News

March 18, 2015

This blog post is the fourth of five of the blog post series, “Making and the maker movement: A democratizing force or an example of cultural reproduction?” See the first blog post, second blog post, and third blog post.

Spaces and ‘Maker’ activities are promoted as being inclusive, open spaces. Yet, as Dunbar-Hester writes in Radical Inclusion? Locating Accountability in Technical DIY,
The promotion of a sphere in which “universal” technical (or civic) participation occurs may require bracketing inequalities of access and status, which obviously fails to reflect a social reality where certain groups enjoy privilege and dominance relative to other groups. (Dunbar-Hester, 2014)

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.

March 5, 2015

On Tuesday, March 10, 2015, Maria will present to the Data Management Association of Puget Sound (DAMA of Puget Sound) on her research involving collecting and analyzing data from social media platforms. Using examples from her work investigating the role of Facebook in the Arab Spring and the use of Twitter as a collective voice in political protests, Maria will explore the challenges that researchers face when collecting and analyzing data from social media platforms.

January 27, 2015

We are pleased and honored to announce that the Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington Information School, including our longstanding research collaborators at the US Impact Studies group, has been identified as one of the three legacy partners expected to do this work. We will work closely with Global Libraries and our fellow legacy partners, the Public Library Association (PLA) of the American Library Association and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), to further determine and refine the strategies, goals, and activities of the legacy work going forward.

January 22, 2015

Interested in developing countries, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and culture? Are you a student at the University of Washington? If so, TASCHA Research Faculty Araba Sey and Researcher Chris Rothschild are leading a program this summer in Ghana that could be perfect for you and your education. This seminar focuses on research, development, communication, and technology.

TASCHA is always thinking about the future of libraries, as many of our projects either involve libraries in some capacity or will result in contributions to the library field and research on libraries. We also embrace design thinking (also known as human-centered design), so we’re excited to see and share a new toolkit, Design Thinking for Libraries.

New regional libraries have been introduced in Namibia. Officially called Regional Study & Resource Centers, the Government of Namibia, with support from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), has launched three of these libraries in different regions of Namibia. The MCC has commissioned TASCHA to conduct an ongoing performance evaluation of these centers. Over the past several months, TASCHA researchers have been developing and refining the project’s research design and evaluation methods (download the evaluation design report here). TASCHA will work closely with local research teams in Namibia to carry out the field research, which will begin in February 2015 and continue through 2017.

January 19, 2015

TASCHA and fellow iSchool research group US Impact Study have joined together to sponsor a team for the National Readathon Day. We’ve pledged to read with librarians, librarians-to-be, and book lovers of all types from the University of Washington’s iSchool, and beyond. We invite you to participate with us!

November 18, 2014

I will soon be travelling to Myanmar as part of the project, Information Strategies for Societies in Transition, to encourage better understanding and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the rapidly developing country. Formerly known as Burma, it is undergoing an incredible political, social and economic transition after years of authoritarian rule.

November 4, 2014

We are often asked how students can get involved with the work that we do at TASCHA. During Winter Quarter 2015, TASCHA is leading a Research Seminar in the Information School (INFX 571), offering students a chance to get real world ICTD and research experience by working on one of our current projects, Information Strategies for Societies in Transition.