Hi India, We're BiD and TIER.

Moving forward: We are back!

2009-01-24T11:14:00.001-08:00

For all those who thought we have been missing, we are back. As I can see the last post is from 2007, which means that the blog failed to capture any activity in 2008. So here is a quick update on what MILLEE accomplished in 2008:

In Spring 2008, we held a full fledged deployment at a private school in Kanaar (a village near the city of Nawabs, Lucknow). Aside: The place is famous for mangoes! :)
In Summers 2008, we did an ethnographic study with help from a new team member Deepti (a master's student at the Berkeley i-school). The goal of the study was to look at the usage patterns for cellphones. We had a lot of interesting observations from the same, go bug Deepti if you want some details.
In December 2008, we worked down South in Andhra Pradesh with the Byrraju foundation. The aim was to set the ground to go full throttle, i.e. to hold a large scale study with 400 odd kids, which would happen sometime in 2009.
In Spring 2009, the goal is to do an out-of-school deployment at our site near Lucknow, and try to understand the belief systems and the usage patterns around cellphones.

For an update regarding the people who used to be involved with MILLEE:

I, Anuj Tewari, am now a graduate student in CS at UC Berkeley.
Neha Kumar is also a PhD student now at the Berkeley i-school.
Dave is done with his PhD and working for Accenture. He owns a nice condo (I know that since he invited me to a party there!).
Aish has become a globe trotter. :)
Anuj and Akhil are in their final year now, and continue to be valuable pair of hands for MILLEE
Sid is also in his final year and works in network security now.
And last but not the least, Matt is now a Assistant Professor at the HCI institute at CMU.

As we move forward, I will keep this blog updated.

MILLEE says goodbye to Karekura

2007-08-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

after spending an unforgettable summer at karekura, millee has now switched base to lucknow (uttar pradesh). it was heart-breaking to leave the 50 kids that (not just david) we all fell in love with, but with the objective being to do a comparative study in the north, it became necessary to pack our bags and go north :(.

not that saying goodbye is ever easy, but this time was especially hard. how do you explain to these kids that you've shared every day with (for all of 8 weeks) that you might never be back again? when they've spent nearly every summer morning looking forward to your arrival? truth be told, we had come to look forward to our days with them quite as much. after all, we too had our learning experiences to undergo.

david put it aptly - they loved us just because we were there. i still remember my first day with them - i was embarrassed to be given so much attention. ten of them were on me at a time, asking "what is your name?". on hearing mine they would promptly offer theirs (and i'd try hard to remember, to do justice to their enthusiasm). but these were all the words we could exchange in a common language. all other communication we shared was across the language barrier.

a memorable incident i shall always recount was when i was showing anusha the pictures i had taken on my camera one morning. she asked me to scroll through all the pictures, then go to the ones i had taken the day before. i had visited my (stanford) room-mate's grandparents, aunt, and cousin. anusha made me explain to her who was who, and registered all. i was touched beyond words at the way the conversation proceeded... not because she registered all (obviously), but because she really cared to understand who was who... in the bit of my life i exposed to her.

there are many little things that made these children unforgettable to us...

their undying enthusiasm in greeting us and saying goodbye for one. gosh, it was a process to get in and get out of school. in the afternoons, an incessant wave of "bye"s would surround us, making the ensuing silence almost hard to handle.
the hypnotic effect the camera had on them (esp. mine, truly :). they'd lose interest in all else and beg for photos. radha, in fact, cared little for anything around her if a camera was visible. also adorable was the pose anusha and co. would strike as soon as the camera was aimed at them. definitely mind-blowing :).
sheer lack of inhibition when it came to pouncing upon us to tickle, shower us with hugs and kisses, and inevitably causing us to lose our balance. (i learnt to shed mine, day after day.)
the tender smiling faces when they saw the "winner" screen on the phones. (and sometimes, even when they'd lost but thought they'd won... in floored e.g. :)
the "fider"-"spider" incident between siddharaju and anusha that will be talked about to kingdom come.
srividya showing attitude, according to aish. the little miss has the most beautiful, penetrating eyes i've seen on a child.

these are only among a few, and those that came to mind first. the entire experience is hard to sum up in words. i think i speak for us all in that the infectious smiles and laughter that these kids added to our lives for this brief period will be reminisced about for years to come.

david, in all his awesomeness, put together an awesome yearbook for the kids. hopefully they will remember each of us, and each other. we'll definitely remember them all. if you'd like to see the yearbook, david will be only too happy to oblige. if you'd like to see more photos, just send me a request and i'll send you the url.

as for the present - our move to lucknow has been an effort, but successful. there will be more on that in a later post.

