William D Tucker
email: btucker@uwc.ac.za

Amplifying Positive Deviance with ICT Enabling Community Development and Interdependence

Keywords: ICT-enabled development, social mechanisms, theory of amplification, computing and society, mixed methods

Positive deviance is a social mechanism whereby a beneficial practice that is not considered as normal gets taken up and spread within a community. This enables a community to solve its own problems aided by mentorship and facilitation. Through two long term case studies, we have identified positive deviants and are now learning how to leverage the ICT inherent in our interventions to cultivate and amplify positive change. We find both ourselves and beneficiary communities developing through various stages of dependence, independence and interdependence. We consider the latter a strong form of development. We now look at ICT4D projects as opportunities to identify positive deviants, and to amplify positive deviance with ICT. We posit that affordable, accessible and generic ICTs offer a way to do so, and that explicitly aiming to mentor and facilitate positive deviance with such ICT offers a path toward community development and interdependence.

Introduction

In the ICT for development (ICT4D) space, e.g. IFIP WG 9.4, we generally aim to empower a community to look out for its own best interests, leveraging ICT that we develop, often in collaboration with beneficiaries. Herein lies the tension of applying ICT for development with indigent and/or disadvantaged communities: power relations rise to the surface all too often. For example, technical researchers design and develop code for a given project based on their technical expertise, often employing a participatory design method. How do we deal with this? Obviously, there are many strategies. Tucker [START_REF] Tucker | Beyond traditional ethics when developing assistive technology for and with Deaf people in developing regions[END_REF] describes a continuum of participatory design from weak to strong, because in reality, participation, engagement and indeed empowerment varies. As with partial success and failures described by Heeks [START_REF] Heeks | Information systems and developing countries: Failure, success, and local improvisations[END_REF], ICT4D efforts can be viewed along a continuum of 'weak' to 'strong'. This paper contends that we can also do this by understanding the stages of community dependence, independence and interdependence as described by Kaplan [START_REF] Kaplan | The Development Practitioners' Handbook[END_REF]. As often noted, ICT4D community members are also beneficiaries, and our 'community' goes through those same development stages.

Amongst many failures, examples of successful ICT4D projects exist. For example, Toyama [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF] contends that Digital Green, a project meant to improve food production in India, was successful largely because local farmers featured in movies that conveyed best practise farming information to farmers. This low-tech intervention worked because movies, rather than mobile apps or web-based information, fit within the communities' cultural milieu. The Digital Green process was bottom-up: farmers informing farmers; not experts instructing locals. For Toyama [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF], the practitioner/researcher takes the role of mentor/facilitator. Thus, technology is seen as an amplifier of personal and social will, and a facilitator's role becomes that of encouraging people to change their behaviour while bettering oneself, and others, through that process. We believe what happened with Digital Green was that the project encouraged positive deviance, by showcasing the knowledge and experience of local farmers who learned to improve crop yield, and the medium of movies encouraged wider adoption of those practices.

We can agree that helping people, and ourselves, to change their/our own behaviour is preferable to being told what and how to change by outsiders. The first person to make a positive change may be the bravest, yet it is the second, third and so on, that can move a given community toward a 'tipping point' as termed by Gladwell [9]; where innovative, or deviant, becomes the new norm. This paper contends that 'positive deviance', a social mechanism described by Pascale et al. [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF] and Spreitzer and Sonenshein [START_REF] Spreitzer | Positive deviance and extraordinary organizing[END_REF], can be innovatively applied in the ICT4D space. We have identified unintentional vestiges of 'positive deviance' in two long running ICT4D case studies that we have conducted. We believe when done intentionally, ICT can amplify [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF] this social mechanism; and further, that Kaplan's [START_REF] Kaplan | The Development Practitioners' Handbook[END_REF] stages of community dependence to independence to interdependence offer an intriguing way to view the process. The paper posits that for research problems such as bringing ICTs to bear on the socio-economic challenges faced by indigent and disadvantaged communities, represented by the two case studies presented herein, the "power of positive deviance" [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF] can be amplified by ICT and help realise mutual community development and interdependence.

Key Concepts

The narrative follows Walsham [START_REF] Walsham | Development informatics in a changing world: Reflections from ICTD 2010/2012[END_REF], and this IFIP WG 9.4 conference's call for papers, and first defines what we mean by 'development', and then we clarify what we mean by positive deviance and ICT amplification.

Community development

Community development as offered by Kaplan [START_REF] Kaplan | The Development Practitioners' Handbook[END_REF] resonates with Toyama's [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF] advocacy of mentorship and facilitation in that a dynamic process between facilitator(s) and beneficiaries moves interrelationships, in a non-linear fashion, amongst stages of dependence, independence and interdependence. In our view, many ICT interventions also plot, again non-linearly, amongst a continuum of canonical action research stages: diagnosis, planning, implementation, evaluation and reflection (see Davison et al. [7]) whereby stakeholders move toward mutually defined goals to tackle mutually identified problems in a mutually beneficial way [START_REF] Mckay | The dual imperatives of action research[END_REF]. Ideal outcomes of action research can result in what we would call a 'stronger' stage of community development -interdependence -where the practitioner/researcher community is in some way invited to and/or integrated in the beneficiary community. This could even happen after one party or the other was possibly side-lined during a stage of independence. Such independence may have followed on a dependent stage where locals may have thought they needed outsider expertise/intervention or the intervening practitioner/researcher tacitly felt that s/he knew better than the recipients. The challenge is to overcome such power relations that come about during these various stages, and manifest changes within communities of both beneficiaries and facilitators. This view of development is ostensibly compatible with the sentiment of Toyama [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF] in that behavioural change can be mentored and facilitated. An attractive way to achieve this is with the "power of positive deviance".

