Department of Philosophy

"There has been a strong push towards e-literacy in India,
particularly in the distribution and usage of information and
communication technologies (ICT) in schools for economic
and social growth. As a result, the Vidhya Vahini scheme
was launched in Kuppam, a marginalized village constituen-
cy in Andhra Pradesh. This scheme strived to disseminate
computers to all high schools by 2005 with the intention of
scaling this pilot initiative nationwide. In this article, I argue
that in spite of strong governmental initiative and multifari-
ous private-public partnerships, there are considerable
barriers in the implementation of computers in public high
schools. To optimize these cost intensive resources, we need
to address some of the chronic educational challenges
prevalent in the school system. With the constant flux in
participation by public and private actors in this process, the
question of sustainability is critical in the transformation of
schools as e-learning communities."

The  Stills  in  Sync  (SIS)  project  is  a  joint  initiative  of   the  non­prof it  organization  PlanetRead  and  the  global  inf ormation  and  communication  technology  (ICT)  company  Hewlett  Packard  (HP).  The  SIS  project  entails  creating  a  multi­media  product  designed  to  enhance  literacy  in  rural  India  through  the  revival  of  regional f olksongs  on  relev ant  social  issues.  This  product  utilizes the  Same  Language  Subtitling  (SLS)  f eature  that  won  the  World  Bank  Development  Marketplace Award in 2002 and the Tech Laureate in education honor from the Technology Museum of  Innovation (San Jose)  in  2003.  This  paper  explores  the  dissemination  av enues  of   the  SLS  folksongs  product  and  its effects  within  the  Inclusive  Community  (i­community)  of   HP in  Kuppam, India. This  community has  functioned  as  a  social  and  economic  laboratory  in  which  HP  tested  new  technologies.  Analyzing  this  test  env ironment  makes  apparent  the  dichotomy  between  corporate  responsibility  and  community  development.  Keeping  the  balance  between  prof itable  goals  of   the  ICT  business  and  dev elopment  goals  towards  sustainable  social  and  economic  ref orms has  been  illustrated  by 
the surv ey results in this paper. 

"This account demonstrates the key challenges faced in producing engaging educational content for information and
communication technologies (ICT) deployed in rural India. The ‘Stills in Sync’ (SIS) project aims to enhance literacy
through the revival and proliferation of popular regional folksongs with social awareness themes in rural India. This
product entails the use of the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) karaoke feature that won the Worldbank Development
Marketplace award in 2002 and the ‘Tech Laureate’ honor from the Technology Museum of Innovation in 2003. This case
study highlights the struggles faced in the production process as we sought to negotiate localism with scalability. The
paper is meant to stimulate discussion and further research on the process of digitalizing cultural and educational con-
tent in muliple languages for literacy gains and empowerment. I attempt to give three-dimensionality to current buzz-
words in education content creation using ICT: localism, relevance and engagement."

Chronic shortage of doctors in rural India seriously impacts the quality of healthcare available to villagers. In recent years, there has been considerable excitement in digital diagnostics as a possible answer to this situation by allowing non-doctors to diagnose and treat patients. This paper focuses on one such diagnostic tool that has gained serious traction amongst transnational health foundations and State governments alike. Here, the focus is on the customization and localization of this software through a pilot study in Central Himalayas. A baseline survey and extensive interviews are conducted for categorization and population of health data content. This entailed the analyzing of the segmentation and transfer of health information of disease history and symptoms from the patient to the software as well as situating this study in the larger understanding of the healthcare system in this community. In doing so, this paper argues that much of such health information is difficult to categorize and sufficiently vague to provide for confident diagnostics. Further, the data population of the treatment segment is deeply political and socio-cultural. Thereby, this paper problematizes the innate assumption underlying the design of such software- that being that there is one way to diagnose and treat patients based on pure information.

"Hole-in-the-Wall as a concept has attracted worldwide attention. It involves providing unconditional access to computer-equipped kiosks in playgrounds and out-of-school settings, children taking ownership of their learning and learning driven by the children’s natural curiosity. It is posited that this
approach, which is being used in India, Cambodia and several countries in Africa, can pave the way for a new education paradigm and be the key to providing literacy and basic education and bridging the digital divide in remote
and disadvantaged regions. This paper seeks to establish why two such open access, self-directed and collaborative learning systems failed to take root in the Central Himalaya communities of Almora and Hawalbagh. The purpose of this study is not to deny the achievements and potential of such an approach in
other settings, but to examine the tenets and sustainability of such initiatives. It is argued that there is a need to distinguish between Hole-in-the-Wall as an idea and as an institution and to reflect on the key suppositions on how unsupervised access, informal, public, self-guided and collaborative work can help in children’s learning."

