Can you make a cellphone change the world?
NextLab is a hands-on year-long design course in which students research, develop and deploy mobile technologies for the next billion mobile users in developing countries. Guided by real-world needs as observed by local partners, students work in multidisciplinary teams on term-long projects, closely collaborating with NGOs and communities at the local level, field practitioners, and experts in relevant fields.
Students are expected to leverage technical ingenuity in both mobile and internet technologies together with social insight in order to address social challenges in areas such as health, microfinance, entrepreneurship, education, and civic activism. Students with technically and socially viable prototypes may obtain funding for travel to their target communities, in order to obtain the first-hand feedback necessary to prepare their technologies for full fledged deployment into the real world (subject to guidelines and limitations).

Since the mid-l970s, economic reforms have transformed China from one of the most egalitarian societies into one of the most unequal in the world. Wide disparities currently exist between the income levels of a relatively few rich and middle-class Chinese and their fellow citizens who number in the hundreds of millions. This "wealth gap" is particularly acute when one compares the incomes of urban and rural residents, between Chinese living in the interior of the country and those living in the rapidly developing cities on China's eastern coast.The causes of the growing income gap include previous governmental policies that favored city dwellers over farmers, the uneven regional patterns of foreign investment, and the massive outflow of displaced farmers to China's already overcrowded cities in pursuit of manufacturing jobs.Recently, the Chinese government, in recognition of the potential for social instability, and in the face of growing unrest amongst China's poor, has made the elimination of economic and social inequalities a top priority. Plans are in motion to build a more "harmonious society" through the delivery of improved educational and health services to those who appear to have been left behind in China's rush to modernize its economy.This lesson, using clips from the WIDE ANGLE film "To Have and Have Not" (2002), can be used after a lesson on the Communist Revolution and Mao's rule. A basic knowledge of China's geography, of the tenets of Chinese Communism, and of Mao's efforts to redirect the course of China's future by means of the Cultural Revolution, is required for the successful completion of the lesson.

The resource is made available by the UNESCO to achieve its mandate of sustainable developmental goal by year 2030.

One of the things that we know is that as you go up the social ladder, you often have better access to quality education, healthcare, and other services, such as housing or good nutrition.

The “Own It!”Handbook for Ages 11-16 is the guide book for a transformative after-school, trauma-informed enrichment program. It provides a series of lessons & activities that nurture academic skills, personal growth and leadership. It uses history to connect our past to our future, as part of the Own Your History® (OYH) Collection.Our inheritances from family history and from living in the United States provide the starting point for our personal journeys.  Our individual stories are part of a complex American history. We each can choose consciously to write our life story and work for a greater future.  But Own It! is not “school” and it differs from traditional approaches to history. Own It! helps students learn more about themselves, as well as their community and the country. Own It! enhances students’ engagement in being creative, making things happen, and  achieving goals. Its mission is to help them step up and enrich their lives, especially by understanding that they live in history.

This course explores the evolution of poverty and economic security in the United States, within a global context. It examines the impact of recent economic restructuring and globalization, and reviews the current debate about the fate of the middle class, sources of increasing inequality, and approaches to advancing economic opportunity and security. In this class, students will study the topic of poverty and economic security through the lens of the lived experience of Americans: individuals, families, and households; exploring the history, geography, and forces shaping the likelihood of being poor in America.

This course explores the evolution of poverty and economic security in the United States, within a global context. It examines the impact of recent economic restructuring and globalization, and reviews the current debate about the fate of the middle class, sources of increasing inequality, and approaches to advancing economic opportunity and security. In this class, students will study the topic of poverty and economic security through the lens of the lived experience of Americans: individuals, families, and households; exploring the history, geography, and forces shaping the likelihood of being poor in America.

This lesson is the second in a series of lessons called “Issues of Poverty.” Students explore the causes of poverty in the United States and the structural factors that perpetuate it. Students will examine the ways poverty is closely related to economic and political policy, and will work to discover why it disproportionately affects members of non-dominant groups—that is, groups that have historically oppressed groups.

Students will explore census data, including infographics and reports, to better understand rates of poverty in the nation.

In 1962, an American activist named Michael Harrington wrote a relatively short but influential study on the problem of poverty in the United States. 'The Other America' ultimately found its way into the hands of President John F. Kennedy, and the book had a profound impact on bringing poverty issues to public attention. It ultimately contributed to the launch of the government's "War on Poverty."

TeachableMoment marks the 50 year anniversary, and addresses the ongoing issue, with a series of readings and discussion questions for high school students. Readings one and two, below, give an overview of Michael Harrington's book and consider the state of poverty in the U.S. now. The next pair of readings in the series will examine the debate about who should count as poor in this country and proposals for combating poverty.

A scene in New York, outside the gates of City Hall Park. Two well-dressed men with top hats overturn the table of two apple-women. One of the men (from all appearances a Loco Foco radical Democrat) shouts at the women, "What right have you to live? Come, clear out!" The other man topples a table from which fall apples, cigars, and what looks like a cider churn, ordering them to "Clear out here!" Horrified by the men's actions, the women, who are surrounded by their ragged children, protest, "You take my life, when you take the means by which I live" and "God forgive the plunderers of my fatherless babes!" Watching the uproar is a genteel young couple walking at right. The woman asks her companion, "Law! Mr. Brown aint you glad that these disgusting beings will no longer offend the eyes of pious and respectable people?" He replies, in an affected accent, "Yes, my de--aw! They are werry of-fensive . . ." In the background is visible the north side of City Hall, from which flies an American flag with the cryptic words "Order Reigns in Warsaw." To the right appears another building marked "Post Office" (actually John Vanderlyn's Rotunda, which over time saw a number of uses as a public building). Weitenkampf suggests that the subject is David Hale, influential publisher of the New York "Journal of Commerce," and his campaign against work on Sundays. The man overturning the table is probably identifiable as Hale.|Entered . . . 1844 by James Baillie.|Lith. & pub. by James Baillie 33 Spruce St. N.Y.|Signed: H. Bucholzer.|The Library's impression was deposited for copyright on June 26, 1844, and is printed on the reverse side of "Loco Foco Triumphal Honors" (no. 1844-31).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 84.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1844-18.

