Communications of the ACM
Carnegie Mellon Expands Mobile Learning Project in India
"We anticipate that we can understand how to design and develop phone-based games to improve educational prospects for billions of people throughout the developing world," Carnegie Mellon Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matthew Kam says of the exp
Credit: Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) recently announced the expansion of its Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies (MILLEE) project, which aims to determine the effectiveness of mobile phone-based games for teaching English in rural India. Mobile phones could serve as learning tools as wireless carriers extend their services into underdeveloped regions, says CMU professor Matthew Kam. The MILLEE project has designed mobile phone-based educational games that are relevant to the culture in rural India. Over the next two years, the project will conduct a controlled study involving 800 children in 40 villages through the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
"Our previous, smaller studies have shown that students have significant gains in learning when they use these games," Kam says. "By aiming to replicate these results in a much larger study, we anticipate that we can understand how to design and develop phone-based games to improve educational prospects for billions of people throughout the developing world."
Kam and his team are developing games that support a new English curriculum adopted by Andhra Pradesh schools this summer, and they plan to have at least six, and as many as a dozen, games ready for deployment next year. If the trials are successful, the project wants to establish partnerships with content developers who are currently focused on educational programs for desktop computers.
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