Directorate of Mass Education, Karnataka : Adult Literacy Using ICT

The objective behind the project was to reach out to rural learners through
technology to improve the literacy rate in the state. The target audience is
rural youths, who have dropped from school and adult illiterates. It is
extremely difficult to hold on to such kind of an audience for the entire
duration. Moreover, at every stage there was loss of information and at times
the learner actually received only the books and a form that they are being
enrolled for a program. To ease matters, the team decided upon an Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) solution. In Karnataka, Information kiosks
have reached over 1000 villages; computers have reached over 2000 schools; and
so it was important to rejuvenate the Literacy mission using ICT.

Using computers as the vehicle for course delivery would not only attract
illiterates, but also hold them until they complete the course and in the
process make them computer aware. Moreover, you can load the entire course on
computers and deploy across various literacy centers in the state. The
conventional method relied on training the trainers at various levels- state,
district and tehsil, who then go on to teach the adult illiterates. The ICT
approach standardizes the course material being taught across each center,
leading to faster knowledge dissemination and reduction in human errors during
teaching.

The solution has been developed using Photoshop and Flash and is just 60 MB
in size. So, it doesn't consume much resources during deployment. It allows the
user to learn at his own pace and go back and forth on a lesson as many times as
he wants. The learning experience is further enhanced by simple and clear audio
instructions. In between you see cartoon characters popping up that instruct and
encourage the learner along the way.

Women adult learners using the literacy software at one of the centers

The Directorate evaluated many options before deciding to use the mouse as
the interface for writing. The major reason being the prohibitive cost of using
a digital pen or touch screen based devices. Such an approach also ensured that
they could make do with existing hardware. In future, the same software would be
deployed on touch screen kiosks across the state (depending on availability), to
make the whole experience more convenient for the user.

Drag the animated pencil over the alphabet to learn how to draw it; then practice drawing using the mouse