Positive deviance

Positive deviance is a social mechanism whereby a beneficial practice that is not considered normal gets taken up by a community [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF][START_REF] Spreitzer | Positive deviance and extraordinary organizing[END_REF]. In other words, it is a mechanism for encouraging and enabling an abnormal behaviour, one that is positive and good, to spread within a community, effectively towards Gladwell's 'tipping point' [START_REF] Gladwell | The Tipping Point: How Little Things can Make a Big Difference[END_REF]. Positive deviance is inherently bottom-up as community members take responsibility for their own solution to problems, guided by an invited mentor/facilitator. Pascale et al. [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF] believe positive deviance is useful in situations where traditional top-down mechanisms, such as random control trials and the like, fail. Pascale et al. [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF] describe case studies with practical guidelines on how to perform the method and also how to measure its impact (see http://positivedeviance.org). A well-known case study involved child health in Cambodia. Local authorities were facing the problem of childhood malnutrition and invited the Sternins (a husband and wife team, co-authors with Pascale) based on their work with UNICEF. Most children in an area identified by authorities were consuming the same diet, and exhibited low body mass index (BMI) scores. The Sternins framed the problem differently, by asking 'reverse' questions, e.g. asking are there children with healthy BMI scores, as opposed to why do so many people exhibit low BMI? It emerged that some children did in fact have healthy BMI scores because it became revealed that some parents in the community were supplementing the 'normal' diet with tiny crustaceans that lived amongst the rice paddies. These 'positive deviants' were improving the nutrition of their offspring by breaking the norm and providing their children with additional protein. Once this positive deviance was identified, the challenge morphed to spreading this behavioural change throughout the community. Again, the Sternins turned to the community for answers, and the community itself devised hands-on methods for encouraging more parents to behave like the positive deviants. Subsequent measurement of BMI across the community showed that this process was indeed beneficial. Interestingly, Pascale et al. [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF] included a sidebar on ICT and bottom-up open source software development as espoused by Raymond [19] that they feel is corollary to bottom-up positive deviance, in that an open source community provides itself with answers. However, Pascale et al. [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF] did not go so far as to suggest using ICT to amplify positive deviance.

ICT amplification

ICT amplification is a view about the role of ICT in society. According to Toyama [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF] this is the notion that ICT amplifies whatever human will is already present in a given scenario, e.g. if gender dynamics in a given community are balanced and equitable, ICT can only but help amplify this situation, and males and females alike are encouraged to participate in digital spaces. Conversely, if there are negative power relations, such as poor gender dynamics, the introduction of ICT can only but amplify those negative aspects such as keeping digital devices away from females. Thus, we can understand why in many situations where we intend ICT to be beneficial, it can lead to negative consequences. When positive, the view of amplification resonates with emancipatory ICT research associated with Buskens [START_REF] Buskens | Research methodology for personal and social transformation: purpose-aligned action research, intentional agency and dialogue[END_REF].

3

Case studies

Now we apply these key concepts to two case studies. Both are long term ICT-oriented action research projects led by this paper's author. Each case description below has a brief overview of the project's current thrust, and explores it in terms of positive deviance, ICT amplification and community interdependence. Additional low level details of both projects can be found via citations. It should be noted that positive deviance was not explicitly pursued from the start for either project. In fact, the idea of employing positive deviance, and then leveraging ICT to amplify positive deviance, came about by viewing our ongoing projects with these lenses. Methodological concerns for each case study are provided in Section 4.

Case study: Zenzeleni, a rural community-owned and run ISP

Many rural areas of South Africa experience the unfortunate situation of having almost ubiquitous mobile phone coverage where the majority of residents struggle to afford even basic ICT services [START_REF] Rey-Moreno | An in-depth study of the ICT ecosystem in a South African rural community: unveiling expenditure and communication patterns[END_REF]. Since 2003, we have explored various forms of rural wireless networks in the remote Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Since 2012, we have concentrated on Zenzeleni, a not-for-profit cooperative who have installed and now maintain a rural mesh network (see zenzeleni.net). Their solar powered wireless network provides free internal calls and 'breakout' calls to land-lines and mobile phones at a fraction of incumbent costs. Zenzeleni Mankosi currently covers 30km 2 with 'mesh potato' stations, each with its own handset. We are busy installing broadband backhaul from a nearby university approximately 60km away, and intend to share the connectivity to numerous secondary schools in the area. Zenzeleni generates income by charging mobile phone batteries, and offers prepaid 'breakout' calls and internet connectivity via low cost WiFi hotspots. In 2014, Zenzeleni obtained license exemption from ICASA, the national regulatory authority, to operate telecommunications infrastructure, setting a precedent for other South African communities to do so, too [START_REF] Rey-Moreno | Making a Community Network Legal within the South African Regulatory Framework[END_REF].

Positive deviance can be identified amongst people associated with Zenzeleni. Following on an earlier project that used solar power to charge phone batteries [START_REF] Bidwell | Walking and the Social Life of Solar Charging in Rural Africa[END_REF], many more people are now charging phones at a dozen charging stations located around the community. The people who have the mesh potato stations in their homes are transparently providing the revenue back to the community, and that money is being used for loans within the community (and the interest ploughed back into the cooperative). There is also a local team providing technical support instead of relying on external technical skills. For example, the team replaced mesh potato antennae without our help, and also sorts out wiring and fuse issues on a regular basis. It is clear that the project is creating jobs in the midst of massive unemployment, and also imparts the opportunity to acquire financial and technical skills. The presence of accessible and affordable ICT has enabled almost a dozen female high school students to find scholarships online, and all of them are currently studying at tertiary colleges. The reality on the ground is a mix of positives and negatives. The cooperative earns revenue primarily from charging mobile phone batteries and not from (breakout) phone calls as originally envisaged. We believe the latter is largely due to people resisting change, all the while paying double the price of a Zenzeleni 'breakout' call. We also recognise that in order to make a Zenzeleni call, inhabitants must use a 'public' call station. While we feel that supporting WiFi-based calls from personal handsets will address the 'public phone' issue, we must keep in mind the "geek heresy" that a purely technical solution cannot solve this problem [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF].

Enabling positive deviance with respect to call behaviour will entail the identification of people who are already using the Zenzeleni network to make calls, to figure out with them how it may be possible to get other people to change their call behaviour, too; saving money on telecommunications that could otherwise be used for food. We also must devise ways to get more women more involved because women can also be excluded from Zenzeleni processes [START_REF] Hussen | Gender and participation: Critical reflection on Zenzeleni networks in Mankosi, South Africa[END_REF]. We are hopeful that connecting secondary schools will offer more women the opportunity to participate in digital spaces and that the use of technology will spread through the youth, both male and female.

ICT amplification has occurred in various ways. Many community residents appear to think that the network 'belongs' to the tribal authority; that only its headman and subheadmen, or members of the Zenzeleni cooperative, are allowed to use the 'public' phones [START_REF] Rey-Moreno | Local ownership, exercise of ownership and moving from passive to active entitlement: A practice-led inquiry on a rural community network[END_REF]. Thus, Zenzeleni acts as yet another conduit for existing power relations within the community to continue. Another view is that many inhabitants may simply not understand that the stations in the community are more than just phone charging points, because the community had earlier been exposed to the aforementioned charging efforts and this may be how people view the Zenzeleni infrastructure [START_REF] Hussen | Gender and participation: Critical reflection on Zenzeleni networks in Mankosi, South Africa[END_REF][START_REF] Rey-Moreno | Local ownership, exercise of ownership and moving from passive to active entitlement: A practice-led inquiry on a rural community network[END_REF]. On a more positive note, recall the dozen female high school students that are now busy with tertiary studies. Clearly, the ICT provided by Zenzeleni has amplified those girls' abilities to pursue their own aspirations.

