Theme 1: Knowledge building for a Knowledge Society Organizational Structure, Strictures, and Knowledge Building

A proposal for knowledge building in an East African hospital setting Zahra Punja, Nizar Ramzan, & Marlene Scardamalia IKIT, OISE/University of Toronto, ON, Canada

Poster Abstract In this environment, the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar-e-Salaam has invested considerably in physical facility, equipment, human resources and international medical education programs (face-to-face and electronic) to improve quality of care for citizens of Tanzania. There remains, however many challenges such as access to medical specialists, current innovations in medicine, and computer technology. This proposal, therefore, hopes to alleviate the current challenges presented in on-going medical education efforts by introducing the knowledge building pedagogy and technology to address problems of self-sustainability, local empowerment and community building by democratizing the process of innovation and advancement of knowledge. Specifically, the poster hopes to address Theme I by focusing on the effects of culture on knowledge building initiatives. In this poster we are proposing to present, we would like to present the challenges of the context of the country and the hospital, and a plan for instituting knowledge building (technologies) into this complex medical setting. Specifically, we would like to map out what a “knowledge building breakthrough” for this context would look like and invite feedback from fellow knowledge builders on how to strengthen and advance the design for future efforts.