Education for the Underprivileged
Danni sent me another great link! A educational professor at Newcastle University explains in a LIFT conference talk a story of how he tackled problems of education in the suburbs of India.
That talk was very inspirational - are educational researchers and HCI practitioners really getting the results they could by tacking problems that are amazingly difficult to attain for that small “3%” reward? Kinda makes me think how much the world can be changed if more people focused their efforts on underprivileged people for education…
I just went to CHI 2007, a HCI conference in San Jose, CA and Gary Marsden did an award talk about his findings in South Africa. He made many great points, but one in particular stuck in my head, and is related to the talk at LIFT. He found problems in people there learning how to use computers, and after reducing it down to just one button labeled “button” he still found difficulties. Even translating the label to the local language didn’t help. It turns out that the culture there puts a high emphasis on uncertainty, and digital technologies create an uncertainty. This can explain the observation of the button - people didn’t believe it was something that could be pushed, so when they were asked to “push the button”, they responded by saying “but this isn’t a button, it’s a picture of a button!”. There are so many cultural issues with design that is easy to sometimes miss when we’re focused down too much on a certain user group of technologically educated and trusting people.
Another point to add is that these two great talks both told a story. I love talks like this, and should try to incorporate this aspect into mine.
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