Innovative Approaches to Information Communication Technology and Development (ICTD) Course Design
This program is tentative and subject to change.
As Kenya and other African countries face a digital transformation, scholars are becoming aware of how to include their voices in the technology design process. Professors have redesigned their department’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Project course. Their goal was to center Kenyan perspectives and promote decolonization in ICT design in Kenya. Professors cotaught the course of 45 students from the U.S. and Kenya, who joined the course via Zoom, for a full semester. Success was measured by an open-ended survey on students’ learning experience. Students reported learning contextual ideas about the country of Kenya (i.e. colonialism, farming, and language) and from their design projects. Students also noted learning directly from Kenyan students had the most impact on their final products. They gave feedback on what could be improved and suggested more time conversing with the Kenyan students. This is a major point of consideration for future editions of the redesigned curriculum aiming to change the way technology for Africa to be designed.