Lean Tech Design for Int'l Dev

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

As new information and communication technologies (ICTs) create opportunities to reach a wider and deeper audience, global development practitioners are adopting lean and agile design methodologies, popularized by Silicon Valley tech firms, to improve the reach and impact of development programming. These approaches draw on social and applied sciences such as ethnography and empirical experimentation, as well international relations theory and practice With more attention to how technologies are applied instead of what technologies are applied, it is more important than ever that development practitioners have a basis in these methods when designing programs that address economic growth, good governance, civic engagement, and environmental issues for marginalized populations around the world. This course will: equip students with a framework to approach development challenges; provide experience in the application of user-centered design methods to global development; and give students an entry point into the global digital development community through academic study, prepared debate, applied experience, and professional connections via guest speakers and local professional events. Classes will include lecture, open discussion, debates about tensions that practitioners face, targeted readings, and the development of a final project presentation. This will be an unconventionally interactive course; students will drive discussion through facilitated workshops and reading reflections. This course complements MSFS-709 Tech4Development, which introduces technologies in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Students are welcome in MSFS 745 regardless of whether they have taken MSFS 709, although they will get the most from this course if they have some previous experience in global development or the technology sector.