Community interdependence can be viewed on several levels. Within the Mankosi community itself, inhabitants already enjoy financial benefits of supporting their community-owned and run business because its revenues are ploughed back into the community in the form of micro-lending. However, it must be noted that the cooperative is not installing more solar mesh stations or paying for network maintenance. Those costs are still handled by the research team, and thus a form of financial dependence still exists. We are more interested, though, in the interdependence that has emerged between Mankosi community and the researcher community. Dearden and Tucker [START_REF] Dearden | Moving ICTD Research Beyond Bungee Jumping: Practical Case Studies and Recommendations[END_REF] would contend that this beneficial inter-relationship exists due to the continued series of ICT projects, in spite of many of them having failed, partially or fully. Relationships have been forged, maintained and strengthened over time. The project appears to have thus far avoided a catastrophic independence phase, e.g. the researchers were never asked to leave. One sign of independence includes the revenues being transparently utilised according to the cooperative's wishes. Some of the research team have lived in the community for an extended period and others have continually 'bungee researched' for almost 15 years. Over time, some of us have become accepted as part of an 'expanded' sense of community. In a reciprocal fashion, a community research assistant has co-authored research with us and even travelled internationally (a first for him) twice to report on the project and network with an international community. Through these exchanges, we move towards a more interdependent relationship.

Case study: SignSupport, assistive technology for Deaf people

Many Deaf people in South Africa primarily communicate in sign language and communication with hearing people who cannot sign is a daily struggle. This problem is compounded when Deaf people require information and communication regarding health. Such priorities led to the development of SignSupport (www.signsupport.org), a mobile assistive technology for Deaf people. Since 2001, we have designed a variety assistive technologies with and for a marginalized and under-employed Deaf people in the Cape Town area. These people are proficient and fluent in sign language, yet due to poverty and under-education exhibit limited functional literacy with written and spoken language when interacting with a hearing majority. A multi-disciplinary and transuniversity team, together with a collection of Deaf People's Organisations (DPOs) is currently busy with iterative and incremental design and evaluation of a mobile tool suite that bridges information and communication gaps between Deaf and hearing people, in the language that these Deaf people understand: South African Sign Language (SASL). We are generalizing this tool to handle multiple limited interaction scenarios [START_REF] Blake | Towards communication and information access for Deaf people[END_REF]. There are several scenarios in prototype: a visit to a pharmacy [START_REF] Chininthorn | Mobile Communication Tools for a South African Deaf Patient in a Pharmacy Context[END_REF], international computer driver license (ICDL) training [START_REF] Ng'ethe | SignSupport: A mobile aid for Deaf people learning computer literacy skills[END_REF], and a diabetes information scenario [START_REF] Chininthorn | Exploration of Deaf people's health information sources and techniques for information delivery in Cape Town: A qualitative study for the design and development of a mobile health application[END_REF].

Positive deviance is easy to spot within one DPO in particular, called Deaf Community of Cape Town (DCCT). Its entire staff has come to embrace technology due largely to a continuous ICT research presence. Several DCCT staff are certified with International Computer Driving License (ICDL), one of them manages the network and another helps to maintain the computer lab. These positive deviants are now role models for the thousands of Deaf people served by the DPO. Due to a spate of independence (see below), the research team only recently began to establish ties with other Deaf organisations in the area, with the hope of identifying and mentoring more positive deviants, especially amongst the youth. As we interact with more Deaf communities, we continually learn about new apps that Deaf people use to communicate. In other words, ICT literacy is 'catchy', and spreads, thus paving the way for positive deviance to spread.

ICT amplification is clearly enabled by SignSupport, a mobile app meant to increase the reach of official healthcare information to Deaf people in SASL, e.g. for diabetes [START_REF] Chininthorn | Exploration of Deaf people's health information sources and techniques for information delivery in Cape Town: A qualitative study for the design and development of a mobile health application[END_REF]. It must be noted that the initial idea for SignSupport came from Deaf people who had participated with us after years of ICT research projects. We believe it was their increased familiarity with ICT in general that empowered them to frame their community's priority for understandable healthcare information via an app like SignSupport through drawings [START_REF] Chininthorn | Mobile Communication Tools for a South African Deaf Patient in a Pharmacy Context[END_REF]. Positive deviants at DCCT also utilise ICT to amplify their own tasks, e.g. several staff members are trained HIV/AIDS community health workers and they leverage ICT to do that job better. However, their main dissemination of health information is via enacted dramas. The SignSupport project aims to incorporate videos of such info-dramas conducted on a stage, into the mobile app in yet another form of amplification. We are hoping that SignSupport provides a vehicle for positive deviance to spread by featuring well-known members of the community in those videos, a la Digital Green.

Community interdependence is emerging by learning how to better use the community-based co-design model [START_REF] Blake | Deaf telephony: Community-based co-design[END_REF]. It has not always gone easily. We are entirely dependent on sign language interpreters to conduct almost all aspects of the research. Of course, our students take sign language courses, but then they graduate and leave! And there are not only linguistic challenges; they can be cultural and interpersonal as well.

Via reading between the lines of personal communication, it emerged that beneath the relatively benign suggestion by one Deaf community who asked researchers to include other Deaf communities, there was actually a 'push' indicating that they themselves felt 'pushed'; perhaps research fatigue or perhaps they felt they were not benefiting enough from the intervention? Kaplan [START_REF] Kaplan | The Development Practitioners' Handbook[END_REF] would say this is natural, and subsequent re-engagement with the 'pushing' community appears to be on track. Now, several more DPOs are now part of the universities' research programme, gifting us more perspectives on our work. One especially promising development is that we learned of a small group of Deaf students involved in a mobile programming course in another province. At some point, it would be wonderful to get Deaf programmers involved in the SignSupport project, and develop an even deeper sense of interdependence in the technical space.

Methodology

Both case studies operate under an action research umbrella [START_REF] Davison | Principles of canonical action research[END_REF][START_REF] Hayes | The relationship of action research to human-computer interaction[END_REF][START_REF] Kemmis | Participatory Action Research[END_REF][START_REF] Mckay | The dual imperatives of action research[END_REF]. We view action research more as a paradigm than a specific methodology, and are most interested in generating new knowledge and ways to address social challenges. Given our background in experimental computer science, we produce computing artefacts, and aim to intervene with communities in such a way that their priorities drive our technology development agenda. This is one way to ensure that the technology we produce can help them drive their own social agenda. Then, together, we can reflect on the experience of using such a system. Overall methods for each project are explained below.

4.1

Zenzeleni methodology

The data collection for the Zenzeleni project comprises a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. In the Mankosi community, we work closely with the community's tribal authority (traditional leadership), a team of local research assistants (whose leader assumes the role of local champion) and also a co-located NGO. The thrust of a particular research project operates under a collective action research umbrella where we mutually define goals and mechanisms to achieve and evaluate them. Residents often collect data with us and also on our behalf; and at least one resident (most often the champion) helps to analyse and contextualise the results. Occasionally, we have a student from the area who speaks the local language and has a deeper personal experience of the local culture that can help interpret results beyond mere language translation. An example of quantitative data collection on the project is a baseline study conducted to understand how residents use and spend on telecommunications. We used stratified sampling to survey households in the dozen villages that comprise Mankosi [START_REF] Rey-Moreno | An in-depth study of the ICT ecosystem in a South African rural community: unveiling expenditure and communication patterns[END_REF]. We used ODK (see opendatakit.org) on low end mobile phones to collect this data with the help of local research assistants who could translate the questionnaire questions and its answers. ODK also allowed us to record open-ended questions for subsequent translation. The questionnaire was adapted from the Household survey obtained from Research ICT Africa (RIA) (see [START_REF] Stork | ICT household survey methodology & fieldwork[END_REF] and www.researchictafrica.net). The tribal authority calculated the number of people in each village, and from there we determined how to sample. We conducted two surveys in 2012 and 2013 [START_REF] Rey-Moreno | An in-depth study of the ICT ecosystem in a South African rural community: unveiling expenditure and communication patterns[END_REF]. With baseline data in place, we can repeat this form of data collection in order to analyse changes in line with ICT interventions over time. We can also anonymously access call record details and network usage statistics to get fully instrumented usage metrics on the network.

In order to achieve a deeper understanding of the context, we also collect ethnographic data based on long-term presence in the community. For example, we have had academic team members resident in the community from 6-15 months at a time. Longterm presence enables rich engagement via a variety of formal and informal conversations with community members. More often, however, we conduct 2-3 week visits for a given purpose. Many of the younger generation speak basic English, yet the older generation prefers isiXhosa. We therefore employ local research assistants to conduct both structured interviews and focus group sessions. We use such techniques to enquire about a range of issues surrounding the project, e.g. designing the billing system [START_REF] Rey-Moreno | Co-designing a billing system for voice services in Rural South Africa: Lessons learned[END_REF], gender roles in the project [START_REF] Hussen | Gender and participation: Critical reflection on Zenzeleni networks in Mankosi, South Africa[END_REF] and the role of ICT in local schools (yet to be published).

SignSupport methodology

Our take on action research with the SignSupport project has led us to what we call community-based co-design [START_REF] Blake | Deaf telephony: Community-based co-design[END_REF], with aspects of participatory action research [START_REF] Kemmis | Participatory Action Research[END_REF] and co-design [START_REF] Kam | Practical Considerations for Participatory Design with Rural School Children in Underdeveloped Regions: Early Reflections from the Field[END_REF][START_REF] Ramachandran | Social Dynamics of Early Stage Co-Design in Developing Regions[END_REF]. 'Community-based' conveys the fact that we deal with groups of people rather than individuals, aligned with the African concept of 'ubuntu'. A group approach can be very different from engineering toward individual requirements, e.g. in Africa, phones are often shared devices and we must design accordingly. We must constantly remain sensitive to cultural differences and develop ways of entering into design conversations with people who may not have strong technical skills yet who are knowledgeable on their own needs, and especially how their own communities operate. We collaborate with industrial design engineers who work with Deaf people as codesigners, and together identify the problems that needs to be addressed, the means of tackling the issues and then together decide on measures of success. We employ techniques such as cultural probes and generative sessions. Then we provide mock-up designs, conduct training with Deaf participants and provide exercises for end-users who then get together afterwards for a focus group discussion. This is very similar to early stage co-design [START_REF] Ramachandran | Social Dynamics of Early Stage Co-Design in Developing Regions[END_REF]. From a practical standpoint, it is important to hold follow up feedback sessions to keep the community in the loop after we take the data back to the lab, e.g. to develop a mock-up into a proper mobile app. Then we return to the community with the app in a series of incremental feedback and iterative development cycles. We also conduct workshops to brainstorm how to move these research-driven apps out of the lab and into Deaf people's hands. We also take a wider view of community, and also involve, in the case of SignSupport for diabetes, health professionals in all phases of the action research. This is because the health professionals, who cannot sign, are just as interested in providing health care information to Deaf people as Deaf people are interested in gaining access to health information in sign language.

During the sessions described above, it is also critical that experts keep their own design decisions in abeyance, albeit temporarily, in order to allow for co-designers to find their own voice and participate meaningfully. With Deaf participants, we rely on sign language interpreters, and herein lie a subtle aspect of data collection with Deaf people. Sign language is an incredibly descriptive language and interpreters are tasked with explaining and describing concepts that may or may not have direct translation, in either direction. For example, finger spelling the name of a browser or a medical condition is often not enough. The interpreter often creates a story in order to characterise a technical term. Therefore, it helps to have an interpreter that has been immersed in the ICT research programme for an extended amount of time, to be better at explaining such terms that dominate our discourse during semi-structured interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Note that we have also conducted a baseline survey on telecommunications use of Deaf people, also with ODK. We instrumented ODK to have a sign language interface, and also record sign language video for subsequent interpretation.

Discussion

Both case studies show that there is a difference between identifying a positive deviant, and then applying or leveraging ICT to achieve more positive deviance. The former has been realised by introducing the ICT research project to the community; and attaching it to the community to enable their input. However, the next stage is more important. Our goal has been to provide generic ICTs, primed for appropriation using the local language (SASL for SignSupport and isiXhosa for Zenzeleni voice communications). What happens is that communities at first discover such ICTs dependently, and that then acts as a springboard for subsequent discovery without (independence) or with (interdependent) 'us'. For example, perhaps a DPO wants to start its own video relay service. They could seek our advice for the underlying technical platform, even ask us to develop it, or co-develop it with Deaf programmers and technical support. However, once in place, the Deaf communities themselves can leverage that video relay service for their own purposes; again, with or without us. This is very similar to the voice and internet services provided to rural inhabitants by Zenzeleni. If a given cooperative decides they want to sell WiFi-enabled mobile phones to establish another revenue stream, there is no reason why the coop cannot do this independently, with or without our help and/or advice. Furthermore, they can leverage the voice calling and internet connectivity to put that, or any other community effort, into practice.

