Monday, November 21, 2016

Congratulations to team member Chandana Jayathilake

A hearty congratulations to team member Chandana Jayathilake, PhD student at Wayamba University of Sri Lanka for receiving Best Presentation award in the "Entrepreneurship & Extension" session at the University of Peradeniya Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture Congress in November.


Chandana presented his paper "Fostering Technology Stewardship Approach to Promote Knowledge Sharing among Farming Communities in Sri Lanka" at the 28th PGIA Congress. The paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Tropical Agriculture Journal.


Friday, October 21, 2016

Technology stewardship course to promote ICT adoption in agricultural communities of practice



The collaborative Partnership Development research project between Wayamba University of Sri Lanka and the University of Alberta, University of Guelph (Canada), supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), have successfully completed an interactive and hands-on two-day Technology Stewardship workshop. This workshop was conducted to develop capacity among the Department of Export Agriculture (DOEA) staff to be technology stewards and use ICTs for agricultural plus rural development. The workshop was held September 29-30, 2016 at the In-Service Training Institute of the Department of Export Agriculture in Matale, Sri Lanka.

The course was designed as four modules involving 12 hours of classroom instruction over 2 days. After finishing all four training modules, participants received a certificate.

In the sessions participants learned:


  •    The key principles and activities involved in technology stewardship for inclusive innovation.
  •   To plan design and implement a technology prototype and related activities needed to carry out a limited duration communication campaigning using low-cost technologies.
  •   To plan, design and implement an evaluation to assess and report on the outcome of the communication campaign and their involvement as a technology steward.
  •  To lead a community engagement activity to identify a key need or priority for a limited duration communication campaign using low-cost technologies.



This was a pilot course that was presented as part of an ongoing action research in the project. Thank you to our collaborating institutions and to all the participants and instructors for attending this workshop.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Presenting the project at University of Manchester

On 20 October, project lead Dr. Gordon Gow presented an introduction to the technology stewardship model at the Mobile Technology for Agricultral and Rural Development in the Global South Workshop at the Centre for Development Informatics at the University of Manchester.

The event focussed on current applications and research-related issues in the ICT4D field specifically with respect to mobile technology and agriculture.

Here are links to the short video and to the presentation slides.

Presenting the project at University of Manchester

On 20 October, project lead Dr. Gordon Gow presented an introduction to the technology stewardship model at the Mobile Technology for Agricultral and Rural Development in the Global South Workshop at the Centre for Development Informatics at the University of Manchester.

The event focussed on current applications and research-related issues in the ICT4D field specifically with respect to mobile technology and agriculture.

The presentation is available here.

Technology Stewardship Workshop 2016



With support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and other partners, members of the research team conducted the latest technology workshop with 20 participants from the Department of Export Agriculture and the University of Peradeniya.

The two-day event was held at the DOEA's In-Service Training Centre in Matale, Sri Lanka.  Participants were trained in the principles and practices of technology stewardship, community engagement, rapid prototyping, and evaluation and assessment skills.

The workshop is part of an ongoing initiative to develop and test a technology stewardship training program and curriculum.  For more information about the program, please contact the project lead Dr. Gordon Gow.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Conference Presentation - 4th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) at Columbia University, New York on September 22, 2016.



Faria Rashid presented the paper on our partnership development project at the 4th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) at Columbia University, New York on September 22, 2016.

In the second day of the conference, during the Parallel session, Faria presented “Converging Frontline SMS, Freedom Fone and Radio for Mobilizing Knowledge for Sustainable Agriculture in Sri Lanka”. The session had a diverse range of presenters and dynamic panel discussion on Innovation in Technology and Governance for Agriculture Food Security & Nutrition. Many practical solutions towards Sustainable development in Agriculture sector came out from others during the Presentation session.

Faria’s presentation was appreciated with lots of commendable question about the Radio+ concept and the role of the project for Sustainable Agriculture.

Full paper will be published soon in the conference proceedings.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Paper presentation “Converging Frontline SMS, Freedom Fone and Radio for Mobilizing Knowledge for Sustainable Agriculture in Sri Lanka” on 4th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) on September 21 & 22, 2016, at Columbia University, New York.





