Timeline Appropriate Technology Fall 2015

Rough Timeline for Appropriate Technology Fall 2015 – Activities subject to change. Please check 48 hours before class.

Week 1
Sept 21, Monday: Personal Introductions, Introduction of Focus Groups.
Sept 22, Wednesday: Introduction and Focus Groups
(1) Kofi Annan’s Astonishing Facts
Kofi Annan’s Astonishing Facts
(2) Millennium Development Goals Report. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml
Please go to reports and download the 2015 report, which is many pages. Please read the intro, and each heading and look at the statistics of each graph.
(3) Then read the new Sustainable Development Goals. How are they different from the MDG? Here’s what Solar Cookers International Says about the Difference. Come to class ready to discuss, and identify you favorite goals and why you think they’re so nice.

Wk2
Intro to International Development
Current Events by Refugee Management Group
Monday, September 28: More organization of groups
(1) Gapminder on TED and see the Video http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html if this doesn’t work, try TED talk on the Gapminder website
(2) Visit Gapminder http://www.gapminder.org , Make one graph animation, and bring a printout to talk to your group about.
(3) How Development Efforts Fail https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/5986/9780821354681_ch01.pdf
4)Frustrations in Ebola assistance

Wednesday, Sept. 30:
Class Discussion: Millemium Goals, HDI Gini Coefficient New Poverty Index.

– Demonstrate how to build a website. You can see it in this video if you like:
(1) http://www.economist.com/node/16693283#footnote1 Read about the Multidimensional Poverty Index in the Economist.
(2) MPI: http://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ophi-wp38.pdf Look at the graph at the beginning of this article, Find DR, Congo, and Guatemala, and glance through the Introduction and conclusion, read last paragraph of conclusion
(3) USA Wealth Gap: Bill Moyers Video
(4) The kissing bug and being poor: at least skim it and READ THE LAST PARAGRAPH
(5) Dollar Street Video. Be prepared to be asked if you found anything offensive in this video.
(6) see this video: How I make a new Webpage

Project Website to be evaluated starting Midnight, Saturday, October 3 – problem statement, group members, contact information, resources, picture of your group having fun. See websites from classes past for templates.

Wk 3 This week: Don’t throw anything away – self intervention. Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 3, initial website evaluation

All Week!!!: the United Nations University/Cal Poly Disaster by Drought Summit, right here at Cal Poly. Are you going to some talks? I am! I’m going check out Tuesday:
UNU Panel II -Climate as a compounding factor: inequality, poverty, marginality” It’s from 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM Tuesday in room 21-105.

Oct. 5 Monday: Development Models. How do each of these people imagine development? How do you imagine development?… I wonder how Pete imagines development.
Current Events: PVE in Rwanda
Class Discussion: Concept of international development
Preparation for Class: Read Five papers:
(1) Sachs “Can extreme poverty be eliminated?” http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/jeffrey-sachs-can-extreme-poverty-be.html
(2) Easterly, “A Modest Proposal: Economic Possibilities for our time”: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25562-2005Mar10.html
(3) Bageant, “On international development” http://joebageant.net/?p=135
(4) “To Hell with Good Intentions” http://www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm
(5) Pete’s Guateca Development Paper

Tuesday!!! I’m attending the portion of the UN drought conference talk: “UNU Panel II -Climate as a compounding factor: inequality, poverty, marginality” It’s from 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM Tuesday in room 21-105.

Oct. 7 Wednesday HW (Book Reports on Maya Culture)
Bhoj Rai is the California Peace Corps recruiter. He will be giving a talk at the beginning of class.
Current Events: Solar Gardens
(1) Read: Kloos, Awash Dam – Be prepared to answer the question, “What caused the famine?” What are the take away messages of this article?
(2) Advancements in Maternal Health effectiveness depending on the external environment (ie-Country) http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/7696.pdf
(3) When Good Aid Goes Bad
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22380448/ns/world_news-africa/t/examples-failed-aid-funded-projects-africa/#.U5cUeK1dUro
(4) Read from The Book List

Wk 4
Oct. 12, Monday (book Reports on Colonialism and Collapse of Society)
Current Events: Ashesi
Start first presentation: Solar Gardens, Biochar, Sanitation, Drinking Water, Mama Group
Readings on Neocolonialism:
(1) Interview with John Perkins (Audio interview can be found: http://www.alternativeradio.org/products/perj001, Additionally, he has his own website at http://www.johnperkins.org/.
(2) Sorry for Syphilis: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/health/research/02infect.html
(3) “50 Years is Enough” Network. Please look it up on the web, and find out what they are advocating.
(4) Guatemala’s 36-year war: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/opinion/04schlesinger.html
(5) Politics and how important it is to train leaders rather than just put them in power
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/feb/28/malawi-cashgate-corruption-scandal-accountability
(6) Please don’t forget to read the papers of your colleagues on The book list