Positive deviance is therefore a social mechanism that can operate within and between communities; and can indeed by amplified by ICT. We can further this agenda by designing and providing generic ICTs that allow for adoption and appropriation by communities. This is attainable when the technologies are affordable and accessible, and especially when content is provided in the local language. Thus, as ICT4D researchers and practitioners, we can turn our attention to a) developing ICTs that fit these characteristics and b) figure out ways to use those ICTs to amplify positive deviance. In the process of doing so, the development aspects apply to these communities as well as to ourselves. As we mentor and facilitate positive deviance in marginalised communities, we also develop and grow ourselves.

Conclusion and moving forward

The two case studies have afforded us the opportunity to identify positive deviants in very different ICT scenarios, and contemplate how ICT can leverage positive deviance [START_REF] Pascale | The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems[END_REF][START_REF] Spreitzer | Positive deviance and extraordinary organizing[END_REF]. We note that originally, our projects were not conceived with positive deviance in mind. Yet that does not stop us from explicitly pursuing it now. Affordable, accessible and generic ICT in a local language, such as SignSupport's scenario-independent mobile app and Zenzeleni's voice calling and internet connectivity, provide a platform on which communities can amplify their own community-oriented priorities and aspirations. Reflecting on the social mechanism of positive deviance in connection with the principle of ICT amplification has led us to rethink what we mean by community development. We have found that the views of Toyama [START_REF] Toyama | Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology[END_REF] and Kaplan [START_REF] Kaplan | The Development Practitioners' Handbook[END_REF] intertwine and resonate with how we have come to perceive relationships with our socalled 'beneficiary' communities. A key takeaway is that we are also beneficiaries, developing ourselves and our own capacities in ways that can be fed back to the communities with whom we work. From this, we learn our primary role is to be mentor and facilitator. As our case studies have evolved over the long-term, we have come to see positive deviance as a social mechanism that we should embrace and encourage mindfully, leveraging ICT to amplify this mechanism. We believe this can lead to community development, especially in terms of interdependence between the academic/practitioner community together with the communities we seek to assist. In our opinion, this serves to develop 'their' community as much as 'ours', and in many ways, as the communities overlap, we can realise a mutually beneficial interdependence.

Acknowledgements. Various aspects of this work have been supported by the Telkom Centre of Excellence Programme (including contributions from Telkom, Cisco and Aria Technologies), South Africa's National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Department of Trade and Industry's Technology and Human Resources for Industry Partnership (THRIP) programme, the European Commission's CONFINE project, and the University of the Western Cape. Thanks also to Ineke for the idea origin spark.


Maryam Rabiee
email: maryam.rabiee@tuwien.ac.at

Min Tjoa

A Min Tjoa

From Abstraction to Implementation: Can Computational Thinking Improve Complex Real-World Problem Solving? A Computational Thinking-Based Approach to the SDGs

Keywords: Computational Thinking, SDGs, Problem Solving, Global Network

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Introduction

The once 'imagined communities' of the twentieth century are now transforming into a global network of communities. Anderson believed that nations were a social construction of a group's imagined connection to other members that was enabled by print press [START_REF] Anderson | Imagined communities: reflection on the origin and spread of nationalism[END_REF]. Today, digital technologies, the internet in particular, have created a global network where the production and consumption of information transcends languages, nationalities, and borders creating a network of communities that is growing in its real-world connectivity. Our ever more connected world has developed a global network where our problems are becoming more complex and more intertwined. As a result, the world faces an acute problem: how can we devise solutions for our multi-layered and interconnected problems while ensuring that the solutions will benefit and reach everyone.

In 2006 Wing suggested that computational thinking, a method of thinking that derives from concepts fundamental to computer science, is a universally applicable attitude and skill set for everyone and all disciplines to solve problems and design systems that no one could accomplish alone [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking[END_REF]. Thereafter, the notion of computation thinking has received attention from scholars in various fields. This paper seeks to explore how computational thinking can serve as a tool, method, or approach to solving complex real-world problems and how can it be utilized. The goal is to conceptualize a method as an approach that would lead to universal efforts resulting in the increase of social, economic, political, and environmental harmony on a local and global level. The paper also suggests general solutions that serve as opportunities for further case studies and research.

Methodology

In this paper, the concept of computational thinking will be utilized to propose a fourstage problem-solving paradigm that tackles shared global problems in their localities. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [START_REF]Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development[END_REF] set by the United Nations in 2015 identify current global problems that are shared across the globe and require immediate solutions. In effect, we have chosen to discuss the paradigm in relation to the SDGs. However, in spite of its broad scope and ambitious targets, we have chosen to address only one of the SDGs, Goal 4: Quality Education, in each stage of the paradigm in order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed process.

What Does Computational Thinking Entail?

In 1950 Turing postulated the universality of the computing process, in that digital computers could mimic any other machine and therefore, possess the ability to function with the same program [START_REF] Turing | Computing machinery and intelligence[END_REF]. The universality of the computation process is also the basis of Wing's grand vision for computational thinking. She believes that it is a universally compatible method that can help solve complex problems by thinking with many levels of abstraction [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking[END_REF]. In her later work, Wing defines computational thinking as "an approach to solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computing" [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking and thinking about computing[END_REF]. Wing does not suggest to "think" like a computer but to adapt the structural thinking process used by computer scientist to instruct computers to complete a task or solve a problem. Riley and Hunt reiterate Wing's statement in that computational thinking is characterized by the manner in which computer scientists think and reason [START_REF] Riley | Computational thinking for the modern problem solver[END_REF].

Denning argues that computational thinking has its roots in what was referred to as algorithmic thinking in the 1950s and 1960s, which he describes as "a mental orientation to formulating problems as conversions of some input to an output and looking for algorithms to perform the conversions" [START_REF] Denning | The profession of IT: beyond computational thinking[END_REF]. For Denning, computational thinking is not a principle but a practice that develops various levels of skills [START_REF] Denning | The profession of IT: beyond computational thinking[END_REF]. Computational thinking has also been defined as "the thought processes involved in formulating problems so their solutions can be represented as computational steps and algorithms" by Aho [START_REF] Aho | Computation and computational thinking[END_REF] The suggested thought process is an applicable model in various discourses and establishes the foundation of a plan of action to tackle a problem. Algorithms alone may not be able to solve complex real-world problems, however, computational thinking can induce strategic objectives and models of action that enhance the development of solutions. A fundamental step towards understanding and solving complex real-world problems may rest on the ability to apply Wing's approach to computational thinking on comprehensive and (big) data sets.

