Professional Documents
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CCGL9061 - 1 - Introduction To The Course
CCGL9061 - 1 - Introduction To The Course
CCGL9061 - 1 - Introduction To The Course
Digital Humanitarianism
Can you save the world with your computer?
CCGL 9061
HKU, Common Core
Starter: what do you have in mind
for the topic of this course?
Association map
How does it work?
Write the first 4 words that come to your mind
when you read the expression in the central cell
https://medium.com/@hannag130/summer-in-vancouver-what-words-come-to-mind-990e27ae33d6
HUMANITARIAN
ACTION
Sharing session
What are the words you wrote first for “humanitarian action”?
1. Logistic details
2. Course content
3. Assessment
4. Teacher &Tutor
1. Logistic details
Lectures: Where & When
Where:
Room MWT6, Meng Wah Building, Main campus
When:
September: Wed. 4, Wed. 11, Wed. 18, Wed. 25
October: Wed. 2, Wed. 9, no class on Wed. 16, Wed. 23, Wed. 30
November: Wed. 6, Wed. 13, Wed. 20, Wed. 27
Because of public holidays, the 3rd tutorial will take place two days before the
lecture for groups 1, 2 and 3 (on Monday) (and possibly one or two additional
groups too)
Please register quickly if you have strong time constraints; contact the TA in case of problems.
“Office hours”
https://www.mememaker.net/meme/office-hours-14304
Course material (1/2)
All the slides will be available online, as well as
reading material
• Moodle
• Access granted since today
Course material (2/2)
A companion book for this course:
Meier, Patrick (2015). Digital
Humanitarians: How Big Data Is
Changing the Face of Humanitarian
Response. Routledge.
https://www.wfp.org/publications/global-report-food-crises-2018
https://www.worldhunger.org/world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/
Chronic undernourishment and food crises (2/2)
https://www.wfp.org/publications/global-report-food-crises-2018
https://www.worldhunger.org/world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/
Increased food supply
Improved health
Reduced poverty
Democratization
Demographic transition
https://ourworldindata.org/why-do-far-fewer-people-die-in-famines-today
Progress and challenges
Stunting, or low height for age, is
due to long-term insufficient
nutrient intake and frequent
infections.
Less children
suffering from chronic
undernourishment,
but more overweight
children
https://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/food_waste_challenge.html
Being hungry in one of the world’s richest cities
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2115513/living-hk15-meal-left-me-feeling-deprived-antisocial-and
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/11/27/hungry-decent-diet-poor-families-hong-kong-cant-afford-eat-well/
Being hungry in one of the world’s richest cities
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2115513/living-hk15-meal-left-me-feeling-deprived-antisocial-and
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/11/27/hungry-decent-diet-poor-families-hong-kong-cant-afford-eat-well/
A step forward? The Child Growth Monitor App
An app to
monitor child
growth using
augmented
reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2doV43jdwg
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
• CLO1: Describe the main trends, actors and recent technological
developments in the field of humanitarianism.
• CLO2: Analyze the complexity of real situations and of possible
digital responses
• CLO 3: Use some of the software tools available to digital
volunteers
• CLO 4: Criticize the current approaches in digital humanitarianism
• CLO 5: Reflect on the notion of global citizenship in the light of
humanitarian endeavors
Overview of the classes and
projects
Date Lecture
Sept. 4 Week 1: General introduction to the course
Sept. 11 Week 2: Humanitarianism and humanitarian action
Sept. 18 Week 3: Looking beyond the surface: challenges, critiques and ideologies
Sept. 25 Week 4: The digital revolution of humanitarian action
Oct. 2 Week 5: Collaborative mapping of emergency areas
Oct. 9 Week 6: Mapping social issues in the city
Oct. 23 Week 7: Analyzing social media in crisis situations
Oct. 30 Week 8: Online petitions
Nov. 6 Week 9: From human analysis to automatic analysis in humanitarian action
Nov. 13 Week 10: Smart ideas for a better world
Nov. 20 Week 11: Ethical challenges of digital humanitarianism
Nov. 27 Week 12: Wrapping-up
11/09 #2: Humanitarianism and humanitarian action #1: Critical reading of crisis reports
18/09 #3: Looking beyond the surface: challenges, critiques and ideologies #2: Debating humanitarian interventions
09/10 #6: Mapping social issues in the city #4: Preparing the “HK streets walkability” project
23/10 #7: Analyzing social media in crisis situations #5: Categorizing “emergency” tweets
06/11 #9: From human analysis to automatic analysis in humanitarian action #7: Evaluating walkability with images of HK streets
13/11 #10: Smart ideas for a better world #8: Brainstorming session: tackling a social issue
#9: Investigating the output of the “HK streets
20/11 #11: Ethical challenges of digital humanitarianism
walkability” project
27/11 #12: Wrapping-up No tutorial
Time periods for the 9 tutorials
Tutorial Time period
#3: Learning crowd-mapping for humanitarian purposes 30/9 & 2/10 – 8/10
https://www.spatialsource.com.au/latest-news/crowd-sourced-mapping-effort-for-nepal
The course projects (2/3)
2. “HK streets walkability project”
• An exploratory project
• A survey of HK streets in terms of how
easy they are to walk (especially for
elder people, families and kids)
• Each group will take regularly spaced
geotagged photos of sidewalks in an HK
neighborhood (at different times)
• Walkability will be assessed with a
computer test involving the human
comparison of pairs of photos
https://www.free-city-guides.com/hong-kong/streets-of-hong-kong/
The course projects (3/3)
2. “HK streets walkability project”
• Production of digital maps for
walkability and identification of the
important factors
• Deep-learning could be later applied to
the set of photos to see whether a
machine can learn to predict how
walkable a street is
• Output for assessment: each group will
produce a short video to explain the
issue at hand and what they have done.
https://www.free-city-guides.com/hong-kong/streets-of-hong-kong/
3. Assessment
From numbers to
letters (current grading
system at HKU)
Components of the assessment
The course is assessed on the basis of course work - there is no
examination
Your answers will be a way to think deeper about the lecture content,
and will altogether constitute a small reflective diary for the course
Deadline for completing each entry: one week after the lecture
Reflective diary (2/2)
Content (17 points)
Clarity: Is the content of your diary easy to read and to understand? (3 points)
Structure: Is your argumentation well structured? (3 points)
Quality: Are your ideas rich/interesting/original? (4 points)
Reflection: Do you report well how the course content made you reflect and think deeper? (4 points)
References: Have you looked for additional sources of information and are they well reported? (3 points)
The total number of points will be divided by 5 to get a grade over 4.3
Mapping poster (1/2)
Main goal: Report on your experience of crowd-sourced mapping
Your poster will summarize the situation of the surveyed area, what and
how much you did, the difficulties you faced and what you learnt during
the process
Groups of 7 students
The posters will be submitted via Moodle (best option: pdf format)
The grade over 21.5 points will be divided by 5 to obtain a grade over 4.3 points
Street video (1/3)
Main goal: Report on your experience of the “HK streets walkability” project
Your video will showcase your work in the streets, the variety of situations you
encountered, the difficulties you faced, your collaborative work and what you learnt
during the project. Strong impact will be key.
Group of 7 students
The videos will be submitted on USB keys, or via an online file sharing system
The grade over 21.5 points will be divided by 5 to obtain a grade over 4.3 points
About length/duration
“Mapping poster”
• CLO 2: Analyze the complexity of real situations and of possible digital responses
• CLO 3: Use some of the software tools available to digital volunteers
“Street video”
• CLO 2: Analyze the complexity of real situations and of possible digital responses
• CLO 3: Use some of the software tools available to digital volunteers
What feedback will you get
You will receive your grade for each assessment, along with details of
the points received
Email: ccoupe@hku.hk
Office: Room 9.14, 9/F, Department of Linguistics, Run Run Shaw Tower
The tutor (for the tutorials)
John Yan
Email: yanjohn@hku.hk
Who are you? (2/2)