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Directorate of Mass Education, Karnataka : Adult Literacy Using ICT

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

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.

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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
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