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Global literacy project uses tablet computers to boost reading numbers in Haiti

Skye Manson reported this story on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 12:50:00

ELEANOR HALL: School children in Haiti are about to take part in a global literacy trial that uses computer tablets to give them access to hundreds of books.

Hard copies of text books are in short supply in their schools - in one school 30 paperbacks are shared between 500 students.

Kitty van Cuylenburg is the Australia director of the program, Library for All.

She told Skyee Manson that some of the children have never seen a book before, let alone a digital device.

KITTY VAN CUYLENBURG: A lot of these children have been in domestic servitude for a long time, and they haven't had an opportunity to have an education. And we're working with this school to build the first version of the visual library platform which will provide books targeted for maths and for science and for languages.

Literacy is not just about being able to read but it's about being able to learn how to read.

SKYE MANSON: How will the children actually access those books if they don't have them in a hard copy?

KITTY VAN CUYLENBURG: The library is built to be device agnostic. And that means that it can be accessed via any device that has access to the internet or the cloud. So that could be a smart phone, that could be a tablet or a computer. For the students at Respire School in Haiti, they're going to be accessing the library by a tablet.

SKYE MANSON: If this project is successful it will be rolled out in other developing nations. But, isn't there a hurdling block for you in their access to these kinds of technology and their knowledge of how to use this kind of technology?

KITTY VAN CUYLENBURG: Yes, we fully appreciate the fact that there are so many communities that don't have basic amenities like sanitation and food and water. But we're looking to develop at that next level up.

So, once a community has those basic amenities and has the ability to have a school and have an education program, or whether that's community based through NGOs or through schooling systems run by governments, we're then looking to build the next level up of how do those communities then get access to the information that we so readily have available say in Australia or the US or in developed nations.

The great thing and the unusual thing and the wonderful thing that's been happening across developing communities is the expansion of 3G networks. So, for a large proportion of the communities that we'll be working with, they will be accessing the library through smart phones and through existing 3G networks that are there already.

What we're wanting to do with the library is to create a very intuitive user interface. And there's been a number of studies and work that's been done by organisations like One Laptop Per Child, that has shown that this intuitive technology, it can be very easily picked up by people who haven't had access to that kind of technology before.

SKYE MANSON: How will you get hold of all these educational books?

KITTY VAN CUYLENBURG: Well, we're working with a number of organisations so it's very much a partnership of organisations and communities that want to bring all the information that they have to a central location, which in this case is the library, and provide that in an easily searchable and usable interface.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Kitty van Cuylenburg from the non-for-profit organisation, Library for All, speaking to Skye Manson.

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