Developing mobile applications adapted to the African market is a challenge and an opportunity demanding a deep understanding of the African realities - as diverse as they are even inside a single country. African computer science students will play a crucial role in this context and be key in the development of such applications corresponding to the needs of their compatriots - from various backgrounds.
The goal of this project is to educate Senegalese students on the potential and procedures - at the technical and business levels - for creating tech startups based on mobile technology corresponding to the needs and realities of their country
The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then-Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship.
Since that time, more than 195,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation.
As I've mentioned, the Mobile Media Toolkit team will be attending the upcoming Highway Africa conference.
We are excited to meet up with Harry Dugmore and Guy Berger at Rhodes University who have been behind the Lindaba Ziyafika ("The News is Coming") project. The project, motivated by a desire to reach young people in Grahamstown, has taken Grahamstown's newspaper and enabled it for mobile-based citizen contributions.
Learning about Living is the online branch of the Nigerian Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education organization. The program promotes human development, personal skills, and health awareness for Nigerian youths.
Improving Literacy in Rural India: Cellphone Games in an After-School Program data sheet 2427 Views
Author:
Matthew, Kam; Kumar, Anuj; Jain, Shirley; Mathur, Akhil; Canny, John
Publication Date:
Apr 2009
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
Literacy is one of the great challenges in the developing world. But universal education is an unattainable dream for those children who lack access to quality educational resources such as well-prepared teachers and schools. Worse, many of them do not attend school regularly due to their need to work for the family in the agricultural fields or households. This work commitment puts formal education far out of their reach. On the other hand, educational games on cellphones hold the promise of making learning more accessible and enjoyable. In our project’s 4th year, we reached a stage where we could implement a semester-long pilot on cellphone-based learning. The pilot study took the form of an after-school program in a village in India. This paper reports on this summative learning assessment. While we found learning benefits across the board, it seemed that more of the gains accrued to those children who were better equipped to take advantage of this opportunity. We conclude with future directions for designing educational games that target less well-prepared children in developing regions.
This spring, UNICEF Malawi and the UNICEF Innovations Team deployed RapidSMS to monitor child growth and nutrition. We wrote about it previously here.
Now there is a detailed report (pdf), evaluating the effort (pdf). The report, released on June 16th, was issued by Columbia University's School of Public Policy and Affairs (SIPA), UNICEF Malawi, UNICEF's Innovations team, and Mobile Development Solutions (MDS).
The report details the findings of the deployment, and outlines recommendations for the future use of SMS in Malawi. Raymond Short of Mobile Development Solutions says that,
“while there have been innumerable ICT development applications introduced recently, there have not been many independent studies of their efficiency”.
Cellphones for Health: An Exploration of Interventions in South Africa data sheet 1943 Views
Author:
Bosch, Tanja
Publication Date:
Jun 2008
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
There is global use of technology in medicine and health communication, leading to terms such as telemedicine, telehealth and e-health. A wide range of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been used both in the provision of services, as well as in messaging and communication campaigns. In South Africa limited internet penetration has led to more experimentation with cellphones. This paper provides a discussion of these projects, focusing on: The Teen SMS Helpline of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group; SIMPill which assists with compliance to tuberculosis medication; and CellLife’s Cellphones for HIV programme. The projects are described, with reflection on the possibilities for the uses of cellphones in healthcare, weighing advantages and disadvantages, particularly in the local context.
This article was written by Lisa Campbell of the Youth Action Network and is reprinted here with permission. Lisa's research and articles are on her blog Mobile Revolutions.
Mobile phones are the first telecommunications technology to be more popular in developing nations, than their developed counterparts, far outnumbering internet coverage (Zuckerman 2007). More and more people are using their phones to access the internet instead of computers. Soon there will be more cell phone users than literate people on the planet. This signifies a shift into a new age of digital literacy, where avatars, emoticons, pictures, sounds and videos often hold more power than names and numbers.
Economists around the world are hailing cell phones as the solution for ICT development and a ray of hope in bridging the digital divide.
When Matthew Kam first went to India, he noticed the lack of English literacy of children that had studied English for three or four years. Most couldn't read, didn't know simple words, and sometimes couldn't spell their own names. "We realized that those students who had taken English for three years couldn't read every letter in the alphabet," Matt said. "Teachers who were teaching English couldn't speak English themselves." However, the English literacy of these same children improved dramatically when presented with a unique learning tool: a mobile phone.
As part of his research for a computer science Ph.D., Matt is working with a team of researchers and students at the University of California at Berkley in the United States. The project, called MILLEE, or Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies, works to develop mobile phone games aimed at teaching literacy to children in India.
Can I get HIV after having sex for the first time? So goes one of the ten thousand SMS messages that teenagers in Nigeria have sent to Learning about Living.
Learning About Living is a project by One World UK, Nigerian NGOs, the MTN Foundation, and the Nigerian Department of Education using computers and mobile phones to teach Nigerian teenagers about sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention.
This report about the reality of the One Laptop Per Child initiative in one of the poorest countries on earth, the mobile revolution, the reality of radio, and what this all means for children was written by Martin Lucas in Malawi, and posted on a mailing list. We are publishing it here in its entirety for its insights and opinion. We'd love to hear from you - tell us what you think!
One Slate per Child by Martin Lucas
I have been reading with interest the discussion of the 'hundred-dollar laptop' and the One Laptop per Child initiative as I sit in Malawi, a small landlocked Southern African nation lodged between Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania. According to Wikipedia, the OLPC effort has its philosophical base in the idea that children with laptops will be able to do a certain kind of thinking that isn't possible without the computer - exploring certain areas - particularly in math and science where computer access offers a qualitatively superior learning experience. Making such machines available at low prices should allow developing countries to bridge the 'digital divide', and leapfrog learning. Countries that have signed on include Uruguay. India has given a definite no. Either way, the OLPC initiative is an aspect of 'development' even 'IT for Development.' How does the initiative square with the reality of a small African nation?
MobileActives are increasingly making the news as mainstream press is picking up the potential of mobiles as organizing, advocacy, and mobilization tools in social change movements. In an article in the Financial Times today, the focus is on young social change leaders using technology, and increasingly, cell phones in their work. Profiling Maft and its (former) leader Erion Veliaj of Mjaft, an Albanian young people's political movement, it's clear that good organizing and social change is unthinkable today without mobile phones.
Owning a mobile is becoming an indispensable element of young people's lives all around the world. This well-done 30-min video focuses on mobiles in education, explores whether mobiles are a force for good, or an example of technology gone awry; and offers a lot of cultural analysis of how young people use mobiles.
Produced by teachers.tv about young people's use of mobiles (albeit UK-focused), it is a good look at the world of young people with mobile phones, and the impact on schools and education. Young people are mobile natives and schools and NGOs better take heed.
The SMS petition campaign for justice in the Jessica Lal murder case that we wrote about here wrapped up last week with more than 200,000 SMS signatures (previous links no longer active). On air the 24-hour news station NDTV solicited their viewers – mostly middle class and mobile phone owners - to send a text message to the station protesting the injustice they saw in the acquittal of all nine men accused in the fashion model's murder in a crowded bar. These text messages, treated like signatures on a petition, were promised to be sent to the president to show the nation's outrage in what they saw as government corruption and a police cover up.
NDTV's managing editor said, "That just goes to show you technology has changed the face of mobilization completely. Because if this were like ten years ago and you were going door to door collecting signatures, which would have been its equivalent, it would have taken you many more logistics, just an army of volunteers. You didn't need any of that. You needed one rallying point on television."