This paper explores evaluation strategies to gauge the impact of a novel instructional design on international
community participation online. This is done by conceptualizing and devising indicators for measuring “engagement”
online amongst marginalized adult communities worldwide. In doing so, a review of online evaluation literature is
conducted. In comparing dialogue sessions based on an ongoing traditional model to the new instructional approach,
various challenges are faced in “measuring” asynchronous discussion. While the initial findings of marginal increase in
engagement with the adapted instructional approach is not sufficient to prove that the new model works, this paper
demonstrates various strategies/ challenges in evaluating dialectic engagement.

This case study highlights practices of a rarely documented group of neo-users of the Internet or newbies from Central Himalayas, serving as a catalyst for delving deeply into the act of ‘plagiarism’ in online learning By looking at such ‘learning’ practices away from schools, namely at cybercafés in Almora, a ‘rur-town’ in the Himalayas, much is revealed of its educational system and learning in the broadest sense. There is an urgent need in educational environments to move beyond the punitive approach to ‘plagiarism’ through computer usage and instead pay attention to the actual learning and teaching that goes on through these processes with online resources. In doing so, contemplation of the relationship between information,ownership and originality in online learning and its role in how we enact ‘schooling’ through online-offline spaces becomes central to this study. This case study aims to provoke innovative educational approaches where current practices with new tools can be capitalized strategically for genuine learning to transpire.

As international aid agencies increasingly embrace microfinance, the darling of international development, questions are beginning to surface. Who benefits from this savings and lending system that claims to target the poor? Does an increase in social capital of the poor lead to an enhancement of human capital in terms of
socialization and education; does that in turn contribute to the fostering of microfinance practices? What kinds of linkages do these institutions need to sustain and replicate their practices? While these are pertinent avenues to investigate, in this essay I seek to address that which is of basic concern in terms of the perceived capacity and capability of the poor: can the poorest of the poor build on their existing social capital through microfinance? To address these questions, this article
will examine the growing trend of microfinance practices in Bolivia, drawing out some of its pluralities and complexities as it intersects with the poor.

The concept of microfinance was pioneered around 1976 in Bangladesh by Dr. Muhammad Yunus who sought to make financial provisions to clients conventionally excluded from the financial system on account of their lower economic status.
Perhaps most distinct from traditional banking is its ‘joint liability’ feature, which views a group of individuals as a single client to whom the credit is disbursed. While I acknowledge that microfinance as an institution serves as a legitimate and
alternative banking system for the marginalized, I argue that it is still limited by its conventional institutional structure. I propose instead for increased targeted attention to the more informal networks of self-help groups, a novel savings and
lending method that seeks to validate and leverage on local social capital for sustainable growth of the group and community at large.

"In this article, story (re)productions by children in rural India
are seen as a potential tool for addressing current ‘participatory’ issues facing development practitioners. A project was implemented to involve children from a rural village in South India in e-literary storybook productions. The intention was
to foster online representations of the rural voice through the lens of the child. Drawing on the material of children’s stories, multiple subjectivities are revealed that compel us to reconsider relations of the ‘rural’ with technology and current social contexts. An analysis of these narratives highlights children’s appropriation capabilities as they weave the ‘urbanness’ and ‘global’ with the ‘rural’ fabric, moving beyond the traditional discourse of the urban–rural dichotomy. This effort capitalizes on current theorizations of territory as scapes, making the case
to harness children’s stories to enlighten the adult, well-intentioned development practitioner who seeks genuine understanding of territory and practice."

"This paper plays with education through the analogy of karaoke to tease out the instructions of a situated educational practice. Here, Cremin’s conceptualization of education as a
deliberate, systematic and sustained effort is employed as a starting point to enable an understanding of educational practice between members elicited by karaoke. Using Garfinkel’s ethnomethodological framework, the paper investigates modes of education through karaoke practice as part of the ‘live’ narrative, that of instructing and being instructed with the ‘curriculum’ of the event at hand."

Knowledge iTrust (KIT), a non-profit organization, through the cooperation of educational institutions, NGOs, and the private sector launched the Peace Diaries following September 11, 2001 to establish a forum where educators, students and their families of diverse cultural backgrounds and discourse groups could gather and submit multi-modal literary works (e.g. text, artwork, audio recordings, etc.) that address issues of personal, local and global significance. While this project was a successful demonstration model of what is possible in the way of global learning in collaboration with many stakeholders and actors, there is enormous potential to extend and transform this initiative into a more synthesized and sustainable online global education portal. This learning will be incorporated into Global Education Greenhouse, a corporation in formation, that will create a new class of products and services for students in primary and secondary schools/grades k-12 that address a void in the current educational system.