Gouws et al. [START_REF] Gouws | Computational thinking in educational activities: an evaluation of the educational game light-bot[END_REF] attribute three elements to computational thinking: "exploring all aspects of the problem, considering the complexity of the problem, and finding an optimal solution that can be achieved with available sources" [START_REF] Gouws | Computational thinking in educational activities: an evaluation of the educational game light-bot[END_REF]. In their efforts to incorporate computational thinking in educational activities, they designed a computational thinking framework (CTF) to serve as foundation for computational thinking materials. The CTF is a two-dimensional grid: one dimension is the skill sets that make up computational thinking and the second dimension is the different levels in which the skill sets may be practiced. This approach, demonstrates the applicability of implementing computational thinking in real-world problem solving practices. García-Peñalvo's definition of computational thinking "as the application of high level abstractions and an algorithmic approach to solve any kind of problems" [START_REF] García-Peñalvo | What computational thinking is[END_REF] also affirms the applicability of computational thinking in various domains. These definitions emphasize the applicability of computational thinking to problems from different disciplines as an active problem-solving approach.

The generalization of computational thinking to a universal discourse has been subject to criticism as well. Blackwell et al. argue that computer scientists use a literalistic approach to definitions because computers reason literally. This approach undermines the complexities and contexts of real-world problems and creates an illusion of universality. Their second argument suggests that abstraction compromises the end-goal by focusing on how the problem is structured. The third point argues that computational thinking can be a misleading foundation, as it is not rooted in a realworld problems or human phenomenon [START_REF] Blackwell | The abstract is an enemy: alternative perspectives to computational thinking[END_REF]. While authors raise valid points, the principle argument is that computational thinking is not the solution to our complex problems; it is a tool to aid the process of developing solutions.

Wing believes that computational thinking benefits our societies by enhancing intellectual skills to not only find solutions but also formulate problems in any domain [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking benefits society[END_REF]. The question for us now is how can computational thinking assist in consolidating the development of solutions for real-world problems that are subject to different and changing circumstances, diverse thought processes, and contain the element of unpredictability?

4 Real-World Problem: The SDGs Sustainable development emerged as a concept in the report published by the World Commission for Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, when the General Assembly of the United Nations called for "a global agenda for change" [START_REF]Report of the world commission on environment and development: our common future[END_REF]. Section 3 Article 27 of the report-also known as the Brundtland report-states that sustainable development is development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" [START_REF]Report of the world commission on environment and development: our common future[END_REF]. Chapter 2 of the report expands the definition of sustainable development to: "It contains within it two key concepts: 1) the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and 2) the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs. Thus the goals of economic and social development must be defined in terms of sustainability in all countriesdeveloped or developing, market-oriented or centrally planned. Interpretations will vary, but must share certain general features and must flow from a consensus on the basic concept of sustainable development and on a broad strategic framework for achieving it" [START_REF]Report of the world commission on environment and development: our common future[END_REF]. In 2015, 193 members of the UN General Assembly adopted 17 SDGs, which aim to achieve economic development, social inclusion, and environmental protection by 2030 [START_REF]Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development[END_REF]. The SDGs central position is to ensure that no one is left behind. The universal agenda featured in the SDGs are driven by problems that are shared globally, however, each of the outlined problems are caused under different circumstances in each of the target populations. The implementation of such goals requires a local-to-global framework that would provide a global yet localizable plan of action. This paper proposes that the conceptual elements of computational thinking can contribute to providing a universal framework and collective structure for problem-solving thought processes that is suitable for each local population.

A Local-to-Global Problem-Solving Approach

In practice, computational thinking stimulates a process of thinking in which the multiplicity of the problem is understood and deconstructed it to its core and periphery components, so that the development of solutions propel an effective and efficient implementation process. Given the fundamental concepts of computing, our proposed method approaches real-world problems with four core stages of abstraction, decomposition, solution development, and validation. Each stage of the process is attainable through the following steps:

Abstraction

Abstraction, according to Wing, is the "mental tool" of computing; it identifies details that are crucial for solving a problem and extracts the knowledge embedded in the data [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking and thinking about computing[END_REF]. The process of abstraction focuses on the relevant details required to solve a problem [START_REF] Grover | Computational thinking in k-12: a review of the state of the field[END_REF]. Wing's "thinking with multiple layers of abstraction" leads to defining different elements of a problem and how they relate to one another. Kramer points out two vital features of abstraction: simplification, by removing details, and generalization, to identify the common core [START_REF] Kramer | Is abstraction the key to computing[END_REF]. Therefore, the central focus of abstraction is the process of extracting fundamental concepts of a complex problem that affect the outcome of the solution. In a real-world problem setting, generalizations do not eliminate the contextual factors that dictate the local circumstances. On the contrary, the generalization process identifies problems shared in local contexts and takes the "big picture" into consideration. The SDGs are a great example of how issues such as economic vulnerability, gender inequality, climate change, etc. are generalizable problems to all societies that need to be locally interpreted. The process of abstraction undergoes three steps of elucidation, context identification, and circumstantial description.

Elucidation

The outcome of this stage of the process is to define the core problems that need to be solved. Priami states that "computational thinking is a different way of approaching a problem by producing descriptions that are inherently executable" and understanding the problem at different layers of abstraction is "building a virtual hierarchy of interpretations" [START_REF] Priami | Computational thinking in biology[END_REF]. The first layer of abstraction provides a clear definition of the core of the problem. This step undertakes an important task as it generalizes the definition of the problem to the extent that it is clear and pertinent to all other layers so that the essential factors are extracted.

In order to identify the underlying problems stated in the SDGs it is necessary to provide a clear definition of all the goals. In spite of the SDGs' vague language, a reformulation of the goals will provide a more detailed definition, contextualize them in such a manner that is applicable to a broader variation of social constructs, and identify the underlying problem each goal seeks to overcome. Goal 4 of the SDGs, as stated in Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [START_REF]Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development[END_REF], is: "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." The re-formulation of Goal 4 provides a more inclusive and cohesive understanding of its purpose and function with the following description: Facilitate all means-including educational material, facilities, and educators-that would build a diverse foundation of quality education, as both the process and outcome of learning, and equal access for all. Promote the benefits of education for individuals and their societies at large. The elucidation process allows us to identify the general scope of the goal to its core problem of inaccessibility of education, in a way that is relevant to all layers of the problem.

Context Identification

To highlight the relevant details related to a problem is part of Wing's abstraction procedure [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking and thinking about computing[END_REF]. Context identification contextualizes the general problem in its local context. The purpose of this layer of abstraction is to eliminate generalized details that are not applicable to that particular setting and simplify our understanding of the complex situation by highlighting local and relevant interpretations of a problem. The lack of contextualized information will result in the misinterpretation of that problem and exhaust efforts that are not beneficial to the solution development process.

Given the complexity and multiplicity of socio-cultural factors present in realworld problems, designing a model that is accommodating to everyone is as ambitious as the SDGs themselves. Nevertheless, including cultural factors in the problem definition will provide the means of designing solutions that will reach a wider range of populations. Now that the core underlying problem has been defined, the next step is to define each problem in their local and cultural setting: Does the local population perceive Goal 4 as a problem in their community? How does the local population define the problems derived from Goal 4? How does the local population define the relationship between local and global factors of the problem?