Oct. 14, Wed.(Book Reports on Neocolonialism) – Student Readings on other Solutions.
Current Events: Sanitation
Consider going to the Student Experimental Farm. Workdays are Sundays, 10 AM – 1:00 PM
First Presentation: PVE Ghana, PVE Rwanda, Ishesi Entrepreneurship, Coffee, Waste Management
(1) Ferguson, Epilogue, The Anti-Politics Machine: Development. Pete finds this article frustratingly difficult to read, yet it has a beautiful message making the frustration worth it. Ferguson goes through different stake holders and unravels what we thing should be done by different people. This is also frustrating when we realize that it isn’t easy. In the end, however, he does say that yes, there is something that you can do – see if you can find this message.
(2) Small is Beautiful Excerpt
(3) Last week, we looked at a few big aid programs that were disasters. Please take a look at a different side of AID at the USAID website https://www.usaid.gov/results-data/success-stories. Please find at least one success story that relates to your project. The page you see is the first of 241 pages, so don’t spend too much time on the first page, but look through at least 5 – 10 pages before finding a project that is like yours. Come to class ready to discuss this “success story”.
(4) Please don’t forget to read the papers of your colleagues on The book list

From October 16 – October 22, there is a movie showing at the Palm presenting climate change as the wake up call for us to get it together as a global society. If you’d like to see it, I’d love to have you report back to the class about it. If you want to see the trailer:
http://thefilm.thischangeseverything.org/ and a poster

Wk 5
Oct. 19 Monday (Book Reports on Struggles of the People), more reading on smaller solutions
Current Events: Coffee
(1) Lauren Wilcox: Designing New for a Better Life:
http://nowater-nolife.org/press/WorldArk-2008/index.html
(2) Empathy in Design
http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/news/pdfs/Empathy_on_the_Edge.pdf
-empathy in design leads to problem solving
(3) Paul Polak:
a) 12 Steps, Read 12 steps and watch the video
b) See the 12 steps video: http://www.paulpolak.com/html/media_video.html
c) Read the “Don’t Bother Trilogy”: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jamesu/archive/2008/11/19/paul-polak-and-the-art-of-listening.aspx
(4) if you were unable to read the Ferguson Epilogue (last Wednesday), please try again. The link worked for me this (Sunday) morning. If that doesn’t work, you can access the whole book at Ferguson Antipolitics and just read the Epilogue.
(5) Please take a moment to send me an Email summarizing your group experience pschwart@calpoly.edu. It can be as simple as “all is good with my project, and we are working well together.” However, please let me know if there’s any conflict within the group or if someone isn’t supporting their share of the work. This is due by class time Wednesday, but send it any time you like.
(5) Please don’t forget to read the papers of your colleagues on The book list
(6) In class: we will discuss the readings (including Ferguson) and reflect on the feedback from last Wednesday. Please read the summary I’ve written from your feedback last Wednesday, as well as my response to your presentations. We will discuss this in class.

Oct. 21, Wednesday (Meet at the SEF – see map) – Book Reports on the people and the forest.
Current Events: Maternal Care
(1) Read “Indigenous Management of Tropical Forest Ecosystems: The case of the Kayapó Indians of the Brazilian Amazon”
(2) PAKSBAB Pakistan Straw Bale Homes
(3) Please take a moment to send me an Email summarizing your group experience pschwart@calpoly.edu. It can be as simple as “all is good with my project, and we are working well together.” However, please let me know if there’s any conflict within the group or if someone isn’t supporting their share of the work. This is due by class time Wednesday, but send it any time you like.
(4) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list
(5) Folks seemed concerned about the final exam during our discussion Monday. I put last year’s final exam on the main page. The expectation is that you will draw from material and discussions in the class to answer these questions.
(6) Empathy Intervention due by next Monday. Please see main page for link.

Wk 6 (Interventions, AID)
Oct. 26, Monday: Book Reports on Some Perspectives on AID
Current Events: Biochar
(1) Pete’s NCIIA Rejection Rejection Letter
(2) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list
(3) Joe Biden on developing Latin America
(4) Folks seemed concerned about the final exam during our discussion Monday. I put last year’s final exam on the main page. The expectation is that you will draw from material and discussions in the class to answer these questions.
(5) Empathy Intervention due by next Monday. Please see main page for link.

Oct. 28, Wednesday: Book Reports about Development: Daniel Wiens of Journeyman International visits and speaks about his experiences.
Current Events: Drinking Water
(1) Please see these three websites to prepare for Daniel’s talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noVq2tIf-cU
This second links are ~80 page documents that you don’t have to read exhaustively. Here is what Daniel advises: “I would not expect your students to read it all, but would suggest they skim it to gain an understanding of what students in our program produce. I would suggest they spend 10 or so minutes flipping through it.”
http://issuu.com/journeymanint/docs/curriculum_rev_1_for_lulu/1
https://living-future.org/sites/default/files/reports/FINAL%20LBC%203_0_WebOptimized_low.pdf
(2) Please Read The CIA Fact Book on any country you like – I mean poor, developing country, such as DR Congo or Haiti for instance… but you choose: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
(3) Read about Working Villages and in particular read the R&D page to see their development model.
(4) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list, Make sure you go back to last week and read Tom Smylie’s report on Rwanda Inc.

