Richard Anderson
2 year Tribal CollegeEstablished 1968 as Navajo
Community College7 sites,Main campuses
Tsaile, AZ Shiprock, NM
Current enrollment 1,830 students
26,000 square milesPopulation (2000), 175,000Long walk, 1863
Indian Removal Act
One Computer Science Instructor BA Math, MS CS, PhD Philosophy Lots of experience teaching at Tribal
Colleges Courses
CS1, CS2▪ Reges and Stepp text
Hardware Networking Operating Systems Web Design Discrete Math
5-week course on refurbishing computers
Rebuilt computers and made them available to the community
Visiting instructor from MIT
Met with students from CS coursesPresented a short overview of UW
Developing World Projects Used CAM as an example Showed the CAM video from website Mentioned medical protocols and digital
study hall
Previous years – intensive quarter long project course
This year – Developing World Technology Three quarter sequence▪ Background seminar▪ Design studio▪ Intensive quarter long project course
Goal – partner with student project groups at Heritage University
Animal identification and tracingErosion controlPlant identificationArtisan
Provenance Connection of supplier to consumer
RecyclingLand recordsDiet monitoring
Cows, Horses, SheepProblems of keeping track of
ownership Identification of brandsReporting of locationsDetermining ownership of unbranded
locations
Water is the critical resourceStudent comment on “fence in the
air”
Student comment on the need for the reservation to set up recycling
Issue identified of illegal dumping Identifying Recording Publicizing
“Everyone is involved in a land dispute”
Mention of existing services based on GPS
Traditional arts High value High mark up Competition with Mexican, Thai, Belgian, Pakistani
imports Opportunities
Connect consumers/producers Support authenticity Establish value
Issues Artists often traditional, Navajo speaking Cultural concerns▪ Business instructor found lack of interests in using eBay
for marketing
One student had worked on a summer project doing a census of invasive species
Data recording/identification done by hand
Diabetes problem mentioned
These did not come up from the students
Very sensitive area
Computing technologies widely applicable in developing world
Successful deployment requires deep understanding of local context
Basic technologies applicable in many different contexts
Design technology to support local modification / deployment
CAMDigital StudyHall
DigitalStarPDA support for decision trees
Strong interest in having technology applied “We are a developing nation”
Problem areas are highly relevant to ICTD Likely benefits to UW and TCs
But not likely to yield a large number of transfer students to UW
Partnerships Need administrative support and faculty /
student connectionsPossible approach to work with AIHEC
Link to student project groupsTeach an Introductory Programming
Class over the summer (aimed at transfer students)
Teach a Developing World Technology seminar at Dine over the summer