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Kursusnavn (dansk):Social innovation/Mobile applications (Projektklynge) 
Kursusnavn (engelsk):Social innovation/Mobile applications (Project cluster) 
Semester:Efterår 2008 
Udbydes under:cand.it., e-business (ebuss) 
Omfang i ECTS:0,00 
Kursussprog:Engelsk 
Kursushjemmeside:https://learnit.itu.dk 
Min. antal deltagere:2 
Forventet antal deltagere:50 
Maks. antal deltagere:50 
Formelle forudsætninger:A valid ITU student ID card.

It is incidental that the course is placed under the ITU study programme E-business (EBUSS) - the course is equally relevant to students from all other study programmes at ITU.
 
Læringsmål:The goal is to complete a project on how to use ICT to push development in third world countries.

One option is to work with the joint TCS-ITU project "Spread the Word" on using IT to improve global literacy rates. Another option is to define your own project within the scopes of ICT for development and social innovation.

Since the output of this project cluster is a number of individual projects within various fields of IT, it is only possible to describe a short list of common learning goals.

After completing the project, the student is expected to be able to:

1. Design, plan, develop, model, prototype, construct, program, or implement a solution or part of a solution to the problem area of pushing development in poor regions of the world. The exact learning objectives will depend on the topic area chosen for the individual projects.

2. Apply hands-on experience with a ¿real-life¿ project which can potentially help millions of people getting a better life

3. (Only relevant for non-technical projects) Compare the difference/shift from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to social entrepreneurship (SE) and give examples of the use of ICT for development purposes



 
Fagligt indhold:Spread the Word

The Indian IT Company TCS (www.tcs.com), which is one of the world's leading IT companies has developed a Computer Based Functional Literacy programme (CBFL) as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. CBFL enables adult illiterates to gain basic reading skills (400-700 words) within 40 hours of training. You can read more at www.tataliteracy.com.

TCS has succeeded in helping 180.000 people in India and Africa become literate using the CBFL programme. Although this is a tremendous success, TCS is concerned that with the current rate of dissemination, the global literacy problem will not be solved within the near future. TCS and ITU have therefore agreed to launch the joint project "Spread the Word" asking the ITU students to help with the following:

1. Re-think the problem from the perspective of a social entrepreneur, and develop a market-based or self-evolving dissemination model.

2. Design and implement CBFL for mobile phones

3. Create interface/usability design for mobile phones

4. Include user interaction into the teaching/learning model

5. Create an educational game on the area of literacy-training

6. Suggest your own improvement and implement it

Students are not intended to use or modify the existing software, but rather to work from the basic idea of using IT for development purposes and re-think or develop a new application based on the material provided by TCS. You can download an example of the TCS software (for the Telugu language), along with an explanation of the basic functionality here http://www.itu.dk/people/mago/India/Literacy/.  
Læringsaktiviteter:

This is a project cluster. Student signing up for this elective must also register their specific project in the project base. Note that thesis projects can also be part of this project cluster. If registering a project under this cluster, you will automatically receive background information, news from TCS, and news on related events etc.

You sign up for this project cluster as if for a normal course. But please note that enrolment in a project cluster is not considered a binding course registration (only relevant to M.Sc. students). The registration is only binding when the project is registered in the project base.

The project cluster will not appear on your diploma but the project that you register in the Project Base will of course appear when you have passed the exam.

Supervisors:

Jens Christian Godskesen - supervise projects related to design and implementation of mobile and distributed systems.

Gitte Bang Stald - supervises projects related to digital media/mobile media - and the relationship to social consequences, empowerment, and cultural diversity.

Heidi Tscherning Jensen - supervises projects related to dissemination models.

Leif Bloch Rasmussen supervises on ICT and the Bottom of the Pyramid,
Networking, ICT and Innovation, Systems Design, Inquiring Systems,
Social Technologies, e-business, Social Learning, ICT and Leadership
and ICT and Strategy.

Brit Ross Winthereik - supervises projects related to globalisation and development theory, organisational aspects of IT implementation and use, design anthropology, Science and Technology Studies (actor-network theory), as well as health care IT.

All supervisors can only take on a limited amount of groups for supervising. If capacity
should be exceeded or if students wish to write a project within an area that is not covered by above supervisors, please contact Marie Gottlieb (mago@itu.dk) for assistance in finding a supervisor. 

Eksamensform og -beskrivelse:X. experimental examination form (7-scale; external exam), 7-trins-skala, Ekstern censur

 

Litteratur udover forskningsartikler:There are no required readings for the project, but a short list of background material, which will enable students to gain a basic understanding of the problem area, will be available soon.

Relevant links (not curriculum):
The CBFL project: http://www.tataliteracy.com

Tata Concultancy services homepage: http://www.tcs.com

Social business (World Business Council for Sustainable Development article):
http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?txt D! ocTitle=social%20business&txtDocText=social%20business&DocTypeId=-1&ObjectId=Mjk1OTQ

Social innovation (World Business Council for Sustainable Development article):
http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp? t! xtDocTitle=social%20innovation&txtDocText=social%20innovation&DocTypeId=-1&ObjectId=Mjk1MTI

Social entrepreneurship (Information article): http://www.information.dk/154526

Example of the TCS software: http://www.itu.dk/people/mago/India/Literacy/

It is recommended to read the Wikipedia entrances on "social innovation", "social entrepreneurship" and "social business": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page