The Evaluation Exchange
Volume X, No. 3, Fall 2004
Issue Topic: Harnessing Technology for Evaluation

This issue of The Evaluation Exchange explores the contribution of technology to evaluation practice, with articles centering on four key areas in which evaluators are using technology: data collection and analysis, collaboration, knowledge mobilization, and evaluation capacity building. Rounding out the issue is a special feature on the role technology plays in fostering youth civic engagement and in evaluating programs for youth.

Download the print version of the issue as a PDF file below or click on the links in the table of contents to read the individual articles on our website:

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Table of Contents

From the Director's Desk
An introduction to the issue by HFRP's Founder & Director, Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D.

Theory & Practice

• Taking the Next Step: Harnessing the Power of Technology for Evaluation
  Arnold Love, guest editor for this issue, provides a conceptual map of the uses of technology in evaluation.

Spotlight

• Wearable Computers and Evaluation
  Edward Dieterle, from Harvard University's Handheld Devices for Ubiquitous Learning Project, discusses the potential of using wireless handheld devices for evaluation.

Ask the Expert

• Internet Surveys: Back to the Future
  Internationally recognized survey expert Don Dillman discusses the advantages and limitations of conducting surveys via the Internet.
• Evaluating a Literacy Program Using Web Surveys
  Daniel Khimasia from Frontier College shares lessons learned from evaluating the administering of a literacy program using web surveys.

Beyond Basic Training

• Empowerment Evaluation's Technological Tools of the Trade
  David Fetterman discusses how technological tools can be used to enhance empowerment evaluation practice.
• WIDE: Using Networked Technologies to Promote Professional Development
  Stone Wiske and David Eddy Spicer, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, describe WIDE World, a program that uses new technologies to promote professional development.
• Bringing Together Information Technology and Professional Development to Transform the Settlement Sector
  Etagegnhue Woldeab and the Information and Technology team from the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants describe two web-based tools that are helping immigrant-serving agencies to operate more effectively.

Questions & Answers

• A Conversation With Jonny Morell
  Jonny Morell of the Altarum Institute discusses, among other things, the relationship between innovation and efficiency in technology application.

Special Feature

Youth and technology are like a hand and glove—a natural fit. Inspired by conversations with Time Warner Inc. Office of Corporate Responsibility, this section offers a set of articles on how youth programs are using media and video production to engage youth in participatory evaluation, and the challenges and benefits of using technology in youth programming and other settings.

• Girls Make the Message: Community Action Through the Girls Incorporated Lens
  Faedra Lazar Weiss and Deborah Aubert describe a program in which young women use video production technology for community needs assessment and action.
• Information Technology and Outcome Measurement at Girls Incorporated
  PeiYao Chen discusses how information technology is used in outcome measurement at Girls Incorporated.
• A Lens on Learning: Teaching Youth to Produce Documentaries
  Steven Goodman, from the Educational Video Center in New York, describes the Center's youth documentary workshop.
• YouthLearn: Using Technology to Create Meaningful Learning Experiences for Youth
  Tony Streit, from Education Development Center, reflects on the challenges and potential rewards of using technology to enhance learning.

Promising Practices

• The Child Trends DataBank: An Evolving Resource for Policymakers, Researchers, and Practitioners
  Brett Brown, Kristin Moore, and Sharon Bzostek describe Child Trends' “one-stop data shop” for the latest indicators on child and youth well-being.
• Making Voices Heard: Using Multimedia to Give Evaluation a Cutting Edge
  Suresh Balakrishnan of the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, India, describes the use of multimedia to disseminate evaluation results.
• Using Internet and Communications Technology to Foster Evaluation in Africa
  Zenda Ofir and Jean-Charles Rouge reflect on how Internet-based communication has helped build evaluation capacity throughout Africa.
• Electronic Collaboration Tools: Opening Up a New World of Possibilities for Evaluators
  Benoît Gauthier talks about the ways electronic collaboration tools are facilitating evaluation around the world.
• Software Programs for Nonprofit Evaluation
  Erin Harris from HFRP provides an overview of software programs nonprofits can use for evaluation.
• Using Internet Technology to Develop Evaluation Capacity and Practices in Latin America and the Caribbean
  Ada Ocampo and Marco Segone describe the ways electronic networks are being used to build evaluation capacity in the Caribbean.

Evaluations to Watch

• Videotaped Interactions in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project
  Rebecca Ryan, Christy Brady-Smith, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn discuss the use of videotapes in the national evaluation of Early Head Start.
• The National Youth Participation Study: Using Online Surveys to Reach Large Numbers of Youth
  Lynne Borden, from the University of Arizona, talks about the use of online surveys in a national out-of-school time participation study.

New & Noteworthy
An annotated list of organizations and initiatives related to the evaluation themes in this issue.

An expanded, web-only version of this section is also available.

This issue of The Evaluation Exchange was published by Harvard Family Research Project, edited by Arnold Love, guest editor, and Priscilla Little, contributing editor. It was produced by Stacey Miller, publications/communications manager, and Tezeta Tulloch, publications editor. All rights reserved. This periodical may not be reproduced whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. To request reprint permission or multiple hard copies of the issue contact Stacey Miller.

Harvard Family Research Project gratefully acknowledges the support of the Time Warner Inc. Office of Corporate Responsibility, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of Harvard Family Research Project and do not necessarily reflect the view of our funders.

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