Abstract
Abstract. Geospatial and ICT technologies are making an impact leap due to globally accessible open data solutions addressing environmental and social challenges, such as rapid urbanization, degradation of marine and land environments, and humanitarian crises. We are witnessing a rapid growth of innovations built on data and tools tackling local societal problems. At best, these can provide better opportunities for sustainable solutions and development. The need for geospatial expertise is growing globally, and the required skills and capabilities of experts are changing. Universities need to think that although the future jobs rely on experts’ geospatial data and technology skills, graduates need to have a strong conceptual and practical understanding of societal problems and capacity to co-develop solutions, which generate wellbeing and inclusive development. New generation university graduates need to master the interface between technologies’ potential and societies’ emerging needs, working in a multi-stakeholder environment and creating innovative and impactful solutions. In this paper, we present a model of institutional cooperation between five Tanzanian and three Finnish universities, aiming to tackle this transformative education challenge in Tanzania. GeoICT4e aims to develop innovative and scalable geospatial and ICT e-learning services for Tanzanian universities. Via this transformation, universities are aiming to enhance the future employment potential of the graduates with digital multi-competence skills. We present the overall methodology and key activities of the project cooperation, and discuss the opportunities and challenges related to this transformation, and use of open data and FOSS solutions particularly from the institutional and societal perspectives.
Highlights
1.1 From technological to social innovationsGeospatial data and ICT technologies have made a major global accessibility and impact leap over the last years, leading to promising technological innovations all over the world
The GeoICT4e project couples tightly with the ongoing World Bank-funded Tanzania Resilience Academy (RA, https://resilienceacademy.ac.tz/), which is coordinated by UTU, UDSM, Ardhi University (ARU), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and State University of Zanzibar (SUZA)
The central vehicle for education transformation in GeoICT4e is the students’ multicompetence learning (MCL) process, which happens via co-creative challenge campaigns organized in close cooperation with the innovation ecosystem actors and problem owners
Summary
Geospatial data and ICT technologies have made a major global accessibility and impact leap over the last years, leading to promising technological innovations all over the world. Developing countries have a vast amount of environmental and social problems, especially when looking at them through the lenses of sustainable development These real world needs are contextual and dynamic in space and time and call for novel data and technology solutions. Participatory data collection and citizen science initiatives have transformed the ways digital data and services can be built in previously data-scarce environments for improved sustainability (Bakker and Ritts, 2018, Fritz et al, 2019) These are just a few examples of the prominent directions. Despite these positive developments, there are major concerns if digital innovations built on new technologies and globally accessible data are able to bring inclusive and sustainable development opportunities for the people and the communities locally. Cultural, economic and environmental impacts in the frontline is a service for the sustainable and secure future of the data and technology achievements
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