Technology For Developing
Communities
Examples in Informal Education
Joe Mertz
Fall 2007
Outline
 PlanetRead
 Telecenters
• Hole in the Wall
• Digital Doorway
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What is Same Language
Subtitling (SLS)?
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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
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Does SLS work?
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How is SLS being used?
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Three related SLS ventures
 PlanetRead
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Research
National broadcast
 DesiLassi
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www.DesiLassi.com
Web delivered
Songs, trailers,
albums
 BookBox
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Children’s stories
21 languages
How was the research
conducted?
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June 1999 - April 2000
SLS added to film songs
TV Broadcast in a region of India
Weekly
SLS 20 min as part of an 30 min program
SLS Broadcast Research
 Pre and post test
 Two groups
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Experimental - claimed to watch regularly
Control - claimed to not watch
 25 episodes (weeks)
 Results
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Showed some marginal literacy gains by the
experimental group over the control
At an annual per-person cost of $0.00022
And viewers liked it!
India broadcast coverage
 http://planetread.com/india.swf
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More recent (unpublished)
research
Source: http://planetread.com/SLS%20Impact_Study_2007_Literacy.pdf
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Telecenters / Telecentres
 Also known as
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{PC, Internet} kiosks
Internet cafes
Computer education centers
Community technology centers
Infocentres
Village knowledge centres
Etc…
The LINCOS project was a telecenter.
Telecenters are common (ubiquitous?)
 telecentre.org estimates > 60,000 worldwide
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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.)
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…
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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.
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Prototypical problems
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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
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
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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.
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Key findings
from http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem/kiosks
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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.
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
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Hole in the Wall
Source: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/docs/Paper06.pdf
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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.
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Sources
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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), 221232.
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
Design constraints
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Accessible outdoors
Without air conditioning
Poor power conditions
Safe
• Safe for kids
• Safe for kiosk
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Enclosure
 Brick structure
 Glass-covered “holes” show computer monitors
 Metal lid covers each monitor, keyboard, mouse
combo
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Sun shade during operational hours
 Adult proof
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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
Ergonomics
http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/solution.html
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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.
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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
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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
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TuBu Mouse & Keyboard
Source: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/docs/Paper06.pdf
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Power
 Power is conditioned at input to correct for
voltage spikes, over and under voltage, and
frequency fluctuations.
 Four hours of battery back-up
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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
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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
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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
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Replication
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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
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Digital Doorway
- South Africa
Rugged steel terminal
Stand alone, 3 or 4 side models
(disability accessible model also)
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LCD, vandal-proof keyboard, touchpad,
webcam, speakers
Computers & server (for webcam) located
inside steel housing
Internet by various means (e.g. GPRS)
Cables from unit in pipe to ceiling
Source: http://www.digitaldoorway.org.za/
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50 sites in
planning
System Software
Server: FreeBSD v. 4.8
 Server Software: Apache
 Video capture and
streaming software:
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FFMpeg
User PC: Debian Linux
 Windows manager: KDE
v3.1
 Office suite: K-Office
 Education pack: K-EDU
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Other Software
 Mysql database server
 Java VM
 Gcompris Education
Suite
 GQCam webcam
software
 Mozilla Internet
Browser
 Web-based e-mail
Applications
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Science Software
Geography
Mathematics
Puzzles
Encyclopedia
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Office Suite
Music Programs
Paint Programs
Educational Games
Agriculture
Information
 Storymaker