Circumstantial Description

Problems do not emerge independent from their circumstantial settings, which are vital details to examine in the problem-solving process. Zachman characterizes people (who), time (when), and motivation (why) as a necessary descriptive type in the field of information systems architecture [START_REF] Zachman | A framework for information systems architecture[END_REF]. In this layer of abstraction, Zachman's motivation factor has been substituted with the location factor in order to determine who is involved in the problems, where the problems take place, and when do the problems occur. Each of the circumstantial factors affects the composition of the problem and its susceptibility to change. In the case of the SDGs, the actors, location, and timeline vary and must be identified locally: Who: The actors involved in the SDGs are networks of designs makers, contributors, recipients, and implementers. These interconnected networks of people who will design solutions, implement solutions, and collectively participate in the development process are: UN system and stakeholders, local governments, private sector, educational institutions, citizens and community organizers, local experts. Where: The Sustainable Development Solutions Network published in a report that the SDGs will depend on a bottom-up approach that will connect local authorities and communities to national-level decision-making [START_REF]Getting started with the sustainable development goals: a guide for stakeholders[END_REF]. Therefore, the SDGs require a local-to-global approach. The SDGs have declared to "take into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respect national policies and priorities" [START_REF]Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development[END_REF]. Ensuring the inclusion of populations at a local level will lead to the foundation of national, regional, and global partnerships. For Goal 4, the local to global approach would start with local schools and education centers to form a cohesive community that take educational concerns to a national and global level. When: There is a 15-year timeframe with 2030 as the deadline. The timeframe vary for each problem and location. The attainment of equitable and quality education is a long-term goal, however, it is plausible to believe that the foundations of Goal 4 are attainable in the remaining years of the SDGs timeline.

Outlining the circumstantial settings of the problem will provide insight on the following questions: Who are the influential local authorities? Who will the local populations accept as the solution implementer? In what time frame can the problems be resolved? What can citizens do to help solve the problem?

Decomposition

Breaking problems down by functionality is an important element of computational thinking, according to Wing [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking and thinking about computing[END_REF]. In this stage, the complex set of problems is divided into simpler forms that are easier to solve. Simplifying the problem does not equate to dehumanizing its complexities in computer-identifiable codes, on the contrary, it serves to simplify the means of implementing the solutions. Solving each of the subproblems will compose a solution to the original problem that was decomposed. The objective is to find a way to solve complex problems, which requires solving problems in parallel to one another, as they contain inter-component connections. After all, computational thinking also encompasses thinking recursively [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking[END_REF].

Root Cause Breakdown

The first phase of decomposition can be achieved by identifying the root causes, where each cause becomes a sub-problem that needs to be solved. Identifying the root causes will analyze the contextual constraints that exist in each location and recognize the connection between each of the sub-problems. The local-to-global approach will identify of root causes in their local and global contexts. The lack of education infrastructures, high cost of education, insufficient number of educators, far distances to nearest education facilities, cultural gender norms, conflict and war, and lack of services available for students with special needs are but a few barriers to education that concern the achievement of Goal 4. The following questions assist in identifying why the problem is occurring in its current circumstances: What do experts identify as the causes of inaccessibility to inclusive and quality education? What does the local population identify as the causes of inaccessibility to inclusive and quality education? What efforts have been made to eradicate the root cases? Why have they been unsuccessful in overcoming obstacles related to education in the past? Which of the underlying causes can be changed or eliminated?

Linkage Breakdown

Understanding the relationship among different layers is one of the essential components of computational thinking. The second phase of decomposition answers the question: how are the root causes related to one another? The interconnectivity of sub-problems requires the understanding of links within and between problems. The SDGs have emerged from a network of interdependent problems; not only do the goals address a broad scope of issues, but many of them overlap and generate the causality of one another. Meaning that the reduction of the root causes of problem 1 will result in the reduction of problem 2, problem 3, and so on, or understanding the root causes of problem 4 will help solve problem 5, problem 6, and so forth. Once the links between the root causes are identified in each context, the set of problems will be narrowed to manageable sub-problems. The assessment of the links between each of the underlying problems of the SDGs requires local information for a contextualized result. However, Table 1 provides a few examples of how some of the other SDGs are directly linked to Goal 4:

Economic poverty and vulnerability

The lack of education exacerbates the risk of poverty [START_REF]Sustaining human progress: reducing vulnerabilities and building resilience[END_REF]. An increase in educational attainment can reduce the risk of poverty by increasing the possibility of employment [START_REF]Education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all[END_REF].

Food insecurity

Educated individuals are more likely to meet their nutrition needs, which makes education an essential element to eliminate malnutrition in the long term [START_REF]Education Transforms Lives Report[END_REF].

3

Poor health and lack of healthcare

There is a strong correlation between level of education and awareness about diseases, preventative measures, and available health care services [START_REF] Who | Research for universal health coverage[END_REF].

5

Gender inequality

Attainment of education available for women at a higher level would decrease the wage gap between men and women 9

Lack of effective infrastructures

The advancement of industrial economies is directly related to the populations' education. Education systems can develop technological capabilities and innovation at a higher rate [START_REF]The role of technology and innovation in inclusive and sustainable industrial development[END_REF].

10

Inequality on multiple levels

Inequality in opportunities to education and health has a negative impact on poverty and income levels [START_REF]Development goals in an era of demographic change[END_REF].

11

Unsustainable human settlements

Urbanization can improve access to education, health, and better living conditions, where cities have the potential to improve those circumstances [23].

12 Lack of sustainable consumption and production (SCP)

Enhancing the quality and accessibility of education can influence behavioral and industrial patterns [START_REF]Development goals in an era of demographic change[END_REF] and shift SCP patterns towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

13

Climate change and its impacts

Education plays a vital role in informing populations about the causes and effects of climate change, and how to combat the impacts of climate change [START_REF]Education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all[END_REF].

14/15

Destruction of oceans/Destruction of ecosystems

Education attainment can increase concerns for the environment and teach citizens how to protect the environment and reduce environmental impact [START_REF]Education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all[END_REF].

16/17

Promotion of peace/Global partnership These goals can be deemed as the means of implementation and/or the outcome of the SGDs. Therefore, education and its impacts on the first 15 goals will untimely effect these two goals.

Solution Development

The end goal of computational thinking is to devise a solution for complex problems. The previous stages of the paradigm collect preliminary data in the process of defining, contextualizing, and decomposing the problem. In this next stage of the process, data pertaining to problems and solutions are collected, processed, and translated into solution strategies.