This course examines the theories and policy debates over who can own real property, how to communicate and enforce property rights, and the range of liberties that they confer. It explores alternative economic, political, and sociological perspectives of property rights and their policy and planning implications.

Psychology and Economics (aka Behavioral Economics) is a growing subfield of economics that incorporates insights from psychology and other social sciences into economics. This course covers recent advances in behavioral economics by reviewing some of the assumptions made in mainstream economic models, and by discussing how human behavior systematically departs from these assumptions. Applications will cover a wide range of fields, including labor and public economics, industrial organization, health economics, finance, and development economics.

This seminar looks at key issues in the historical development and current state of modern American criminal justice, with an emphasis on its relationship to citizenship, nationhood, and race/ethnicity. We begin with a range of perspectives on the rise of what is often called “mass incarceration”: how did our current system of criminal punishment take shape, and what role did race play in that process? Part Two takes up a series of case studies, including racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty, enforcement of the drug laws, and the regulation of police investigations. The third and final part of the seminar looks at national security policing: the development of a constitutional law governing the intersection of ethnicity, religion, and counter-terrorism, and the impact of counter-terrorism policy on domestic police practices.

Here web link lists all the documents related to the Open Educational Resources (OER).

This collection uses primary sources to explore settlement houses during the Progressive Era. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

A challenge to the Northern abolitionist view of the institution of slavery, favorably contrasting the living conditions of American slaves (above) with the lot of the industrial poor in England (below). The first scene is impossibly naive: Southern slaves dance and play as four gentlemen--two Northerners and two Southerners--observe. First Northerner: "Is it possible that we of the North have been so deceived by false Reports? Why did we not visit the South before we caused this trouble between the North and South, and so much hard feelings amongst our friends at home?" Southerner: "It is as a general thing, some few exceptions, after mine have done a certain amount of Labor which they finish by 4 or 5 P.M. I allow them to enjoy themselves in any reasonable way." Second Southerner: "I think our Visitors will tell a different Story when they return to the North, the thoughts of this Union being dissolved is to [sic] dreadful a thing to be contemplated, but we must stand up for our rights let the consequence be as it may." The second scene takes place outside a British textile factory. At left a well-dressed gentleman encounters a ragged, stooped figure, and asks, "Why my Dear Friend, how is it that you look so old? you know we were playmates when boys." The stooped figure responds, "Ah! Farmer we operatives are "fast men," and generally die of old age at Forty." Behind them and to the right an emaciated mother laments over her ragged children, "Oh Dear! what wretched Slaves, this Factory Life makes me & my children." Nearby stand a fat cleric, holding a book of "Tythes," and an equally fat official holding "Taxes." In the right foreground two barefoot youths converse. The first says,"I say Bill, I am going to run away from the Factory, and go to the Coal Mines where they have to work only 14 hours a Day instead of 17 as you do here." The second responds, "Oh! how I would like to have such a comfortable place. . . " Near them another man sits forlorn on a rock, "Thank God my Factory Slavery will soon be over." In the distance a military camp is visible. This dismal picture of the lives of the working class in manufacturing towns comes from Chapter V, Book Second, of Edward Lytton Bulwer's "England and the English," first published in 1833. In the lower margin is a portrait of "[George] Thompson the English Anti-Slavery Agitator" and the quote "I am proud to boast that Slavery does not breathe in England," with reference to "his speech at the African Church in Belknap St." Thompson made a speaking tour of New York and New England in 1850-51.|Entered . . . 1850 by J. Haven. |Published by J. Haven, 86 State St. Boston, 1850.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Bulwer-Lytton, "England and the English, p. 174-225.|Century, p. 68-69.|Library Company, "Negro History: 1553-1903," no. 117.|Weitenkampf, p. 101. |Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1850-6.

This text is intended for use in introductory social work classes at the college level. Chapter topics include the foundations and history of social work and social welfare; generalist social work; ethics and values; social policy; race & ethnicity; sex, sexism, & gender; LGBTQ+ clients; poverty and financial assistance; school social work; families and children; healthcare and disabilities; substance use; mental health; criminal justice; and older clients. Mick Cullen, LCSW, CADC, MA, is a professor and chair of the social work/human services department at College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Matthew Cullen, LICSW, LCSW, M.Ed., is a counselor at Green River College in Auburn, Washington.

This text is intended for use in introductory social work classes at the college level. Chapter topics include the foundations and history of social work and social welfare; generalist social work; ethics and values; social policy; race & ethnicity; sex, sexism, & gender; LGBTQ+ clients; poverty and financial assistance; school social work; families and children; healthcare and disabilities; substance use; mental health; criminal justice; and older clients. Mick Cullen, LCSW, CADC, MA, is a professor and chair of the social work/human services department at College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Matthew Cullen, LICSW, LCSW, M.Ed., is a counselor at Green River College in Auburn, Washington.