Collaborative Research: Research on Information and Communication Technologies in the Educational and Research Communities of Kenya, Ghana, and Kerala

本研究追踪了新媒体对肯尼亚、加纳和喀拉拉邦（印度）这三个低收入国家的教育和研究系统的影响。科学技术研究中的一个基本问题是新技术在多大程度上与社会关系结构的变化相关联。该项目的主要目标是了解信息和通信技术对联网和知识产生过程的影响，广义上讲，包括大学和政府研究机构等传统机构以及其他机构的教育工作者和专业人员的研究。为了解决这一问题，采用了三种主要的数据收集活动，包括：(1)对首都地区主要研究和教育机构的科学家进行调查，(2)对专业人员和教育工作者进行定性和定量的手机访谈，以及(3)对这些科学家和专业人员的一部分进行视频人种志，包括1994年首次采访的科学家。通过采用这些方法，本研究揭示了与社会联系和发展有关的问题，这些问题在围绕传播和使用通信技术的辩论中产生。研究的关键智力问题包括：(1)为什么大多数科学家的国际网络较小，为什么尤其是女科学家，即使有更多的互联网接入，她们在当地的联系也较少？(2)以前研究中发现的肯尼亚核心网络的增加是由于移动电话的采用而暂时出现的现象，还是这种新技术从根本上改变了撒哈拉以南非洲的通信？(3)这些与移动电话使用相关的网络变化是否也发生在加纳？(4)手机的使用？挤出吗?因特网，使时间和资源都花在一种主要用于当地通讯的技术上，从而减少了国际联系？该项目有几个更广泛的影响：(1)为五个主要项目地点（巴吞鲁日、河瀑布、内罗毕、阿克拉、蒂鲁凡南塔普兰）的主要学术机构的教师和学生提供参与的机会。该项目还通过威斯康辛大学河瀑布分校的参与，为更多参与机构提供了机会。通过这种方式，该项目将创建一个协作网络，以加强多机构的国际研究，并制定一个长期的方案轨迹，重点关注新兴的全球现象，即信息和通信技术的发展和扩散；(2)扩大在PI中创造的既定合作机会？他之前的工作向一个更广泛的关注科学、技术和发展研究的研究人员网络提供了帮助，例如2008年在鹿特丹举行的科学社会研究学会会议上成立的兴趣小组。这个项目将成为这个新兴网络的关键节点，不仅通过交流，而且通过接待其他希望在非洲和印度研究这些问题的学者；(3)通过在会议和期刊上发表研究成果和协助组织政策论坛，建立和提高对技术与社会变革之间长期关系的理解；(4)通过视频人种学（我们小组制作了两部在信息社会世界峰会上放映的电影）接触学术和政策受众；(5)直接向加纳、肯尼亚和喀拉拉邦的科研系统领导人提供结果。

This research tracks the impact of new media in the educational and research systems of three low-income countries: Kenya, Ghana, and Kerala (India). A fundamental question in studies of science and technology is the extent to which new technologies are associated with shifts in the structure of social ties. The principal objective of this project is to understand the impact of information and communications technology on the process of networking and knowledge generation, broadly conceived to cover research in traditional institutions such as universities and government research institutes as well as educators and professionals in other institutions. To address this issue, three main data collection activities are employed including: (1) a survey of scientists in the primary research and educational institutions within the capital regions, (2) focused qualitative and quantitative interviews on mobile phones among professionals and educators, and (3) video ethnography of a subset of these scientists and professionals, including scientists first interviewed in 1994. By employing these methods, this research sheds light on questions related to social connectivity and development, arising in debates surrounding the diffusion and use of communication technologies. The key intellectual questions examined include: (1) Why do most scientists have smaller international networks and why do women scientists, in particular, have fewer contacts locally even with greater access to the Internet? (2) Is the increase in Kenyan core networks found in previous studies a temporary phenomenon, owing to the adoption of mobile phones, or is this new technology fundamentally changing communication in sub-Saharan Africa? (3) Are these changes in networks associated with use of mobile phones also occurring in Ghana? (4) Does the use of mobiles? Squeeze out? The Internet, such that time and resources are spent on a technology that is primarily for local communication, with a consequent reduction in international linkages?This project has several broader impacts: (1) providing opportunities for involvement of both faculty and students from major academic institutions in the five main project locations (Baton Rouge, River Falls, Nairobi, Accra, Thiruvananthapuram). This project also provides the opportunity for an expanded set of participating institutions, through the involvement of the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. In this way, the project will create a collaborative network for strengthening multi-institutional, international research and developing a long-term program trajectory focused on an emerging global phenomenon, the development and diffusion of information and communications technology; (2) extending the established, collaborative opportunities created in the PI?s previous work to a broader network of researchers concerned with the study of science, technology, and development, e.g. the interest group formed at the 2008 meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science in Rotterdam. This project is poised to serve as a key node in this emergent network not just through communications but by hosting other scholars who wish to study these issues in Africa and India; (3) creating and improving the understanding of the relationship between technological and social change in the long term, by presenting the results in conferences and refereed journals and assisting in the organization of policy forums; (4) reaching beyond academic and policy audiences through video ethnography (our group produced two movies shown at the World Summit on the Information Society; and (5) providing results directly to the leaders of the scientific research systems in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala.