Timeline Appropriate Technology Fall 2017

Rough Timeline for Appropriate Technology Fall 2017 – Activities subject to change. Please check 48 hours before class.

*Must establish group expectations

WEEK 1 No class this week but there is a short assignment (below)
(1) Please take this short survey about our global knowledge. It doesn’t count toward your grade. Please don’t look anything up, but you can think hard and contemplate the question and please do your best.
(2) Read about projects on the main class website and/or be ready to suggest a new one of your own design. Think about this over the weekend.
(3) We need more presenters. Every year, student feedback overwhelmingly endorses having more presentations from practitioners in the field. Can you recommend someone who could give a talk? Do you have experiences that you might give a talk about?

WEEK 2
Sept 18, Monday: Personal Introductions, Introduction of Focus Groups, and What is a development model?
Please Read before class:
(0) hey, if you haven’t done it, please take the 4 minute survey… see (1) above
(1) Kofi Annan’s Astonishing Facts Kofi Annan’s Astonishing Facts, What’s the most astonishing to you? This document is 20 years old. How do you think some of these facts have changed since his list was written?
(2) Please skim the 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. Get an idea of what this is all about so you can compare it to the more modern document (next).
(3) Then read the new Sustainable Development Goals. How are they different from the MDG (above)? Here’s what Solar Cookers International Says about the Difference. Come to class ready to identify your favorite goals and discuss why you have these priorities.
(4) There are people in unindustrialized countries that have fewer resources than us. What do you think about this? What is your “development model”?
(5) Please watch this video about global knowledge. It will require you to sign up for a free membership on Play Posit. Please write your password down somewhere so you don’t forget it.
(6) We will immediately begin discussing projects, and I hope to have everyone selected into a project of 3-4 students by the end of next week. Please spend some time on the main class website. Please sign up for as many as two projects you like. Feel free to enter a new project if you have one in mind.

Sept 20, Wednesday: Daniel Wiens (Email: daniel@journeymaninternational.org) of Journeyman International talks about his activities during the first hour of class.
Preparation for Class: Read Five papers and compare development models:
(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” I’m assigning the first address to the university. However, feel free to read the rest about him if you like.
(4) “To Hell with Good Intentions” http://www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm
(5) All past classes have agreed that guest speakers are appreciated. Can you give a presentation or recommend someone else to give a presentation about an experience in development? If so, please let me know as soon as possible.
(6) Propose a project – each of you are required to propose a different project from that on the main class website. Please give it some thought.
(7) In preparing for Daniel’s talk, he advised: “I would have your students read this. and watch this, and this.” please have a look at these before class.

WEEK 3
Monday, Sept. 25: More organization of groups.
(0) Please notice that I put two of the projects from Daniel’s talk on the project table of the main class website. Please see if you want to try one of these projects.
(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
(5) I periodically ask your feedback about your experience in the class. You can read past classes if you like. They are on the timeline. However, please read this one from Wk 4 of last year.
(6) Please read this NPR article… what is the development model of GiveDirectly?

Wednesday, Sept 27:
Talk by: TYMON MANNING
Returned Volunteer, Peru 2011-2013
Senior Regional Recruiter
tmanning@peacecorps.gov
2361 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 155, El Segundo, CA 90245
Direct: 310.356.1122 | Mobile: 310-227-1271
Pronouns: he/him/his
(0) See this video about the Peace Corps. Also prepare for Ty’s talk by visiting the PC-Peru website, and in particular read of few Stories from Peru.
(1) Should a nonprofit decide itself out of existence?
(2) The kissing bug and being poor: at least skim it and READ THE LAST PARAGRAPH
(3) Please visit Dollar Street and look at how some of the poorest and richest live.
(4) NPR on Poverty Reduction
(5) see this video: How I make a new Webpage and start your website.
(6) Please update the main class webpage so that your name appears by only one project.
(7) Consider adding an Environmental Studies Minor to your degree:
Environmental Studies Minor.png
Project Website to be evaluated starting Midnight, Saturday, Sept. 30 – problem statement, group members, contact information, resources, picture of your group having fun. See websites from classes past for templates.