Fact (Data) Collection

This step gathers all the data that has been collected and combines it with data that is gathered by two groups; i) the authorities, scientists, academics, and experts; and ii) citizens and members of different communities. According to Hilgers and Ihl "the resulting input from an open call to a community to solve a given problem results in higher quality of the input (compared to solving the problem internally)" [START_REF] Hilgers | Citizensourcing: applying the concept of open innovation to the public sector[END_REF].

Citizenscience and citizensourcing are two methods that will propel the accumulation of detailed and solution-oriented data.

Irwin first introduced citizenscience to point out the expertise present among everyday citizens [START_REF] Irwin | Citizen science: a study of people, expertise and sustainable development[END_REF]. The term refers to a research technique of obtaining data from various locations provided by the public. By involving the public in providing scientific data, global projects can benefit from "global data-gathering networks" [START_REF] Bonney | Citizen science: a developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy[END_REF].

The public collaborates with scientists by "contributing data according to an established protocol, or completing structured recognition, classification, or problemsolving tasks that depend on human competencies" [START_REF] Wiggins | From conservation to crowdsourcing: a typology of citizen science[END_REF]. Project BudBurst (http://www.budburst.org/) for example, encourages citizens to observe how plants change with the seasons in different communities. The project also provides resources to integrate citizen science into various educational levels and settings.

Torres introduces the concept of citizensourcing to shift the function of citizens as consumers to actively partaking in government policies and programs [START_REF] Torres | Citizen sourcing in the public interest[END_REF].

Citizensourcing is an interactive relationship between citizens and decision makers by communicating information, concerns, and new ideas. Hilgers and Ihl note that citizensourcing is outsourcing the tasks that were formerly performed by a public agent to a large group of citizens. Linders defines this procedure as "online citizen consultation," a "powerful new problem-solving mechanism," and "government data mining" [START_REF] Linders | From e-government to we-government: defining a typology for citizen coproduction in the age of social media[END_REF]. UClass (http://www.uclass.io/) enables teachers, schools, and organization personnel to store, share, search, and view curricula. The website provides teachers with access to a global education network and explore a variety of educational material and sources uploaded by their colleagues worldwide.

Analysis

Analyzing large quantities of data is an element of computational thinking that eventually finds the knowledge embedded in the data that has been collected [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking and thinking about computing[END_REF]. In this step the collected data is analyzed with the aim to recommend potential solutions to the problem. This stage of data analysis will determine: i) aspects of the subproblems, and therefore the original problem, that are solvable; ii) the limitation and barriers to solving the problems; and iii) how to prevent the problem from reoccurring in the future. In regards to Goal 4 of the SDGs, the analysis will provide insight on the aforementioned points on social, institutional, and pedagogical level by collecting data about the significance of education in different communities, teaching and learning structures and practices, the nature of courses and subjects incorporated in the curricula, student interests, and financial recourses.

Solution Formation

The end goal of computational thinking is to design a solution to overcome the outlined problem. Evidently, each of the problems will require a solution that is contextualized for each population. For example, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are tools that can address specific educational needs worldwide and not only serve as a solution to Goal 4 of the SDGs. George Siemens and Stephen Downes established the first large online course in 2008 [START_REF] Cormier | Through the open door: open courses as research, learning, and engagement[END_REF] which then developed into Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as free and accessible courses available online to a large audience across the globe. Prominent MOOCs providers such as edX, Coursera, Khan Academy, and Udacity have emerged in association with top universities with a wide variety of open courses since 2012. MOOCs are not restricted to specific locations, operate on flexible schedules, and in some cases are free of charge. These characteristics increase the accessibility of education to wider range of individuals.

Kiron (https://kiron.ngo/) is an online platform that allows refugees to obtain a graduate degree worldwide and it is free of charge. Kiron's goal is to make education more accessible and utilize innovative methods in creating a global network of educational, entrepreneurial, and research initiatives with a focus on migration and pedagogy. Kiron highlights its five advantageous characteristics as: flexibility in location, flexibility in time, open to all despite the student's temporary or permanent status in a country, internationally accepted degree, and affordability. The website also outlines the benefits of such platforms in that a internationally accredited degree will increase the employment rate and economic growth among refugees and their country of residence while encouraging peaceful coexistence across different nationalities and religions. The characteristics of this platform indicate that MOOCs have a direct impact on reducing poverty risks (Goal 1), allowing more women attain education (Goal 5), increase employment opportunities (Goal 8), and provide more equal access to educational programs (Goal 10).

Validation

This stage of the process focuses on the implementation of contextualized solutions; the solutions are applied to the target population or location, monitored, and modified in order to perform with maximum effectiveness. This stage is accomplished through three steps of: implementation, monitoring progress, and error correction.

Implementation

The local-to-global approach has prepared the application of contextualized means of implementation and localized solutions-in addition to identifying local actors-and the circumstantial setting of each sub-problem and subsequently the problem in its entirety. However, this is not the final stage of the process, as the solutions are subject to the variability of human conditions affecting the problem.

Monitoring Progress

Solutions designed for real-world problems are not only aiming to resolve the problem but to produce productive outcomes. Monitoring the progress of an implemented solution will discover the errors and deficiencies the solutions may pose and allow for improving the means of implementation in each situation. In the case of the SDGs, local governments, the United Nations and their partners, education ministries and institutions, and educators play an important role in monitoring the local and global progress of each of the goals and targets.

Error Correction

In her description of computational thinking, Wing states that error correction is an important attribute of the process [START_REF] Wing | Computational thinking[END_REF]. In the context of real-world problems the reception of solutions in various populations are not predictable and would have to be adjustable to the population's needs and interests. Therefore, this stage modifies any errors that arise in the previous step.

Conclusion

Universal goals require global initiatives that close the gap between developed, developing, and under-developed countries. A local-to-global approach promulgates universal respect for diverse thought processes and generates cooperative means to raise awareness about sustainable development and its implications, in addition to innovative solutions and productive outcomes. Forming a localizable model for shared global problems is to serve as a means to include all populations in the process of creating a more sustainable culture on a global level.

This paper intended to propose a paradigm to approach complex real-world problem solving that would promote a communal effort towards the global concerns that we face today. For that reason, further research should be pursued in order to investigate the applicability of computational thinking as a universal concept and realworld problem-solving tool in practice. Future case studies can identify the shared and local-specific factors of the thinking processes, investigate the universality of computational thinking across cultures and disciplines, and develop a method of approach that not only provides solutions but also compatible with future developments.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Four-Stage Problem-Solving Approach

Table 1 .

 1 Demonstration of Direct Links (Cause and/or Effect) Between the SDGs and Goal 4

	SDG	Problem	Link to Goal 4
	1