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Mobiles for Reading: a Landscape Research Review JUNE 2014 Mobiles For Reading: A Landscape Research Review JUNE 2014 This publication was produced by JBS International, Inc. for the United States Agency for International Development, Office of Education under contract EDH-E-00-08-00003-00, Global Evaluation and Monitoring II, Task Order AID-OAA-BC-10-00001. Cover Photo: Paul Kim, Stanford University MOBILES FOR READING: A LANDSCAPE RESEARCH REVIEW June 2014 DISCLAIMER The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Mobiles for Reading Landscape Review GEM II Task Order AID-OAA-BC-10-00001 ii Mobiles for Reading Landscape Review FOREWORD The Mobiles for Reading: A Landscape Research Review was commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on behalf of its support for the Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance (www.meducationalliance.org) and the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) (www.allchildrenreading.org). This review reflects the significant and important work by a collaborative team of technology, education, and literacy researchers and practitioners and with overall direction for the work provided by USAID. The University of Pennsylvania team was led by the principal author, Daniel A. Wagner, UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy, and Director of the International Literacy Institute at University of Pennsylvania, with the assistance of a student research group that included Nathan Castillo, Molly Crofton, Katie M. Murphy, Harrison Phelan and Fatima Tuz Zahra. The JBS technical team included Rebekah Levi, Archana Chidanandan, Chrissy Kulenguski and Lauran Potter. Our combined thanks to other contributors to this review who provided helpful communications, conversations, and advice: Mike Trucano, Ed Gaible, Matthew Kam, Carmen Strigel, Michael Levine, Ellen Buchwalter, John Traxler, Andrew DeBerry and John Comings. We hope the general reader, researchers, and practitioners of this review will benefit from its overall organization: providing snapshots and syntheses of 44 global projects that are currently using mobile technologies (broadly defined) to improve reading skills across the continuum of education interventions. While there is much to be done in the way of rigorous evaluation of these and other promising interventions, the potential for cost-effective, ground-breaking, and scalable application of mobile technologies to advance literacy worldwide is truly impressive. A huge thanks to Dan Wagner, his team at University of Pennsylvania, JBS staff, and to the others who significantly contributed to this review to move us further towards this horizon. Anthony Bloome Senior Education Technology Specialist, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) GEM II Task Order AID-OAA-BC-10-00001 iii Mobiles for Reading Landscape Review TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................. v LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... vi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... vii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 a. Overview ................................................................................................................................................... 1 b. Landscape research review: some definitional boundaries ............................................................ 1 2. Children’s reading and learning in the age of mobile technologies ............................................... 4 a. Background ................................................................................................................................................ 4 b. Defining reading ....................................................................................................................................... 4 c. Redefining literacy in an era of technology use ................................................................................. 5 d. Formal, informal and intermediated learning—increasing time and space with M4R .............. 6 3. ICTs and mobiles as platforms and tools for learning ..................................................................... 7 a. Background ................................................................................................................................................ 7 b. Growth of the use of mobile devices ................................................................................................. 9 c. Mobiles, m-learning and literacy ........................................................................................................ 11 d. Policy implications ................................................................................................................................ 13 4. Purposes of M4R interventions .......................................................................................................... 14 5. Design solutions: the intersection of purposes, devices and end users ................................... 20 6. Analysis and implications of the current M4R landscape ............................................................. 22 7. Conclusion: looking ahead ................................................................................................................... 29 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................. 31 ANNEX A: SYNOPSIS CHART OF REVIEWED PROJECTS ............................................................. 45 ANNEX B: PROJECT SUMMARIES .......................................................................................................... 49 GEM II Task Order AID-OAA-BC-10-00001 iv Mobiles for Reading Landscape Review LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Growth of ICT spending by region (in US $trillions) .............................................................. 8 Figure 2. Growth of mobile phones .......................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3. Changes in use of PCs, phones and tablets, 2009-2015 (projected). ............................... 10 Figure 4. Common types of contemporary mobile devices in 2010 .................................................. 11 Figure 5. Learning framework ..................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 6. Projects by Purpose ..................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 7. Design solution as a function of purposes, devices and end users.................................... 20 Figure 8. Projects by Targeted End Users ............................................................................................... 23 Figure 9. Projects by Device Type ............................................................................................................. 24 GEM II Task Order AID-OAA-BC-10-00001 v Mobiles for Reading Landscape Review LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ACR All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development ADB Asian Development Bank AFD Agence Française de Développement Apps Applications DFID UK Department for International Development EFA Education For All EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment GMR Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO) HCI Human-Computer Interaction ICT Information and Communications Technology ICT4D Information and Communications Technology for Development IDB Inter-American Development Bank IPR Intellectual Property Rights IVR Interactive Voice Response L1, L2 First Language (mother tongue), Second Language LMIC Low and Middle Income Countries LOI Language of Instruction M&E Monitoring and Evaluation M4R Mobiles for Reading MDG Millennium Development Goals MOOC Massive Open Online Course NFE Non-Formal Education NGO Non-governmental Organization OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development PSE Poorly-Supported Environment (for learning) RCT Randomized Control Trials SQC Small, Quicker, Cheaper (approaches to assessment) STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics TCO Total Cost of Ownership UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNDP United Nations Development Programme USAID United States Agency for International Development USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data WSE Well-Supported Environment (for learning) GEM II Task Order AID-OAA-BC-10-00001 vi Mobiles for Reading Landscape Review EXECUTIVE SUMMARY According to United Nations data, millions of children and youth cannot read a short paragraph in any language. Nearly 70 million children worldwide are not in school; the majority are girls. Though the statistics are distressing, there is some reason for optimism. Significant gains have been made in recent decades toward reaching international educational goals. Many of the world’s poorest countries have dramatically
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