MILLEE Summer Study

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MILLEE Summer Study

• Designing Rural Computing Applications
• Deepti Chittamuru
• 7th Oct 2008

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MILLEE Background

• The aim of the project has been to design mobile
  phone based software and games to help children
  in rural India learn English.
• The software designed is of basically three types
• Audio based content like digital stories and
  rhymes that they can listen to as they work
• Video or Camera based games
• Finally content similar to traditional video
  games but living on the phone
• 6 field studies between July 2004 and May 2008
  with children from the urban slums and rural
  areas of India

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MILLEE Background (contd)

• Latest was a two week long study in an
  out-of-school setting during summer 2008
• For our purposes the details of previous studies
  are not relevant since the summer study was aimed
  at out-of-school settings while the old studies
  were designed for an in-school setting.
• For more details please visit the project home
  page at http//www.cs.berkeley.edu/mattkam/mille
  e/index.html

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Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh
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Malihabad (Contd)
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Overview
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Week One- Methodology
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Week One Findings (Contd)
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Week One Findings (Contd)
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Week One Findings (Contd)
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Week One Findings (Contd)
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Week Two- Methodology

• Used technology artifacts such as game
  applications on mobile phones to elicit design
  ideas
• Observed practices surrounding mobile phone use
  by children
• Conducted unstructured interviews after each
  session
• Start with one child and let groups gather around
  them

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Week Two- Artifacts

• Used mobile phones as technology artifacts
• A variety of games were loaded on the phones
• Snake Tree (An audio and video based interactive
  game)
• Pic A Word (A camera based game)
• Digital stories rhymes (with video to accompany
  them)

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Week Two- Findings
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Week Two- Findings (Contd)
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Summary of Findings

• Amount of Time A Child Possesses For Play
• UC Boy gt LC Girl gt LC Boy gt UC Girl
• Ease of Access to a Cellphone (Physical
  Availability )
• UC Boy gt UC Girl gt LC Boy gt LC Girl
• Ease of Access to a Cellphone (Social
  Acceptability)
• UC Boy gt UC Girl gt LC Boy gt LC Girl
• Degree of Parental Approval or Acceptance
• UC Boy gt LC Boy gt UC Girl gt LC Girl

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Lessons Learned

• Importance of the location of study and the
  necessity to keep it neutral
• The role of the fathers name in defining the
  childs identity
• Sensitivity to social forces based on caste
• The necessity for the mothers to invest
  emotionally in the vision behind this technology

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Thank You