Richard Anderson Dine College Trip Report Dine College

Richard Anderson Dine College Trip Report

Dine College � 2 year Tribal College �Established 1968 as Navajo Community College � 7 sites, �Main campuses Tsaile, AZ Shiprock, NM �Current enrollment 1, 830 students

Navajo Nation � 26, 000 square miles �Population (2000), 175, 000 �Long walk, 1863 Indian Removal Act

Navajo Nation

Tsaile, AZ

Canyon de Chelly

Spider Rock

Computer Science Program �One Computer Science Instructor BA Math, MS CS, Ph. D Philosophy Lots of experience teaching at Tribal Colleges �Courses CS 1, CS 2 ▪ Reges and Stepp text Hardware Networking Operating Systems Web Design Discrete Math

Hardware Course

MIT Summer Course � 5 -week course on refurbishing computers �Rebuilt computers and made them available to the community �Visiting instructor from MIT

Dine Multimedia Project

Talking books

UW ICTD Pitch �Met with students from CS courses �Presented 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

Senior Capstone Model (CSE 477) �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

Project Ideas (from students) �Animal identification and tracing �Erosion control �Plant identification �Artisan Provenance Connection of supplier to consumer �Recycling �Land records �Diet monitoring

Animal Tracing �Cows, Horses, Sheep �Problems of keeping track of ownership �Identification of brands �Reporting of locations �Determining ownership of unbranded locations

Erosion �Water is the critical resource �Student comment on “fence in the air”

Recycling �Student comment on the need for the reservation to set up recycling �Issue identified of illegal dumping Identifying Recording Publicizing

Land records �“Everyone is involved in a land dispute” �Mention of existing services based on GPS

Artists � 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 e. Bay for marketing

Plant identification �One student had worked on a summer project doing a census of invasive species �Data recording/identification done by hand

Diet monitoring �Diabetes problem mentioned

Indian cultural/language projects �These did not come up from the students �Very sensitive area

Engineering Deployment Kits �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

Potential EDK’s �CAM �Digital Study. Hall Digital. Star �PDA support for decision trees

Partnerships with Tribal Colleges �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 connections �Possible approach to work with AIHEC

Possible next steps with Dine �Link to student project groups �Teach an Introductory Programming Class over the summer (aimed at transfer students) �Teach a Developing World Technology seminar at Dine over the summer