Improving child literacy in Africa: Experiments with an automated reading tutor

This paper describes a research endeavor aimed at exploring the role that technology can play in improving child literacy in developing communities. An initial pilot study and subsequent four-month-long controlled field study in Ghana investigated the viability and effectiveness of an automated read...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development pp. 129 - 138
Main Authors Mills-Tettey, G.A., Mostow, J., Dias, M.B., Sweet, T.M., Belousov, S.M., Dias, M.F., Haijun Gong
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.04.2009
Subjects
Africa
Automatic control
Context
Developing Regions
Education
Educational institutions
Educational technology
Humans
Lifting equipment
Literacy
Natural languages
Paper technology
Robots
Online AccessGet full text
ISBN1424446627
9781424446629
DOI10.1109/ICTD.2009.5426715

Cover

More Information
Summary:This paper describes a research endeavor aimed at exploring the role that technology can play in improving child literacy in developing communities. An initial pilot study and subsequent four-month-long controlled field study in Ghana investigated the viability and effectiveness of an automated reading tutor in helping urban children enhance their reading skills in English. In addition to quantitative data suggesting that automated tutoring can be useful for some children in this setting, these studies and an additional preliminary pilot study in Zambia yielded useful qualitative observations regarding the feasibility of applying technology solutions to the challenge of enhancing child literacy in developing communities. This paper presents the findings, observations and lessons learned from the field studies.
ISBN:1424446627
9781424446629
DOI:10.1109/ICTD.2009.5426715