Dave says goodbye to MILLEE

2007-08-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

On June 26th, 2007, I spent my last day with the kids at the school. I remember telling one of my friends that when I first came to India, I was expecting to keep networks networking, internets internetting, and the laptops laptopping; perhaps even sneak in a bit of research at the same time. What I didn't count on was falling in love with nearly 50 kids. And for that reason, leaving the school was one of the most difficult things I've had to do, not just in India, but in my life.

I'm glad Neha, who recently joined the group (WELCOME, NEHA!), described her experience of the school with a fresh set of eyes. It reminded me of all the things I loved about working with those kids. And even though Neha's experiences were all new to her, I take a lot of joy in the fact that each day for me was as exciting, fun, and full of love as the first. Just to reiterate what Neha had said, "they are happy any which way, which is one of the things that makes them so special". She was talking about pictures, but I feel like this is pervasive in their life which, indeed, makes them very special and me very happy.

My last day there, I had to say goodbye. I walked into a quiet classroom and said goodbye to the kids. I remember how they ran up so that they could give me a hug with their precious, filthy hands (if you've been following along, you know how I feel about their hands). I remember the questions they asked, each one broke my heart: "Where are you going?" and "What is your phone number?" so that they could call me. The hardest question for me to hear was, "When are you coming back?"

I will dearly miss those kids. I will miss the excitement of having their pictures taken and showing it to them. I'll miss all the silly things they said during our interviews with them. I'll miss the fact that they loved you, not because of who you were or where you come from, just because you were there.

Since then, I have enjoyed a whirlwind tour of beautiful India and now back in the US trying to get caught up with all the work that has been waiting patiently for my return.

another day at karekura

2007-07-19T07:20:00.001-07:00

picking up where siddharthA left off, on the week that was.

there hasn't been an update on the activities at the school for a while. seeing as i am the new (and thus, most wide-eyed-in-fascination) member of millee, i take it upon myself to do the needful...

our tata sumo (driven by the able purushottam bhaiya) picks up a sumoful of people each morning (a subset of all researchers and interpreters) and heads to the village that is karekura, a few kms off the outskirts of mysore. the ride is a tad bumpy once we get to the village, as expected, and we are treated to the sights of sugar-cane and rice fields, bullock carts, sheep and goats, and many, many palm trees as we trudge along, for roughly 10 km.

the kids await our arrival with much anticipation, ready to pounce upon us in full force as soon as we're out of the vehicle. there are incessant sounds of "hi, __ aunty", "hi, __ uncle", 'til it's time for them to line up for assembly. assemblies consist of the children standing height-wise in four very straight lines, while one of the teachers takes charge. in unison they recite a few prayers and sing the national anthem. a couple of kids sneakily look toward us on the side, chanting on all the same :).

when assembly ends, there is a short break before the kids assemble into their classes. this is when the camera comes out and chaos reigns. there are a million echoing sounds of "torsi aunty" as i click away (torsi means show in kannada. everyone wants to be in the photo, and the kids push and pull to be in the frame. little do they know that i almost never have a wide angle lens on, so there is just not a chance that more than two faces will fit. but they're happy to pose, and happy to see their friends on the lcd after the picture is taken :). in fact, they are happy any which way, which is one of the things that makes them so special.

when work actually begins, anuj (in matt's absence) decides which of the kids will do what (with the phones) and activity begins. watching the kids learn, or even not learn (as the case may be) is a fascinating experience. we stumble, often fail, and thus we carve our route towards success....

as for the logistics, we only work with some of the kids some of the time. since school continues to run 'normally' for them, we're really stealing their time away from classes. one wonders if one does them enough justice by taking away those hours of study from them. one tends to conclude in one's favour... the last week saw the kids pick up the clothing game, floored with action verbs, and the tree-tree (local) game.

'tis hard to document everything that happens in school, simply because every day is so different and new. you can imagine that not a boring moment is found within the walls of karekura. leaving is always sad, and quite a process. it takes only about 15 minutes for each of us to bid goodbye to each of them, with promises of seeing them the following morning. the sea of kids crowds around our vehicle till we are all in, and then sings farewell till the vehicle is out of sight. what does one do with all that attention, really?!

oh, and this post took so long (could not help the lack of internet supply these last few days) to finish that there's another update - david did a brilliant job with putting together the yearbook. it's finally done and looks inordinately spiffy. please contact him if you'd like to take a look.

over and out.

Don't Dream It's Over

2007-07-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

A wise guy once said-"Don't write crap when you can write better." Being the fool I am, I have chosen to chuck those words of wisdom down the garbage chute and come up with some trash so as to earn some well deserved curses, slangs and abuses. I just couldn't help it fellas. I know I have to write something when instead of dozing off, I think of getting hold of pen and paper and coming up with some fancy introduction to an even jazzier post. Not that I usually end up doing that. Sleep is too expensive a commodity to be trifled over such whims.