Please consider coming Sunday to the SEF, Student Experimental Farm,11 AM – 1:00 PM.

WEEK 4
This week: Don’t throw anything away – self intervention. Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 8, initial website evaluation
Feedback from last week’s class posted on main class website. Please see what is happening for those in the class.
Oct. 2, Monday: First presentations of projects.

Oct. 4, Wednesday AT the SEF (Student Experimental Farm): Roger talks about Roger Stuff! Don’t throw anything away – self intervention.
Meet at the Student Experimental Farm. How do I get to the SEF?
(1) Read about Roger for future information, his Email is rogersburton@gmail.com if you’d like to contact him.
(2) Hey, where are your websites? I went to grade the websites, but the only group who put a link to their website is the Water Disinfectant Group. Please put a link to your group’s website in the first column of the project table on the main class website so I can visit. Thanks!
(3) All of these self interventions? How does Pete’s family live?
(4) Please read Crop Dumping in Haiti
(5) Please read not throw food away
(6) Feedback from last week’s class posted on main class website. Please see what is happening for those in the class.

Don’t throw anything away – self intervention

WEEK 5, 3:00, Jim Keese presents about cookstoves in Peru after we revisit our quandary about development and the world at large from the readings and discussion with Roger.
Oct. 9, Monday
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) Please Read When Good Aid Goes Bad
(4) Post your “don’t throw anything away” experience on the website – link is on the main class page. Please** put your first and last name at the beginning of your post, so I can give you credit, or at least send me an Email indicating which post is yours. Thanks!
(5) Speaking of waste, please note in this article, the mention of the Sustainable Development Goals in this NPR article about reduction of food waste in the UK.
(6) Guatemala’s 36-year war: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/opinion/04schlesinger.html
(7) Your websites:

  • I just deleted the *!* for “has outside interested party” because we’ve already chosen our groups. I’m grateful that we’ve found a way to address all the projects that had outside interest.
  • Please make sure that there is a link to your page in the left-most column
  • Please make sure that your contact information is located on your website as well as on the main class webpage. For the next website check, I’ll expect a short bio for each of you (just a few lines).
  • On your project website, please put a link back to our main class website.

(9) Please read: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/feb/28/malawi-cashgate-corruption-scandal-accountability

Oct. 11, Wed. Sara and/or Nathan visits from InPress Technologies
(0) Please review their website www.inpresstechnologies.com to get a feel for what we do and why it matters before I come in.”
(1) Ferguson, Epilogue, The Anti-Politics Machine: Development. I find this article frustratingly difficult to read, yet it has a beautiful message making the frustration worth it… in my opinion. Ferguson goes through different stake holders and unravels what we think 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 we can do – see if you can find this message. We will talk about it when I return, but the whole message is very important.
(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 200+ 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) Correlation between electricity access and quality of life Dan Kammen.
– Please do some research on your project. Please identify some data and statistics on the people you are working with.
– in class I hope to have time to work on the group projects. We will also talk about today’s readings. We will also revisit last week Wednesday’s reading about if we should even be doing development work or if we’re doing it all wrong. The discussion may fit nicely into the reading by Ferguson.

WEEK 6 Empathy Intervention… think about it, it is due next Monday
Peter Keller Visits from Aid Africa!!
Oct. 16 Monday more reading on smaller solutions
(1) See the video of Maddi in her experiences in Uganda and find out about AidAfrica.
(2) Prepare for Peter’s visit by going to their website: http://www.aidafrica.net/ and reading what they do and watching the short video.
(3) Peter has also requested that you read through and see the video on this website: Gates Foundation Big Bet
(4) Lauren Wilcox: Designing New for a Better Life:
http://nowater-nolife.org/press/WorldArk-2008/index.html
(5) Empathy in Design
http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/news/pdfs/Empathy_on_the_Edge.pdf
-empathy in design leads to problem solving
(6) Please see the red writing on the main class website by your group’s entry. If there’s a problem, please contact me immediately to figure out what to do about it.
(7) It seems zero students have logged their first intervention. Please go to the website (accessible from the main class website) and log your experience. I haven’t figured out how to change the size of the pictures, and likely one can’t. It seems the pictures appear as the same size as the screenshot one takes. So, if you want the picture to be smaller, take a screen shot of a smaller picture.

