Graduate School

For about half of a year now, I have been researching graduate schools. I realize that the best way to enter the field of ICT4D is to learn from some of the best ICT4D researchers in the world. One thing I realized with the field of ICT4D is that it is not about finding degrees in ICT4D it is about finding you niche and making a contribution to the ICT4D field. ICT4D is a broad field, there are many sectors with the field (m4d, health informatics, agriculture, etc) My contribution is HCI!

Here is a list of schools with great ICT4D resources in the US. Please suggest more if you know any!

• Georgia Institute of Technology - Michael Best is world renowned for his work with sustainability and human computer interaction in the ICT4D context - http://mikeb.inta.gatech.edu/
• University of California, Berkeley - Name should say enough, quality school =quality education! Within the iSchool there is the ICTD center. - http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/centersandclinics/ictd 
• Carnegie Mellon University - TechBridgeWorld @ Carnegie Mellon University does some great work - http://www.techbridgeworld.org/
• Michigan State University - Kurt Demaagd, Jenny and thier work in Tanzania - http://tc.msu.edu/ict4d
• University of Colorado, Boulder - A degree in ICTD - http://www.colorado.edu/atlas/
• Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis - Currently working on an Open MRS project - http://informatics.iupui.edu/
• University of Michigan - Graduate degree's with specialization's in Community Informatics (ICT4D) - http://www.si.umich.edu/
• University of Washington - Technology and Social Change Group - http://cis.washington.edu/

And there are many many more schools that offer ICT4D resources. I'm still searching myself. There are many more schools outside the US as well! I will post as I find. 

My professor once told me that as long as a graduate program as ONE classes related to ICT4D, the program was worth researching. Here is a list of ICT4D classes compiled by Revi Sterling of the ATLAS institute. 

• https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjCm4tlQ5fSrdHdxLVV6d1d1aGxhdzdnQkt3cGgxN0E&hl=en#gid=0

I am going to BE the Change

I have been wanting to start a blog for the longest time. But I never knew exactly what I wanted to blog about. I'm passionate about design and information technology and global enlightenment and blah blah blah, but I'm not an expert in those fields. In fact i'm just a student interested in entering those fields, so who would really want to read my views about that?

I have a vision of the contribution I see myself making in this world. And it only took 3 years in college and several major changes to realize that. Combining my loves for web design, multiculturalism, information technology, global ENLIGHTENMENT. I want to enter the emerging discipline of Human Computer Interaction for Development, a sub sector of Information and Communication Technologies for Development. I want to give citizens of third world communities the opportunity to become active ICT users. Doing this entails providing technologies that designed with contextual user requirements in mind. Thats where I come in! I want to be a usability specialist with a particular interest in designing for the global south user.

This is a multidisciplinary career that will require me to acquire knowledge from a host of disciplines. There is no degree in Human Computer Interaction for Development, I will gain academically from professional degree's that I will acquire and I will gain practical experience from the on sight research and field work I will conduct.

The next question become where do I find these opportunities? There is no book "How to break into the field of Information and Communication Technology for Development." So what do I do? I research, I google, I email, I tweet. There are so many opportunities in the ICT4D not being taken advantage of and I plan to find them.

I am graduating from Michigan State University in 3 months with Bachelors, and what's next? I'm taking the next critical steps toward entering the field of Information and Communication Technology for Development of course! I have been able to take advantage of so many resources has an undergraduate. I have conducted research in ICt4D, spent time in Tanzania as an undergraduate research assistant conducting field work in ICT4D, worked with refugees and helped them with computer skills. Everything I have done, I have done with purpose and with passion. And this is only the beginning.

This blog is for anyone interested in entering the field of ICT4D and is interested in  learning from my success and failures, I hope you will follow me on my journey to enter the field of ICT4D and be the change change. I plan to use this blog to share with the world the resources I come across in endeavor.