Intelligent Tutoring Systems by and for the Developing World: A Review of Trends and Approaches for Educational Technology in a Global Context <s> Electricity <s> Less than 3% of the 145 million blind people living in developing countries are literate (Helander, Prejudice and dignity: An introduction to community-based rehabilitation. New York: UNDP 1998). This low literacy rate is partly due to the lack of trained teachers and the challenges associated with learning to write braille on a traditional slate and stylus. These challenges include writing from right to left, writing mirrored images of letters, and receiving significantly delayed feedback. Extensive conversations with the Mathru Educational Trust for the Blind near Bangalore, India, revealed the need for a robust, low-power, low-cost braille writing tutor. We present an iterative and participatory process resulting in the creation and refinement of a prototype braille writing tutor system. This system uses a novel input device to capture a student's activity on a slate using a stylus and uses a range of techniques to teach braille writing skills to both beginner and advanced students. We report on lessons learned from the implementation of this project and from a 6-week pilot study at Mathru, and outline future directions for improvement. <s> BIB001 </s> Intelligent Tutoring Systems by and for the Developing World: A Review of Trends and Approaches for Educational Technology in a Global Context <s> Electricity <s> Learning to read in a second language is challenging, but highly rewarding. For low-income children in developing countries, this task can be significantly more challenging because of lack of access to high-quality schooling, but can potentially improve economic prospects at the same time. A synthesis of research findings suggests that practicing recalling and vocalizing words for expressing an intended meaning could improve word reading skills - including reading in a second language - more than silent recognition of what the given words mean. Unfortunately, many language learning software do not support this instructional approach, owing to the technical challenges of incorporating speech recognition support to check that the learner is vocalizing the correct word. In this paper, we present results from a usability test and two subsequent experiments that explore the use of two speech recognition-enabled mobile games to help rural children in India read words with understanding. Through a working speech recognition prototype, we discuss two major contributions of this work: first, we give empirical evidence that shows the extent to which productive training (i.e. vocalizing words) is superior to receptive vocabulary training, and discuss the use of scaffolding hints to ""unpack"" factors in the learner's linguistic knowledge that may impact reading. Second, we discuss what our results suggest for future research in HCI. <s> BIB002
Only three papers reviewed addressed electricity, in any capacity. Each of these papers noted electricity as a challenge for educational technology, either due to cost issues or inconsistency. Cost issues were noted when using Project LISTEN's Reading Tutor in Zambia, which was the poorest country hosting ITS research  ). In that study, one school out of two was unable to consistently power their computer lab. The Braille Tutor, an ITS for braille literacy, also considered electricity costs BIB001 . This project developed a specialized, low-power "E-Slate" intended to run for 50 hours on a pair of AA batteries. However, specialized hardware to accommodate lack of electricity is seldom needed. When electricity is irregular, hardware with battery power (e.g., laptops and mobile devices) can mitigate short-term power disruptions with no added cost over desktops. For example, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project initially designed each laptop with hand cranks for power  ). Later designs dropped the crank because most users had access to some power source (e.g., community center, generator, car battery). However, BIB002 noted that members of poorer households suffered greater incidents of battery failure for mobile devices, possibly due to heat (summer weather) or bad electrical sources (e.g., spikes). It was also noted that some of the phones may have been damaged due to improper storage (e.g., girls hiding a phone in an oven to prevent their brothers from taking it). While heat can reduce the useable life of batteries, it is unclear how significant this problem will be for educational technology.