Group items tagged

This website has some great data on various developing countries' rates of adoption of ICT (in particular, mobile phones, internet, radio and television) - click on "country profiles" to see which countries are available. While there is slightly less data available for Haiti, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique, the dedicated mini-sites for each of the other countries include data on access to various forms of "traditional media" (newspapers, radio) and "new media" (internet and mobile phones). There is also data on usage of the various forms of media by age group, gender and socio-economic status. I particularly like the annotations on the graphs, which will hopefully help students focus on the key data and show them how annotations can help add clarity and further information to figures (graphs, maps etc).

Aims of this lesson: To be able to distinguish between the terms globalization and glocalization. To examine the extent to which commercial activities at a local scale have become globalized. To examine the reasons why the level and rate of adoption of globalization varies from place to place. Updated Jan 2012

India is the fastest-growing mobile communications market in the world. The rural poor are rapidly adopting phones, so the technology could become a platform for providing banking services. Sanjay Swamy, CEO of the mobile-payment platform mChek, talks about the potential.

"The conditions that need to be present to text in Liberia do not necessarily exist simply because someone has access to a phone; if there is one major assumption that many of us in ICT for development are guilty of, it's this one." - an interesting piece which could be used to critically examine the adoption of mobile phone technology in sub-Saharan Africa and its role in civil society. Just having access is not always enough...

Interesting to look at the diffusion of cultural traits through the spread of theme parks - Disney based theme parks in Hong Kong & China, and their adoption/adaption for a new cultural context [Submitted by Jonathan Elliott]

Time lapse video showing growth of McDonalds over time and space. Spatial and temporal pattern of adoption of a branded product on a global scale

Good for "Changing Space Shrinking World" : Examine the contrasting rates, levels and patterns of adoption of an element of ICT in two countries.