Beyond interfaces: Understanding the Process of Designing Grassroots technologies, to Develop Sustainability Case Studies for Engineering Education

We seek to extend the idea of technology for education beyond digital interfaces, to include the practice of building technological devices in the classroom, to integrate complex concepts, and values such as sustainability. We provide a brief overview of the discipline of Design and Technology Education, where the process of designing and building of technological artifacts is a pedagogical approach, for learning concepts and values, particularly in an integrated fashion. It is increasingly recognized that engineering education, while focusing on design and building of artifacts, does not seek to provide such integration of concepts and values. One serious effect of the lack of integration of values is the tendency to ignore, or not recognize, pressing real-world problems in the students' immediate environment, and focus only on toy problems, especially for project work. We suggest that case studies, particularly ones capturing how grassroots innovators with no formal training develop technological artifacts to solve rural problems, can supplement the engineering curriculum, and help integrate real world problems and sustainability values into project work. Exploring the practices of grassroots innovators can present novel and relevant design principles, values, and role models to engineering students, for meeting the challenges of the future.