Oct. 18, Wednesday,
(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) Send Pete an Email at pschwart@calpoly.edu about how things are going in your group. Are you getting along? Is it fun? Is everyone doing their fair share? Is there some way I can help your group dynamics?
(4) Please check your group’s entry on the main class website. Please address any comments I made in red. Once any concerns are taken care of, please delete the red text.
(5) Empathy Intervention due by next Monday. Please see main page for link. Come to class with questions. We will talk more about empathy during the rest of the quarter.
(6) Important question to answer in class Wednesday: “what is Aid Africa’s development model?”
(7) Reconsider Ferguson’s paper. What is to be done?

WEEK 7 (Interventions, AID) Log into the Empathy Intervention Page (link on main class page) and provide your experience.
(1) Joe Biden on developing Latin America
(2) Empathy Intervention due. Please see main page for link. Sunday evening, there’s only two entries in the Empathy Intervention. Please go to it and log your experience.
(3) Paul Polak:
a) 12 Steps, Read 12 steps and watch the video
b) More about Paul Polak if you like
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) Are you “Dasdasdas2”? I received a request from “Dasdasdas2” to join Wikispaces. Your log-in names should be your name such as “PeteSchwartz” so we know who you are.

Oct. 25, Wednesday:
Jill Bolster-White comes to talk about Transitions Mental Health, San Luis Obispo
(1) Please read about TMH-SLO
(2) Please watch this 10 minute video about numbers of homelessness.
(3) Please watch a total of 30 minutes (or more) from the two 1-hour videos:
LA Homeless, NYC Homeless
(4) Stakeholder Analysis of “Fuel in the Fields”, S. Frayne. Distinguish Importance from Influence
(5) Movie on Guatemala Post Earthquake
(6) Conduct a stakeholder’s analysis of “Fuel in the Fields” using this worksheet.
Next Saturday Night, Nov. 4, I will review websites again.
Second Presentations are next Monday and Wednesday.
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?
3) A brief Stakeholders Analysis. Who are the important people you are working with… who are influential?
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 2014: http://appropriatetechnology.wikispaces.com/Development+-+Fall+2014, feel free to check other classes.

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.

WEEK 8
Oct. 30, Monday: Presentations from the first four groups: Cross Cultural Curriculum, Water Disinfectant, Cooking with Solar Electricity, Aquaponics
Reading assignment:
(1) http://blog.paulpolak.com/?p=376 (See both videos at the bottom of the website) YouTube of Charcoal Briquette Making.
(2) Ethics and Happiness: The Expanding Circle by Peter Singer
(3) This year’s Nobel Prize recipient in Literature and “The Gourmet
(4) Please read my short correspondence with Alex Petroff of Working Villages International
(5) The Baker-Koob Grant is due next Monday! $5,000 can put two students in Africa for a good part of the summer.

Nov. 1, Wednesday: Presentations from the second four groups: Homeless, Open Defecation, Postpartum Hemorrhaging, Solar Suitcase
This weeks’ reading covers the work of Peggy Papathakis in Malawi.
(1) Read about Peggy’s work that won her the Cal Poly Distinguished Scholarship Award.
(2) Video of teen Mom Lyna.
(3) Video of Mary Rath, teen mom.
(4) MamaChiponde Study Video
(5) LED lighting: Nobel Prize and Game Changer in Global South
(6) Proposal: Lighting the Way
(7) Homework on Stake Holders for your project such as the Bamboo Project did with their Stake Holder Analysis a few years ago.
(8) The Baker-Koob Grant is due next Monday!
(9) Read through the empathy interventions and be ready to discuss in class what we might learn from them.
Websites will be evaluated again starting midnight this Saturday night.

