News

April 12, 2016

TASCHA has begun looking at innovation spaces that support making activities and how they may provide communities with unique opportunities through fostering innovation and creativity, but there are challenges that must be addressed before “every child a maker” becomes a reality. Through a five-part blog post series, “Making and the maker movement: A democratizing force or an example of cultural reproduction?,” TASCHA research partner Lauren Britton critically examines the discourse around the maker movement and makerspaces, not in an attempt to discredit the movement and its supporters, but rather to draw attention to the issues and challenges of the maker movement and how these may be addressed.

January 22, 2016

On January 28-29th, 2016, TASCHA and our partners at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies (JSIS), Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF), and Enlightened Myanmar Research (EMR) will hold an Information Symposium in Yangon, Myanmar.

December 17, 2015

As millions of people come online across the globe through mobile devices, mobile information literacy is vital for those who have leapfrogged from traditional media to digital devices that provide instant access to information. Mobile information literacy is necessary to help people learn how to find and evaluate the quality and credibility of information obtained…

December 14, 2015

The Maker movement evolved out of Punk and DIY culture and has grown at a rapid pace over the past six years, spurred by the creation of Make Magazine and the Maker Faire. A manifesto has been published (Hatch, 2014) and ‘how-to’ guides on making and building makerspaces abound (Makerspace.com, 2012; Bagley, 2014; Kemp, 2013; Lang, 2013). Touted as havens for techies, artists, and entrepreneurs, makerspaces are being developed at an astounding rate, both domestically and internationally. Makerspaces are community-operated facilities that provide access to the tools of production, usually wood shops, metal shops, and digital fabrication technology.

June 24, 2015

The American Library Association (ALA) is holding their annual conference June 25-June 30, 2015 in San Francisco. This year, TASCHA collaborators Samantha Becker and Stacey Wedlake from the U.S. Impact Study group will be attending and highlighting some of their great work on library measurement and evaluation. So, if you’re heading to ALA, be sure to join them as they represent two of their projects, the Impact Survey and the Edge Initiative.

June 15, 2015

Until mid-2011, Myanmar was very much closed off from the rest of the world. As the government continues to liberalize media and open up telecommunications markets, mobile phone use is skyrocketing across many parts of Myanmar. The country is on pace to make a giant leap in the digital divide, with mobile penetration rates expected to jump from about 4% in 2014 to 80% by the end of this year. For many in Myanmar, using a mobile phone marks their first experience with the internet and digital technology, not to mention having a wealth of information at their fingertips, which is a far cry from the once heavily censored and government-controlled media environment.

May 13, 2015

TASCHA kicked off field research for the Regional Study & Resource Center Evaluation project in Namibia in March 2015. Fieldwork is crucial to research success, particularly when performing evaluation work. Principal Investigator Araba Sey and Research Analyst Michelle Fellows visited Namibia to conduct research activities that comprise part of the first component of the project. Over the period of a few weeks, the researchers went to Windhoek, Gobabis, Oshakati, Helao Nafidi, and Eenhana to visit the Regional Study & Resource Centers (RSRCs), conduct interviews, and observe staff and patrons in the RSRCs.

May 7, 2015

During winter quarter 2015, TASCHA held a research seminar open to University of Washington students. The research seminar was originally designed to get students involved with our Information Strategies for Societies in Transition project. So many students registered for the seminar, though, that we expanded the seminar to include other TASCHA projects, like the current evaluation of library-like resource centers in Namibia and our recently launched MOOCs for development project.

April 10, 2015

Incredible temples range across Myanmar; from the magisterial Shwe Dagon in Yangon to Bagan’s sprawling complexes they show the country’s rich Buddhist art, culture and heritage. The monks often built them high up, as in Mandalay Hill, above. Sitting closer to God and above the everyday,as in many other religions, was a beneficial position for…

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)