THE LAB

By Georgina Allen
Global Development Intern

The more deeply I become involved in the global development community, the more I can’t help but think of The Four Stages of Learning.  In psychology, this theory describes the stages through which one passes when learning a new skill.  It goes something like this:

Unconscious incompetence > conscious incompetence > conscious competence > unconscious competence

I have been feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of progressing past the stage of “conscious incompetence” when it comes to learning everything there is to know about global development.  What do I mean by this?  Technology has made information on this topic readily available, inspiring a whole wave of new activists in this community who inevitably become eager to share their own perspective.  Reviewing all of this material online is an impossible task, so finding a strategy to sift through it all is a crucial element of effectively combating global development issues.

In a June 2009 speech in Cairo, Obama stated “There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground.”  While this statement was made in the context of a discussion on U.S.-Arab relations, it seems to have resonated with the global development community.  Last week, USAID launched Global Pulse 2010, a 3-day online discussion marathon for people working in the field of development in an effort to aggregate great ideas from around the world.

Upon its conclusion, the staff of Global Pulse selected “hot ideas.”  Many of these emphasized the importance of building community and communication.  My favorite suggestion was in the “Inspiring a New Generation” forum, where one person advocated for the use of video conference capabilities in classrooms around the world.  Some responded with information on organizations who are already working to make this a reality, such as One Laptop per Child and Global Nomads Group.

In this discussion, other websites working to break down communication barriers and build community were also mentioned.  Panwapa.org offers a space where young children can connect with other children from around the globe based on their interests, for example, soccer.  Children can select from a list of pre-translated messages to send to other members.  On news.meedan.net, links to news articles in English and Arabic can be posted and instantly translated, making alternative perspectives on current events available to those without the necessary language skills.

The World Bank is another organization who has recently taken on the task of strengthening the global development community with their new Urgent Evoke website, which is promoted as “A crash course in saving the world.”  Each week, a “mission” is released to all members.  For example, this week’s mission, which is related to “empowering women,” gives members points for a blog entries summarizing related news stories, personal efforts to empower women and their vision for the future of women’s’ empowerment.  All of this user-generated content is shared on the site, and active members are given priority in contests for mentorships, scholarships and even investment money.

While some of these innovative organizations and websites use community and communication to inspire a sense of responsibility, by aggregating and streamlining information they are also facilitating my quest to learn about effective solutions to global development issues and overcome my “conscious incompetence”.

Photo by Avant Game on Flickr.

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