Your choices affect people and the planet. Your Fairphone shows friends and family that you choose to save the world.
Our make-use-dispose attitude has a negative effect on every step of the supply chain, from working conditions in the mines, to wages in factories, to the strain on natural resources. By establishing a market for ethical electronics, we’re motivating the entire industry to act more responsibly.
1.3 Can you list the Fairphone parts that can be added and upgraded?
1.4 How did chose the phone you currently have?
1.5 Which images from the articles and film made the biggest impact on you?
1.6 Would you consider buying a Fairphone?
1.7 How many phones have you had in your life?
1.8 What is meant by ‘ circularity in the technology sector’?
1.9 Why doesn’t Fairphone consider smartphone manufacturers as competitors?
1.10 What are conflict minerals?
1.11 Six year old children mine WHAT? in the Congo…
2.1 What do think of the Fairphone business model?
2.2 Since Fairphones are part of the Fairtrade movement, are they more likely to succeed?
2.3 How can you validate the current consumer attitude (make-use-dispose)?
2.4 Do you trust the entrepreneurs who started this company?
2.5 What resources could you use to research other alternatives to disposable phones?
2.6 What is sustainable innovation, particularly as it can be applied to smartphones?
2.7 What are the differences between a Fairphone and an iPhone?
2.8 Compare the UN Momentum for Change Award with the German Environmental Award (Fairphone has won both).
2.9 How would you begin cleaning up the precious metals supply chain?
2.10 Why is the Netherlands the best to galvanize stakeholders and stimulate change?
3.1 What would happen if used telephones were worth a lot of money? Make a brief business plan.
3.2 How could you generate a plan to switch your friends and family to Fairphones?
3.3 How could you improve the Fairphone concept?
3.4 How could you change/improve other smartphones to be environmentally friendly?
3.5 Devise a way to pressure other smartphone manufacturers to embrace circular technology and stonger supply chain regulations?
3.6 Create and publish a film on conflict mineral mining.
Core assignments for students
Discover whether you master the essence of this case by completing the corresponding core assignments. If necessary, you can share your answers with your teacher or supervisor.
Recommended by teachers
Brainstorming | Group activity
A clear problem definition marks the starting point.
In each group, one student will note down the reactions, ideas, views, etc. of the others. The various opinions are not dealt with in any depth.
After a while, the group discusses the proposed solutions and picks out the best of these.
The various ideas are grouped conventionally in an easy-to-understand web diagram.
Corner debate | Group activity
For making a choice or deciding on a point of view
The students are given a question/assignment/proposition with a list of choices. Each of these choices is assigned a particular location in the classroom, for example, a corner. Individual students choose one of these corners. (The choices are quickly written down on paper, so that you can’t see what your friends have written).
Students go to their ‘chosen’ corner. They talk in pairs about their choice and look into the arguments. This can lead to a class discussion. If necessary, students join another group. Which group is able to attract the most ‘defectors’?
Students return to their places and write down the most important arguments for each of the choices.
Group discussion (or problem-solving discussion) | Dialogue
Reflective discussion as part of a group, pooling knowledge/ideas/opinions with the aim of learning from this. A stimulus to creative, problem-solving and evaluative thinking.
Someone (teacher or student in a smaller group) is appointed as moderator. Without impinging on the subject matter, this person guides the discussion through the different phases (defining the problem, defining the scope of the subject, dissecting the problem, seeking solutions, discussing propositions, formulating the conclusion).
Pitfall: students must have sufficient background knowledge.
Variants: one empty chair, carousel discussion, triangular discussion, forum discussion/panel, debate, with or without a role.
Learning discussion (or evaluation or discussion method) | Dialogue
Students learn how to find solutions for themselves (via diagrams, plans, outlines, etc.)
Discussion (individual or as part of a group) about the learning experiences of the student; the teacher acts as moderator and remains in the background. The emphasis is on (learning) how to identify learning moments: what could have been improved and how?
Problem-based learning | Cooperative learning
Students are divided into small groups (6 to 12 students) and are presented with a problem. The problem is analysed in the group: what do we already know; what do we not yet know; and what do we still have to find out? (= formulation of learning goals).
Students then work individually or in a group to analyse the problem in-depth (= self-study).
Finally, the group comes together again, students report back and test whether the problem is now better understood.
Three-phase interview | Group activity
The teacher formulates questions, which are answered by pairs each time. Student A interviews student B about the question. Afterwards, student B interviews student A.
A subsequent round follows in a group of four students. Each person tells the others what the outcomes of their interview were. A explains what B said, etc.
This is concluded with a class discussion.
Example: Say you wanted to live on your own: what would be involved?