WEEK 9 Final Self Intervention of your own design
(1) The Baker-Koob Grant is due today!
(2) please see video Muhammad Yunus’s Nobel Documentary, and
(3) read Microfinance doesn’t work
(4) What about just giving people money? Mercy Corps in Puerto Rico
(5) But Mercy Corps is for emergencies… what about chronic poverty… Give Directly. Read the entire 100 pages if you like, but certainly read the abstract and conclusion… maybe more?
(6) Studies of interventions can surprise us as to what works and doesn’t work
(7) Please start planning your “kickstarter-like” video, please see Syllabus.
(8) Log onto the final self intervention page and log what you plan to do.

Nov. 8, Come to our regular classroom. If you really want to visit my house, please let me know and you’re welcome to come sometime.
Meet At Pete’s House: 1441 Iris St. See map below
(1) Pease see Happiness and Emissions,
(2) Please see Story of Stuff Video
(3) Please read Article about me in the Mustang News
(4) Please bring in your Sustainability, Footprint
(5) Read a book report on //A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Sholdier// by Ishmael Beah
(6) Pease read a book report on Blue Clay People by William Powers
Petes house.png

WEEK 10
Nov. 13, Monday:
(1)Read about Guateca from my promotion application
(2) See video about Guateca
(3) I applied for the NCIIA $50,000 grant three times. It was rejected 3 times with enthusiastic support to reapply. After the third time, I wrote them back: Pete’s NCIIA Rejection Rejection Letter
(4) As you sit or squat, please appreciate world toilet day!
(5) Read a word from the Dalai Lama on finding peace in the challenging times.
(6) Read the Book Report about Bitter Fruit, the CIA-led coup of the Guatemalan government leading to the 1960-1996 thirty-six year war. The book report doesn’t include some interesting facts that you would find in the wikipedia article including that the USA-installed government committed widespread genocide against the indigenous people, that ~40,000 Guatemalan’s “disappeared” or were killed during this time, and that the USA Secretary of state and CIA director under the Eisenhower administration were both board members of United Fruit Company.
(7) Please read the book summary for The Global Village Myth by Patrick Porter. This article may be very pertinent in looking at the present world situation.
(8) Please log the completion of your self intervention. The link is on the main class website.
Are you going to be on campus for Thanksgiving with no plans? If so, please consider joining us at a large community celebration with lots of people. Write me an Email if you are interested.
(9) Folks asked about what to expect on the final exam. Please find several resources with respect to the final exam on the main class website. Additionally, if you think you know a good question for the final exam, please provide it at the link I provide on the main class website.
(10) I have read through the websites and also provide feedback about the talks on the main class website.
In Class – Pete on the Failure of Guateca, Neocolonialism, Our Websites

Nov. 15, Wednesday: Book Reports on Reinventing Ourselves
(1) Send me an Email about how things are going in your group. Are you getting along? Is everyone’s voice being heard? Is everyone doing their share?
(2) Read through the self interventions of your classmates and see what you might learn from their experiences.
(3) Book Reports:

(4) Here’s how week 11 and finals week should run. We will have our final exam for about 1 hour on Wednesday, Novemeber 29. We will have our final presentations (about 15 minutes per presentation) on 1:00 Wednesday of finals week, December 6, and this will also be a pot luck late lunch from 1-4 PM in our regular classroom. Additionally, we will take some time to have a course redesign and share ideas to change the class.
(5) Pete’s Carbon Footprint is about 16 Ton for the family of 3 (I didn’t count Tekuru because she is with me only half time). Our largest constituent was services because we receive about $1500 of healthcare from Cal Poly per month. Also, I didn’t count the trip I take to a Denver conference because it’s part of work, but I did count the trip we take to Phoenix every year.
(6) Please read bout the final exam on the main class website.

