The Global Learning Xprize challenge is to develop an Open Source solution to teach 7 – 10 year old children basic literacy and numeracy. Android tablets will be distributed to remote villages in East Africa with pre-loaded educational content. Pre and post tests after 18 months will identify which team’s approach is the most successful. A few prototypes are currently being tested with children in Tanzania. Children who have never used technology before are observed to see how they react and cope with various educational apps and interfaces.
The Dev4x team is a group of volunteer educators, parents, and developers who are interested in global education. Children in Tanzania who have never used smart phones or computers before are being given Android tablets to observe how they react. So far the results are very promising and the team feels confident that offline education resources will be welcomed by the current generation of East Africans who have such a keen desire to be educated.
The usage of mobile phones in Tanzania is fairly prolific, somewhat similar to Australia , although less people own smart / feature phones. Daily events are photographed and videoed using phones and shared via social media. However, people generally do not yet see these devices as opportunities for education. The majority of students in the public education system fail and dropout, so even a basic educational app can have a big impact. The cost of tablets is higher than in Australia and laptops are viewed as the best ed tech tool. Internet access is quite cheap and reliable in large cities, but less so as you move into rural areas. In 2016, as part of the Free Basics Facebook initiative a new satellite is due to be launched to offer basic Internet to most of Africa . The young people I met who owned smart phones were very tech savvy and keen to embrace this next wave of Digital Literacy. They have seen huge changes from their parents and grandparents generations and are eager to see rapid change for their country, and they believe that education is fundamental to that change happening.