Technology For Developing Communities Examples in Informal Education

Joe Mertz Fall 2007 Outline

. PlanetRead . Telecenters • Hole in the Wall • Digital Doorway

2 What is (SLS)?

3 What is Same Language Subtitling (SLS)? . See music video demo at: http://planetread.com/index.htm . Children’s BookBox example at: http://www.bookbox.com/view_online.php?pid=5

4 Does SLS work?

5 How is SLS being used?

6 Three related SLS ventures

. PlanetRead • Research • National broadcast . DesiLassi • Web delivered • Songs, trailers, www.DesiLassi.com albums . BookBox • Children’s stories • 21 languages

7 How was the research conducted? . June 1999 - April 2000 . SLS added to film songs . TV Broadcast in a region of . Weekly . SLS 20 min as part of an 30 min program

8 SLS Broadcast Research

. Pre and post test . Two groups • Experimental - claimed to watch regularly • Control - claimed to not watch . 25 episodes (weeks) . Results • Showed some marginal gains by the experimental group over the control • At an annual per-person cost of $0.00022 • And viewers liked it!

9 India broadcast coverage

. http://planetread.com/india.swf

10 More recent (unpublished) research

Source: http://planetread.com/SLS%20Impact_Study_2007_Literacy.pdf 11 Telecenters / Telecentres

. Also known as • {PC, Internet} kiosks • Internet cafes • Computer education centers • Community technology centers • Infocentres • Village knowledge centres • Etc… • The LINCOS project was a telecenter.

12 Telecenters are common (ubiquitous?)

. telecentre.org estimates > 60,000 worldwide • not counting schools, libraries, and commercial cybercafes. • (telecentre.org is supported by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and Microsoft Unlimited Potential program.)

13 TFDC projects Telecenters are common (ubiquitous?)

E.g. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) . Honduras - e‑Education services remote areas . Kyrgyz Republic - e-Agriculture applications . Mauritania - e-Employment for women . Nicaragua - e-Health in rural areas . Also Romania, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, and more…

14 Potential partnerships

. Sri Lanka is in the midst of a significant build-out of telecenters. . The Secretariat of the Pacific Community may be a partner for TCinGC placements to support a telecenter initiative in remote villages on 16 island states.

15 Prototypical problems . Economic barriers: fees vs. willingness to pay . Social barriers: Discrimination or avoidance . Confused branding: try to be all things to everyone . Educational barriers: difficulty in text and computer navigation . Mistrust and overabundance of information . Lack of information in a familiar form: e.g languags & dialects . Poor infrastructure: spotty electricity and connectivity . Frequent maintenance needs: Quality service unavailable or costly

16 What models sometimes work . Computer-education centres • Simple computer classes . Regular Internet cafés • Browsing, minor business, entertainment . Government service centres • Provide government services • Sometimes more transparently . Photo Shops

17 Key findings from http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem/kiosks . Meeting business needs and social development goals simultaneously is difficult. . What rural villagers want and what we think they need are frequently different. . The kiosk entrepreneur plays the most critical role in the success of a kiosk. . A kiosk champion can help sustain a set of kiosks. . Services require attention to the entire supply chain, not only to the kiosk. . Focus on a single class of services increases likelihood of success.

18 Key findings from http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem/kiosks . Kiosks do better in towns; kiosks do better in remote villages. . Kiosks in offices and schools may provide alternatives to the standalone kiosk. . Kiosk usage is dominated by relatively affluent, more educated young men. . Per-transaction fees are resisted by many customers. . Mobile-phone-based kiosks offer an alternative to PC-based kiosks.

19 Hole in the Wall or Minimally Invasive Education . Idea: • Groups of kids • In public settings • With unsupervised access to a computer, applications, and Internet access • Can develop computer literacy through discovery • And coincident school performance improvements

20 Hole in the Wall

Source: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/docs/Paper06.pdf

21 Dr. Sugata Mitra

. Chief Scientist at NIIT • (NIIT: An IT solutions and service company) . 1999: Carved a “hole in the wall” of the back of the NIIT offices adjoining a very poor area of Kalkaji, New Delhi.