Early 20th century birthed a radical phenomenon across several cultures and nations- the demarcating of certain public space for primarily leisure purposes. From India to the United States, urban parks became a symbol of democracy, openness, and freedom as they emerged from a protracted struggle to shift from the hands of the State or imperial power to that of the masses. There was much euphoria about their unregulated and public character, reflecting a new age of modernization and civilization. Yet, over time, it has been revealed how contentious the process of shaping, regulating, and sustaining of public parks can be as well as its pluralistic and transcultural nature. Interestingly, the 21st century is celebrating the birth of another leisure space that shares this rhetoric of being open, free, universal, non-utilitarian, and democratic: social network sites. As the Net shifted from the hands of the State to that of the user, its leisure spaces have been looked upon as sites where regardless of gender, age, and/or culture, people can commune, browse aimlessly, socialize and share their views openly. Yet, important concerns are emerging on what constitutes as openness, universality and democratic as governments to corporations are finding ways to architect and manage these virtual geographies and, users are harnessing these sites for a range of activities.

Thereby, by drawing parallels between urban parks and social network sites, this project aims to highlight the historical aspect of leisure spaces and provide a much needed rootedness in this highly speculative media discourse. The historical and comparative investigation to parks is innovative, as it will debunk much of the hype surrounding social network sites as a novel and unprecedented space for communication. Given that social network sites have a short and primarily Western-centric history of usage, the development and evolution of parks across nations allows for a fresh and transcultural perspective to this topic. Methodologically, using this real/virtual comparative strategy has become an essential means to understand online spaces. In fact, it is impossible to not evoke physical spaces to conceptualize virtual spaces. So we find ourselves on the information highway, at the electronic frontier, chatrooms, home pages, to MUD lobbies. In fact, this project builds on the popularly accepted parallel of the Net as the digital city, propositioning thereby, that its common public leisure areas are its virtual parks.

While the project strives to critique the public, democratic and free for all notions of contemporary leisure spaces, online and offline, for feasibility purposes, it focuses specifically on 3 areas of timely importance: (a) open and closed systems (b) private and public domains, and (c) work versus play dimension to leisure sites, emphasizing notions of corporatization, commercialization and the privatization of leisure spaces. Also, the diversity of parks such as industrial parks, theme parks to community parks will emphasize the pluralistic aspect of social network sites. Further, this project brings together disciplines of media studies and history of technology through an original avenue of urban planning, emphasizing the spatial aspects of technology and media practice. Given that most studies on new media spaces are artifact oriented, ahistorical and Western-centric, this project will provide a unique lens through its historical and transcultural approach.

The undertaking of this project is deeply relevant given that as leisure becomes central to the 21st century economy, corporations to the State are greatly vested in the understanding of these spaces. The dominant idea of its unprecedented novelty can be misleading and have damaging consequences on shaping policy and practice. Overall, the goal of this project is to leverage on real-virtual comparisons to develop a more integrated understanding of contemporary leisure, a prime space of digital residence in the 21st century.

Playing the role of mediator between Islam and the West is one that is particularly fraught with danger. Mediators often find themselves in a critical dilemma of placement of the self within larger contesting discourses. Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born Islamic scholar, is one such appointed mediator between Dutch statehood and its multiethnic Islamic population. He was
invited by the Rotterdam City Council to serve as an integration advisor for its multicultural population. However, his affiliation with an Iranian TV station sponsored by the regime caused considerable consternation, with his credibility being questioned by the Council. The post-Iranian election and uprising triggered a wave of reactions culminating in the dismissal of this prominent scholar, recently named by Time magazine as one of the world’s
top one hundred scientists and thinkers. This chapter focuses on the nature of media discourses and ideological leanings among key actors to explain how these issues can escalate, often with severe consequences to those involved. The authors use this event as a springboard to analyze the role of public mediators in complex political and cultural environments, using
the lens of mediation and dialogue. By attending to issues of language and the framing of perspectives in the media, this chapter proposes a nuanced and novel approach to mediation and discourse construction in arenas of chronic dispute.

""Currently, there is much excitement about Web 2.0 as a novel
platform for experiencing, producing, and consuming leisure, particularly through social network sites. Conversely, there are skeptics who sound the alarm on these spaces, viewing them as diluting of human relations. The perspective that guides this article is invested in neither a utopian nor a dystopian posture, but sees historical continuity, pointing out that performing leisure is a basic human impulse that has found expression over the centuries.With regard to the online sites used for leisure, it makes the case that the history of the development of the public park, the product of a complex interplay of interests and agendas of different stakeholders, provides a particularly rich resource for gaining insights into the evolution of social networking sites. To illustrate this heuristic potential, it draws on experiences ranging from the democratization of Beijing’s parks in early twentieth century to the movement of flˆaneurs across Parisian public spaces to comment on the architecture
of and activities on social network sites.""