2021-2022: TASCHA Academic Year in Review

Young person wearing a yellow shirt, jeans, boots, a medical face mask and a backpack sitting on exterior concrete steps typing on a laptop

July 8, 2022

Highlights With the end of the academic year, it’s time to review TASCHA’s work of the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to play a role. On one hand we had to either postpone projects or replace field-based methods with remote methods (e.g. Zoom interviews), directly impacting the course and outcomes of these efforts. On…

Creating the Digital Bridge: Methods

A man wearing a tan sweater talking on his cell phone outside.

January 21, 2021

Since the last update on the Digital Bridge project, we’ve completed our data collection for the project, and we’ve begun analysis. Throughout the course of the project, several people have expressed interest in our use of audio diaries as part of our methods. This post provides the nitty gritty on the methods and our initial…

First months of Creating the Digital Bridge

A woman sitting in front of her computer and talking on her mobile phone. She is wearing a white button up shirt and a tan headscarf.

October 30, 2020

The pandemic has forced even more of our lives to move online. In Seattle, much like the rest of the country, lower income households are significantly less likely to have a computer or internet at home and have lower than average levels of computer-based digital skills. Physical distancing requirements and the unpredictability of the virus…

Research Report: Technology Access & Education for Refugee Women in Seattle & King County

Smiling people working in a small group

September 30, 2020

Washington state consistently ranks among the top 10 U.S. states for refugee resettlement. The state welcomed more than 14,000 refugees in the past five years, and 1,930 refugees in 2019. Most of these refugees come from Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Somalia, and Ukraine. While the number of refugees resettled each year fluctuates…

Technology Access and Education for Refugee Women in the Context of Covid-19

Two women wearing hijabs looking at a computer and a notebook

May 22, 2020

Local Context: Seattle & Refugee Women In Seattle, home of major technology giants like Amazon and Microsoft, twenty-five percent of people living in poverty do not have internet access at home and twenty-one percent do not have a mobile or smartphone. Many people also lack the skills to use technology effectively and are more likely to…

Strategies and Resources for Tech Assistance During a Pandemic

Digital tablet being pulled from a row of books

April 30, 2020

By: Stacey Wedlake, TASCHA Research Coordinator & Analyst As I wrote in my previous blog post, the ability to access basic needs during a pandemic relies on digital skills. As we’re seeing more and more, the pandemic exacerbates our societies’ inequalities, and communities in vulnerable situations need additional support and resources in order to “stay…

From Jordan to Seattle, you’ll find Allison Anderson promoting gender and technology equality

Allison is standing in front of a black and grey striped background. She has her arms crossed and is smiling.

April 16, 2020

  Allison Anderson became a Research Assistant at TASCHA in fall of 2019. Her interest in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) is what initially attracted her to TASCHA at the beginning of her studies at the University of Washington. Now in the final year of her PhD program, Allison took the opportunity to…

Tech Assistance During a Global Pandemic

A woman working on her laptop at home

April 7, 2020

It is difficult to “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” without the ability to use the internet to meet personal needs such as connecting with loved ones, accessing health services, paying bills, and shopping for groceries. A recent study identified that 20% of Seattle residents living alone relied on someone else to help them use the Internet….

A Review of Tools, Resources, and Frameworks to Build Data for Decision-Making Capacity in Communities and Community Organizations

calm ocean at sunset

February 26, 2020

By Research Assistant Hanna Navarro and Chris Rothschild, Senior Research Scientist at TASCHA and a Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Fellow   What are the available resources, and what research-based frameworks have been established to understand D4D and structure D4D learning practices? TASCHA and the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs partnered to better understand how trainings to improve…

Mobile Information Literacy Training: After Action Review

April 16, 2018

At TASCHA, as part of our larger goal to improve organizational learning, we’re experimenting with using After Action Reviews (AAR) at the conclusion of an event or a phase of a project. AARs provide a structured format for reflection in order to learn from the experience. Additionally, since not everyone at TASCHA works on the…