The document discusses the challenges of literacy in India, particularly highlighting the urban-rural gap and gender disparities in education. It reviews various technological initiatives like Simputer and OLPC, emphasizing their failures and successes in reaching underserved populations. Additionally, it describes innovative mobile learning projects aimed at enhancing literacy and engagement among children in rural communities.

1. POMI in India Paul Kim, Ph.D. Chief Technology Officer [email_address]

2. India has roughly 16 percent of the world’s population and also 34.6 percent of the world’s illiterate population (UNESCO 2006). 72% of total households in India live in rural villages (Misra, 2006). ‘ Urban–rural gap in literacy is attributed to appalling poverty in rural areas, even when education is free’ (Misra, 2006).

3. ‘ Incomplete school, lack of motivated teachers and teaching materials, unfamiliar language of instruction and irrelevant curriculum is recurrent themes in rural education ’. (Khan and Chatterjee, 2003) Gender gap in literacy is worst in India India’s literacy gender gap is worse than the average gap of 18 percentage points in the world’s least developed countries (South Asia Investor Review, 2009).

4. India is witnessing a telecom revolution. (Reaching 450 million users in 2009 and expecting 1 billion by 2014) Such connectivity has opened the doors for wireless services to the rural population.

5. Why Simputer failed in India? Rodrigo and Joyojeet (2003) described that Simputer is a short term for Simple Inexpensive Multi-lingual (and Mobile) Computer, a device created by a group of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

6. Simputer was originally designed as a handheld device to be usable by low income, low literacy rural populations in India, aiming to provide a wider access to technology and overcoming the digital divide. The features of the Simputer are simpler to use than a normal computer, relatively low cost and small and mobile.

7. Simputer has failed to reach the poor children in the rural area. Simputer was created with a top-down approach , that it was created by technology enthusiasts , but they did not consult with those who will use it (Herren and Sudra).

8. OLPC in India One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is initiated by the MIT Media Lab which has created a laptop for children that is designed to favor children in developing countries.

9. The government thought that funding should be spent on building better classrooms and hiring teachers, not on ‘fancy tools’. The Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee of India commented that they have rejected OLPC for being “ pedagogically suspect ” (Camfield et al., 2007).

10. Recently the Indian government decided to buy OLPC laptops and distribute in India. Satish Jha, OLPC India President and CEO - “ OLPC XOs have been ordered for 1500 schools throughout the country” (Business.rediff.com, 2009)

11. Pocketschool in India Experiment with 237 extremely underserved children. From Mumbai slumdog kids to untouchable Dalit kids in Bihar and from circus performing Madaris kids in Rajkot to Jharkhadan tribal kids in Ranchi. Experiments focused on mobile adoption, user interface, collaboration patterns, group variations, storytelling effects, etc. Learning games include rescue mission math game, farming simulation, and m-storytelling.

12. Mobile farming simulation game Teaching the concept of trading, microloan, interest rate, default, etc.

13. Mobile storytelling program Story recording Movie publishing

14. Mobile-Math Game

15. Nehru Nagar Urban Slum in Mumbai, India

16. Akanksha After School for Underserved Children, Mumbai, India

17. Sister Nivedita “School on Wheels”- Underserved children in rural and tribal communities Rajkot, India

18. School on Wheels Children recording and listening their own stories

19. School on Wheels Children taking pictures of surroundings to make stories to share

20. School on Wheels Children taking pictures of surroundings to make stories to share

21. Madaris Migrant Children (Never attended schools) playing Math games 2-hour drive from Rajkot, India

22. Dalit (Untouchable) children figuring out the mobile learning device 2-hour drive from Patna, India

23. Jharkhadan village children figuring out the mobile learning device 4-hour drive from Ranchi, India

24. Jharkhadan villagers learning from mobile “farming simulation” program

25. Data collection System event log file Observation videos Session observation notes Interview results System event log file

26. Group variations 1. 2. 3.

28. 1) Pushing buttons rapidly to see what happens to the device or the screen. 2) Randomly trying a button without clear purpose. 3) When device turns on, the child says, “Wow” or “Yes!”. 4) When the avatar jumps when a button is pushed, the child smiles and shows the screen to peers. 5) Pushing a button to make the avatar jump over fire or pick a ladder. 6) Action with a clear intention of controlling an object or solving a problem.

29. 7) Pushing a button mistakenly to reload the game over and over. 8) The child is stuck in a loop of making the same action, but cannot advance any further. 9) The child observes peer actions (i.e., who was in the vicarious learning mode) and suggest something new or take over the control to try something different. 10) The child follows a direction from a peer and finally breaks away from the same cycle of making mistakes. 11) The child is observing the work of adjacent groups and applying what was learned in own group. 12) The child is sharing what was experienced with peer group members. The knowledge shared may not be a correct tip or accurate or optimized procedure.

33. Group variation and speed of advancement Advancement In problem solving 1 device per 3 children 1 device per 7 children 1 device per a child Time

34. General patterns of device adoption and learning progress Children in more developed communities (More exposure to electronic devices) Children in less developed communities (Less access to electricity) Exploration Recognition Interaction Iteration Exploration Recognition Interaction Iteration Time Time

35. Exploration - Randomly trying out Recognition – Recognizing a phenomenon as a result of exploratory actions Interaction - Interacting with newly discovered stimuli Iteration - Falling in a loop with the same options Clock speed Engagement 1 2 3 4 User behavior pattern with mobile learning devices Exploration Recognition Iteration Interaction

36. User behavior pattern with mobile learning devices Clock speed Engagement 1 2 3 4 Exploration Recognition Iteration Interaction

37. Optimizing Design Software No immediate reload Graphical guidance Reconfirming decision Hardware Rural village version of hotspot (Mobile phone on wheel, Village cell phone)

38. Sustainable model Creative content entrepreneur Story as an app Mobile app store Revenue generation Volunteer network

40. Figure 4. Mobile Creative Content Economy Ecology

41. The average selling price of each app is around $1.56. Paid app market reaching $3.3 billion.

42. Thank you for your interest in us.