We promoted a first workshop, which joined specialists from four key areas: civil society, non governmental, governmental, private sector and culture. In this first initiative, we tried to answer the following question:

What is problematic about the implementation of digital technologies, e.g. regarding data trading and related (digital) exploitation of vulnerable and/or marginalized groups and what could/should be done in order to adapt international guidelines to the demands of  technology users, educators, pupils and students in the Global South? How can they be empowered to become active agents, designers and decision makers rather than marginalized users exposed to data exploitation? 

Many specialists attended the workshop for a 3 hour session, in which they pitched their main ideas on technology decolonization and offered food for thought based on the questions above. Notes were taken during the seminar then organized on Atlas.Ti and Excel in order to perform topic modeling, trying to extract possible answers to the questions addressed. Next it is possible to see 10 answers considering the following subjects:

1. Political Arena of Digital Technology;
2. Digital Determinism in Brazil;
3. Intersectionality to understand multiple identities;
4. Revision of the word “empowerment”;
5. Co-creation of digital policies and design;
6. Importance of informal settings of education;
7. Experience of care;
8. Devices as a choice of experiences;
9. Devices as a decision to fight challenges; 
10. Promotion of critical consciousness; 

Next it is possible to see a brief description on each answer

1. ANSWER CONSIDERING REPRESENTATION - POLITICAL ARENA

Digital technology has a political arena, in which only a few sets of individuals can speak and be heard [following the principles of the political arena from 1980s]. Those heard and spoken are, usually, spoke-entities representing interest of certain groups. However, not all groups are fairly represented, following an unbalancing dynamics of importance.

2. ANSWER CONSIDERING DIGITAL DETERMINISM  - PARTICIPATION AND ACCESS:

Technology and digital systems presence in daily life suggests that policies and governance initiatives promote them in the attempt of driving prosperity to the population. However, the other side of technology offers its foreseeable obsolescence and there is now a whole market focused on promoting devices and tools in a movement of device renewal. 

3. ANSWER CONSIDERING INTERSECTIONALITY - COMPREHENDING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES: 

Fostering the dialogue about digital fairness and intersectional lens is to bring the importance of multiple perspectives to the construction of public debates. From the moment a group is thrown out, a bubble of oppression is created, which directly impacts their active participation in discussions that are pertinent to it. Furthermore, from the analysis of different lenses (economic, cultural, gender, geographic, etc.), it is possible to understand that debates are interconnected by different systems of power and can, therefore, marginalize certain topics or populations, creating discrimination and privilege dynamics.

4. ANSWER CONSIDERING EMPOWERMENT - POTENTIAL TOXIC DYNAMIC: 

Empowerment is an expression largely used in the end of 20th Century to address the action of raising awareness on discriminatory power structures in order to revert them, bringing together a more equitable and sustainable atmosphere. Much of its development came across the expression “Post Coloniality” which is fruit of Anibal Quijano’s  work (1992), in which is possible to grasp that coloniality is a structure of power, which suggests that post-coloniality or decolonization is also a structure of power but in a reverse order, also known as emancipation and independence. However, the concept of empowerment has a problematic genealogy, in which one empowers while the other is empowered.

5. ANSWER CONSIDERING CO-CREATED STRUCTURES - POLICIES AND DESIGN: 

As expressed in the topic before, co-creation of designs and policies is a key element to promote a more equitable environment. That means to understand the cultural, societal, economic and educational background of a potential partner or group and this exercise takes time and resources, which may have to be specifically addressed to this task.

6. ANSWER CONSIDERING INFORMAL SETTINGS - PROMOTING TECHNOLOGICAL DEBATE:

The discussion about technology provision or digital prosperity is often related to formal education settings. In fact, many of the public policies embark scenarios involving schools in all levels of learning. However, much development also happens outside these environments which is complicated for two reasons: the resources are not always of governmental source [in the case of NGOs for example] or come from the private sphere, which could imply that It may be intermittent. The second reason is because it is harder to measure the impact that projects or initiatives have on individuals. 

7. ANSWER CONSIDERING THE EXPERIENCE OF CARE - METHODOLOGIES TO MAP AND CREATE IT: 

Technology is often considered in its instrumentalist bias, like a means to an end. However the spectrum over how individuals interact and appropriate technology as an experience of care is often neglected by private or governmental spheres.

8. ANSWER CONSIDERING TECHNIQUE AND TOOLS - DEVICE AS A CHOICE OF EXPERIENCE:  

According to Foulcault, the device is what transforms the human into an individual. In other words, it provides new lenses of the world that were not obvious or available before that particular experience. It is interesting to consider the device, therefore, as a choice of experience, not only as a choice to complete a task or reach a goal. 

9. ANSWER CONSIDERING INNOVATION - DEVICES AS TRIGGERS TO FIGHT CHALLENGES: 

Continuing the argument of the eighth answer about the device being a choice of experience, the device can also be the trigger to fight challenges. As Williams [1975] would express in his revision of the history of the word “literacy”, the first literacy classes to mass population happened in England with the Industrial Revolution, when factories would teach employees how to read so they could read written instructions, but not to write - since it was considered an unnecessary skill for labor jobs.

10. ANSWER CONSIDERING CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS - REFLECTION, MOTIVATION AND ACTION: 

Critical consciousness is the combination of critical reflection + critical motivation + critical action. It is a triangle that involves a sophisticated and complex response from individuals. It is, on the other hand, a powerful methodology to foster co-creation in order to avoid colonial practices especially when it comes to technology and education [can be, for example, the reasoning behind the avoidance of digital determinism].