The Global association of the Master’s in Development Practice Program at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, in partnership with the Sustainable Development Solution Network, will host the 4th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development on September 21 & 22, 2016. (http://ic-sd.org/)

The aim of the conference is to identify and share practical, evidence-based solutions that can support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s conference theme is “Moving Forward: The SDGs in Practice.” The ICSD provides a unique opportunity to bring together stakeholders from government, academia, the United Nations, international agencies, NGOs, and grassroots organizers to share practical solutions towards the achievement of more sustainable and inclusive societies. This conference is truly a global event. ICSD will host students from around the world’s top universities, its participants include leading scientists and representatives of many governments and the UN.

Faria Rashid, a MSc Candidate from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) at the University of Guelph (Canada) and a team member for the project “Mobilizing Knowledge for Sustainable Agriculture” will present a paper entitled “Converging Frontline SMS, Freedom Fone and Radio for Mobilizing Knowledge for Sustainable Agriculture in Sri Lanka” at this conference.

This will be a great opportunity for our project to share our lessons learned on using low-cost information and communication technologies (ICTs) for knowledge mobilization among agricultural communities of practice in Sri Lanka. This includes feedback received from radio staff from farm listeners on the use of radio and ICTs also known as (Radio+) for sustainable agriculture. Below is a copy of the abstract for this paper.

Abstract

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have great potential for sustainable agriculture, especially when broadcast radio is combined with mobile and open source software technologies referred to here as Radio+. This paper examines the Radio+ experiences of six organizations in a community of practice for ICT-enabled farm media convergence in Sri Lanka including Rangiri Radio, Department of Export Agriculture, Wayamba University and LIRNEAsia with researchers at the University of Alberta and University of Guelph in Canada. Our work demonstrates how a “tried and true” technology such as rural radio can expand its reach with FOSS applications. Specifically, collaboration with Rangiri Radio since 2014 has involved testing open source software (Freedom Fone and Frontline SMS) and mobile technologies.  Farmers are positive about radio programming that use interactive options including “call-in” audience response programs, multiple text messaging and voice recorded messages. The paper concludes that Radio+ has good potential to strengthen participatory communication for development through a multi-media connection that networks broadcasters, agricultural experts, and farmers. 



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

One Step Closer to the Launch of a course on Technology Stewardship to promote Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption in Agricultural Communities of Practice




We are now drawing closer to the launch of our Technology Stewardship course that is part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant supporting a collaborative research project between the University of Alberta, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, and the University of Guelph. We are currently working on finalizing course materials for translation and will begin accepting participant applications in the beginning of September.

Participants will engage in an interactive and hands-on two-day workshop at the In-Service Training Institute of the Department of Export Agriculture, Matale, from September 28-30, 2016. They will take part in 12 hours of classroom instruction and receive a certificate of completion upon finishing all four training modules. Participants will learn firsthand about the principles and practices of technology stewardship and how they can be applied to encourage the adoption and use of new ICTs within agricultural communities of practice. Nancy Smith, Etienne Wenger, and John Smith of the Full Circle Blog coined a useful definition of Technology Stewards:

 “Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community.”


As mentioned, this pilot course is being delivered as part of an ongoing action research project with Sri Lankan and Canadian academic partners. Course developers and instructors include representatives from the University of Alberta, the University of Guelph, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, the University of Peradeniya, Sahana Software Foundation (Sri Lanka), and FrontlineSMS. Besides directly benefitting course participants and their communities, this course is intended to enhance collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and non-profit sectors by promoting the sharing of research results and facilitating knowledge exchange across diverse sectors.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

The project enters a new phase with Technology Stewardship workshop in September 2016


Work on the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant has moved into a new phase of activities, with a Technology Stewardship Workshop planned for September 29-Oct. 2 at Wayamba University of Sri Lanka.

The workshop will build on the achievements of the SSHRC-PDG and establish a foundation for further research in the area of technology stewardship and inclusive innovation.  The team was awarded a SSHRC Connections Grant to provide funding support for the workshop and we are looking forward to inviting new partners to join us in this work.

More information about the Workshop will be coming soon.