22 Sources

. Mitra, S. and Rana, V. (2001). “Children and the Internet: Experiments with minimally invasive education in India”, The British Journal of Educational Technology, 32(2), 221- 232. . Mitra, S. (2003). “Minimally Invasive Education: A progress report on the "Hole-in-the-wall" experiments”. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34(3), 367-371. . Mitra, S. (2005) “Self organising systems for mass computer literacy: Findings from the ‘hole in the wall’ experiments “ International Journal of Development Issues 4(1), 71 - 81

23 Design constraints

. Accessible outdoors . Without air conditioning . Poor power conditions . Safe • Safe for kids • Safe for kiosk

24 Enclosure

. Brick structure . Glass-covered “holes” show computer monitors . Metal lid covers each monitor, keyboard, mouse combo • Sun shade during operational hours . Adult proof • Height of monitor and lid requires adults to stoop • Keyboard protected by cowl requiring small hands • Seating close to wall, uncomfortable for tall people • Designed to ensure children (<13) have priority access

25 Ergonomics

http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/solution.html 26 Enclosure

. Building arranged so screens face north-east • To avoid sun glare . Placed in safe, public locations • E.g. playgrounds • Where screens visible to passing adults • Minimizes vandalism, theft, accessing pornography, etc.

27 ToBu Mouse

. Has no moving parts . Six metal circles (touch buttons) embedded on a plastic plate • Two top buttons for left and right click • Four buttons below for cursor movement

28 Keyboard

. Keyboard covered by a Perxpex cowl to protect from dust . User inserts hand under cowl . Opening below cowl only big enough for small hands

29 TuBu Mouse & Keyboard

Source: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/docs/Paper06.pdf

30 Power

. Power is conditioned at input to correct for voltage spikes, over and under voltage, and frequency fluctuations. . Four hours of battery back-up

31 Sensors Sensors and software for remote monitoring 1. temperature, humidity and illumination levels inside the enclosure; 2. electrical conditions; 3. mouse movement history (when the mouse was moved last); 4. history of applications run on each computer; 5. screen images on each computer; 6. images of children using the computer (web cam) 7. voice recordings of children speaking 8. history of sites visited on the Internet.

Source: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/docs/Paper06.pdf

32 Software controls

. No essential software or data can be deleted or renamed . Desktop icons can not be deleted . Unused programs are automatically closed. . Computer automatically reboots on hangs

33 Typical result

. Children develop basic computer literacy . In school, children learn computer skills faster than non hole in the wall peers

Less obvious result • Academic performance increases in English, math, science, and social studies

34 Replication

. There are 30 sites in Delhi . 23 sites spread out across rural India . Cambodia (not clear how many sites) . Recently announced plans for 200 in Jaipur, India

35 Digital Doorway - South Africa . Rugged steel terminal . Stand alone, 3 or 4 side models (disability accessible model also) . LCD, vandal-proof keyboard, touchpad, webcam, speakers . Computers & server (for webcam) located inside steel housing . Internet by various means (e.g. GPRS) . 24 deployed . Cables from unit in pipe to ceiling . 50 sites in planning . Source: http://www.digitaldoorway.org.za/

36 System Software

Server: FreeBSD v. 4.8 Other Software . Server Software: Apache . Mysql database server . Video capture and . Java VM streaming software: . Gcompris Education • FFMpeg Suite User PC: Debian Linux . GQCam webcam . Windows manager: KDE software v3.1 . Office suite: K-Office . Mozilla Internet Browser . Education pack: K-EDU . Web-based e-mail

37 Applications

. Science Software . Office Suite . Geography . Music Programs . Mathematics . Paint Programs . Puzzles . Educational Games . Encyclopedia . Agriculture Information . Storymaker

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