Thanksgiving week-long Holiday

WEEK 11
Nov. 27, Monday: Prepare for final exam and final presentations
(1) Please see this video Summarizing what we’ve learned?
(2) Read about wheelchairs in Zambia: Disacare
(3) Read the book report on New Age of Innovation, N=1, R=G this may provide a valuable insight for globalization in general, not just for development.
(4) Please read about the Navajo Nation and Uranium Contamination. Please consider what Ferguson might answer if we asked, “What Is To Be Done?”
(5) Are we getting any better with Child Labor?
(6) A story about Faith
Faith, HIV worker starts garden and How Faith’s Garden Worked Out
(7) What to do if your president were caught peeing in public….
(8) And how the world’s toilets look. At least, take a look.

Nov. 29, Wednesday
Final Exam, Discussions.
Solar Suitcase Group’s Final Presentation
Course Evals – Please fill them out.
Prepare for final Potluck
Final Presentations: Please aim for 15 minutes. Besides an update, please provide a conclusion and outlook. In particular, what advice will you give me/us as far as how the project should or shouldn’t continue.
**After our class Monday, I wrote to Jim Keese (Peru Study Abroad – Stoves) asking two questions, “When you went back to the villages to see if they were still using the stoves, some were broken. When you built the stoves, did you show people how to fix them or leave more parts or anything like that? Did the evaluation you made result in any changes to the protocol you have now for installing new stoves?”
He responded immediately:
“The recommendations we made after the 2015 study were the following:

  1. Use stronger materials for the stove tops
  2. make spare parts available
  3. provide better training to the community on how to maintain the stoves
  4. provide better training to the students to make sure they were assembled correctly, and they were able to communicate to community members on how to properly operate the stoves.
  5. Make a 2-week follow-up visit to make sure any problems were addressed, as this is the trial period.

When we went back with a the group in 2017, the following changes had been made:

  1. design of the stove was modified to make the base thicker (and stronger), and more re-bar was used to support the stove top
  2. more NGO staff were on-site so that each student group worked under the supervision of a staff member to ensure that the stove was assembled correctly
  3. we made the 2-week follow-up visit (with spare parts in the van) to check stoves and answer questions. There were no problems at that time. I think steps one and two will make a critical difference by making the stoves more durable and ensuring they are properly assembled in the first place.”

Finals Week, Wednesday Dec 6, 1:00 PM:
(1) Potluck Lunch,
(2) Give Final Presentations.
(3) Slippery floor course redesign

Before Midnight Saturday Night, December 9:
(1) Finish website with video
(2) Submit to me a report of how things went with your group. Ideally, you’ll all send one together. However, you are welcome to send me individual statements as well. Email to pschwart@calpoly.edu

_Ignore Below This Line_
What I dropped out of the curriculum this quarter:
….so don’t Read:
(1) 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

More readings:

Read about open defecation in India

Money lending merry-go-rounds

How the Aid Industry Will Have to Change

Drones deliver medical supplies in Tanzania

EarthEnable: How a new company innovates to keep ahead in Rwanda

Menstruation Pads. Make sure you read the last line.

Class Discussion: Concept of international development
(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) Pete’s Guateca Development Paper, and be prepared to identify the Guateca “development model”

(2) I was so stoked to read this article July 2017. We’ve been talking how to empower the poor. How about if they do it themselves? Is there a way we can help? Please consider this question while readingexploring appropriate technology with the internet! (growing strawberries on The West Bank)
(3) Please Read The CIA Fact Book on any country you like – I mean poor, developing country, such as DR Congo or Haiti for instance, and maybe the USA, and your country of interest!… but you choose: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
(4) Read about Working Villages and in particular read the R&D page to see their development model.
(5) Please read through the Empathy Intervention webpage on the main class webpage.

(10) Please take a look at a Masters Thesis on Latrine Building in the Peace Corps. I’m sorry this came late. I just received it from our speaker. It’s way long, but please take a look at it and come with a question.

(7) Read a book report on Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel.
(8) Read a short book report on Jared Diamond’s //Collapse//
(9) Please read book report on King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild