Social innovation using emerging technologies

  You are required to write a newsletter/ blog post. This assignment follows a social innovation approach, in other words the project seeks ‘social value rather than profit’. It is likely that such a project would be aimed at achieving long term change in some aspect of society and would demonstrate a wider concern for the community. The ‘audience’ for the newsletter/blog organizations, businesses, and individuals who might be willing to provide support for the venture in the form of finance, expertise or other resources, so you need to make it very professional and convincing. References are expected in text and at the end of the blog. Use a template from Word for Newsletters. Task: Innovation is essential to help mitigate and/or solve some of the world’s most intractable social, environmental, health-related and ecological issues. Many new technologies are currently being developed that will, in the not too distant future, be used to address these issues and problems. Also, many existing technologies could be put to use to provide solutions. This assignment will give you an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of one or more problems that are affecting a particular group, area, region or country. The issue or problem must be within a developing or emerging nation, NOT the UK, EUROPE OR OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. You will also have the opportunity to research and think deeply about how technologies and innovations, including some of the developing and upcoming technologies are now or will one day be used to help resolve or mitigate these problems. You will be thinking like an innovator who is creatively trying to solve these problems with creative solutions. 1. Format: You will present your report in the form of a newsletter using one of the newsletter templates that you can find in your Word software. It should include text, images, graphs/charts and references. Use full sentences generally, but bullet points are acceptable when you have details to provide. You can use images, charts, links, and tables but they must have captions and/or brief explanations. 2. Length: 1500 words +/-10%. References, images, charts, links, tables and their brief explanations are NOT included in the word count. 3. Context: Identify a social, economic, health-care, educational and/or ecological issue or set of issues in a developing country or emerging market area of your choice. The issues will be causing hardship for a particular group or groups within the country or regional population. 4. Tasks: • Explain the issue(s) in terms of the origins and causes, its size and extent and in terms of the effects it is having on your chosen group, area or region. Provide data in the form of figures, charts and images to support your discussion. • Investigate 1 or more emerging innovations in technology, science, health care, etc. that could be used to mitigate or solve the problem (issues) in the near future. Investigate other existing technologies as well. Clearly explain how the technology or technologies could be used. Don’t just copy something that already exists for all of your technology choices. Do something innovative • Explain what would have to happen for the innovation to address the problem in terms of political will, money, international aid and agencies as well as further refinements. In other words, what would need to be done to and with the innovation and the surrounding issues to solve the problem(s)? Grading Criteria: Your newsletter will be graded on the following criteria: • Set-up and presentation, including excellent written English with no grammatical, typographical or spelling errors (ESSENTIAL). • Appropriate referencing both in text and in the reference section. • Thoughtful selection of social, economic, health-related, education-related or ecological issue affecting a group or groups within a developing or emerging market/region. • Thoughtful selection of technologies/innovations to mitigate or solve the problems caused by these issues. It does not just copy something that has already been done. • Convincing and supported (with references) discussion of the issues origins, causes, size, and effects. Supported with images, data, charts, tables and references. • Convincing and supported discussion (with references) of how the technology or innovation(s) can be used to address the issue/problems. • Convincing and supported discussion (with references) of the issues that will need to be addressed for the technology or innovation to address the issue/problems, including political, economic/financial, and social issues as well as the commitment of particular international organisations.