Wk 7
Nov. 2, Monday: Book Reports on Working with People.
Current Events: Improved Waste Management
Log into the Empathy Intervention Page and provide your experience.
Second Presentations and Discussions: Solar Garden in Ghana, Biochar, Ishesi/Burro Entrepreneurship
Reading assignment:
(1) http://blog.paulpolak.com/?p=376 (See both videos at the bottom of the website) YouTube of Charcoal Briquette Making.
(2) Stakeholder Analysis of “Fuel in the Fields”, S. Frayne. Distinguish Importance from Influence
(3) Movie on Guatemala Post Earthquake
(4) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list
In class, conduct a stakeholder’s analysis of “Fuel in the Fields” using this worksheet.

Nov. 4, Book Reports on Design and Appropriate Technology, Second Presentation: PVE Ghana, Mama
(1) LED lighting: Nobel Prize and Game Changer in Global South
(2) Proposal: Lighting the Way
(3) Homework on Stake Holders for your project such as the Bamboo Project did with their Stake Holder Analysis
(4) Read some comments I have on the Monday presentations if you like.
(5) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list

Midnight Saturday Night (Nov. 7), I will review your websites again. I will be looking for the following:
As in the last website review, I wish to have you introduce your project and your group with documenting pictures. Please refine, expand, or revise your problem statement and the context to better reflect your project now, if relevant. Please add to this
1) More information about your collaborating community: description, a map, and some demographic information that must include something from http://www.gapminder.org/ or some other graphical representation of informative demographic information related to your community.
2) Outline a plan and/or proposal. What do you hope to accomplish? Why do you want to do this? How do you plan to do this? what are some of the other options?
For the first review, the bar was pretty low, in that my intention was to have people define a project, get together, and start working. For the second review, I have expectations of a considerable amount of material. For a good example, please see some websites from last year: http://appropriatetechnology.wikispaces.com/Development+-+Fall+2014
3) Add a Stakeholders Analysis as best you can to consider the support and threats your project may face from people in your partner country and here at home. Here is the Template from Amy Smith at MIT.

Wk 8
Nov. 9, Monday: Elena Comes from Kiva. See her project from last year!, and her groups webpage: Aid Model in Haiti, She has requested that you send her any questions beforehand to help her prepare. If you have any questions after looking into this, please Email her at elenateare93@gmail.com

Book reports on Micro Lending and Business Solutions.
Second Presentation: Sanitation, Water
Before Class
(1) Please read about Kiva U from Elena’s Letter and follow the links and learn what you can!
(2) please see video Muhammad Yunus’s Nobel Documentary
(3) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list
(4) Guidelines to kickstarter video, please see Syllabus.
(5) Read my summary and commentary on Feedback from Week 7.
(6) Log into the Self Intervention Page Write what you plan on doing.
added after the class: Microfinance doesn’t work.

Nov. 11, Wednesday: No Class, Veteran’s Day,

Wk 9
Nov. 16, Second Presentation: Coffee, Rwanda PVE, Waste Conversion
Cal Poly Professor, Jim Keese presents about his Peru cookstove project
(1) Smoke: Killer in the Kitchen
(2) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list
(3) Think about how things are going in your group. What were your expectations for group work? For your participation? How have these been met or not? What is your response? What can we learn from this? We will talk about this in class.

Nov. 18, Wednesday Book Reports on innovative design. Peter Keller Talks about AID Africa: People and the Technology.
(1) Prepare for Peter’s visit by going to their website: http://www.aidafrica.net/ and reading what they do and watching the short video.
(2) Peter has also requested that you read through and see the video on this website: Gates Foundation Big Bet
(3) Please read this very short statement about Monday’s presentations and final projects.
(4) read the papers of your colleagues on The book list

Wk 10
Nov. 23, Monday: Book Reports on Reinventing Ourselves
Roger Burton Talks about… well, you’ll see His contact information is rogersburton@gmail.com
(1) Please see Story of Stuff Video
(2) Please see Permaculture at Pete’s
(3) Please read Article about me in the Mustang News
(4) Please bring in your Sustainability, Footprint

(5) Although we should have read through all the book reports, there are some stragglers. Please make sure that you have read all the papers of your colleagues on The book list

Nov. 26, Wednesday: (Holiday)

Wk 11
Nov. 30, Monday: Prepare for final exam and final presentations
(1) Please see this video Summarizing what we’ve learned?
(2) See video about Guateca
(3) Did you find Roger’s discussion valuable? His contact information is rogersburton@gmail.com

Wednesday Dec. 2
Final Exam, Discussions.
Course Evals
Prepare for final Potluck

Finals Week, Wednesday Dec 9, 1:00 PM:** Potluck Lunch, Give Final Presentations.
Websites will be graded after midnight, Saturday night, Dec. 12th. Please send Email to pschwart@calpoly.edu before then indicating how things in your group went.

What I dropped out:
Read about wheelchairs in Zambia: Disacare