Coming back to more familiar grounds. As some of you might be knowing, I am currently interning in Mysore under the aegis of University of California, Berkeley. My work involves serving as a researcher in a project named MILLEE (Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies). The project seeks to promote English Language Literacy in developing regions through mobile technology (read games, applications etc etc that can be deployed on mobile platforms like cellphones). As a part of the MILLEE team, I have had the fortune of being mentored by an extraordinary doctoral student, Matthew Kam, whose brainchild is known to us all as MILLEE.

MILLEE, a name with which 8 guys have become synonymous with over the past 4 weeks. A name that seeks to bring a change. A name that changes the people it touches. Okay, as usual, maybe I went overboard. But the fact of the matter is, MILLEE seeks to cater to the impoverished section of our society. And that is reason enough that it should get all the support we can muster. It is always a good feeling to be helping out the needy. I can vouch for that from experience of working with rural kids for two consecutive summers now. :-)

But working our asses off (if only sometimes) doesn't mean MILLEE is all about work and no play. Neither am I. So when on one hand we spend entire nights deploying the apps on 20 highly irritating Motorola Razr cellies, we also go biking on Wednesdays up the Chamundi Hills (OK well maybe not all Wednesdays :P). Then there are the unrelenting sessions of leg-pulling, jokes and Davidisms that keep all of us on our toes. All sane mortals here very wisely choose to ignore the steady stream of PJs coming from a direction named Anuj 'The Graduate' Tewari. Not included in this category is Anuzz 'Chiku' Kumar, who manages to fall over himself on hearing the silliest of jokes.

Recently, the entire team went around Mysore, visiting the regal Mysore Place, followed by a session of some kick-ass amateur bowling. All of us were bowling for the first time and I almost managed to kill a guy by hurling the bowl thingie as high as it would go. Anuj (Tewari that is) managed to steal the show by snatching victory from Jacek aka Kebab through the very last throw. I very conveniently finished last, just behind Chepu Champ, Mathurz. Aish 'Hadd' Aunty somehow managed to perform spectacularly even though he was bowling and cell-phoning at the same time. I tried to goad him into telling me the secret of his multitasking capabilities. But he has, so far, refrained from letting out any secrets.

That is the story till now (only the rosy parts of course). Let's see how things develop. As and when they do, I'll make sure to keep you buggers posted. As of now, the coding team has to get cracking on its next assignment - the second set of prototypes. Till next time, all you huduga's and hudugi's keep commenting on the damn posts.

P.S: Oh Yeah! I almost forgot. We had Akshaye Kumar (yeah the dude in the damn Khiladi movies) shooting right in front of our farmhouse. He was there shooting for some crappy Priyadarshan movie called Bhool Bhullaiya.

MILLEE Team "Strikes" again (in bowling)

2007-07-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

The MILLEE team is hard at work, but we recently took a day off to tour the beautiful city of Mysore. As part of our day, we went bowling! The bowling allies here are second to none.

Here are the boys, ready for a night of bowling. Jacek is particularly feeling it tonight.

Bowling shoes are on!

For many of us, bowling was a new experience. I decided to post some of the pictures online and rate them as "Pro" or "No".

PRO: Nice form, Siddharth. Smiling all the way.

PRO: Anuj, let's not take the credit away from him. He won it after all!!

PRO: Hey Akhil! Bowling... not ballet!

PRO: Oh definitely. Bowling while on the cell phone is definitely slick.

PRO: I must admit it!!

NO: I must admit!! I need to learn from these guys!! They are simply awesome :)

PRO: Okay, from this pic, it looks like the ball will totally fly in the air. And that's exactly what it did... okay, siddhartha... uhhh.. nevermind. I give up.

Okay, there you have it! the MILLEE bowling team.

Fun with Parathas

2007-07-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Paratha Man!!

Massive Technological Failures

2007-06-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

You know what the problem is when developing technology for developing regions? Yes, it's partly the regions, yes it's partly the developing (of both the regions and the technology) but I have to say, it's mostly the technology... Here are just a few of the things the MILLEE team has had to overcome to continue our work...

The failure of two laptops due to hardware failures
The failure of two laptops due to viral infections
The inability to restore said laptops due to special hardware requirements which cannot be found here.
Near daily internet connection failures
Near daily power failures (including our backup!)
A lot of funny quirks in developing on mobile platforms.
Camcorder failures
Failure of the machine that converts DV tapes to DVD's

It's a wonder how we get any work done!

But we're still doing it ....

MILLEE now has a yearbook committee!

2007-06-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

If you've been following along, you no doubt know that the kids at our school LOVE seeing their photographs. If you combine this our interest in learning more about their context, we have a new research methodology which we're calling "The Yearbook Project".

The goals of this project are several-fold:

First and foremost, we'd like to create a yearbook for the students of the school as a gift from the MILLEE team. Something that they can immediately enjoy, share with their friends, and share with their family.
We are looking to better understand the context in which they live.
We are looking to find topics that interest them so that we can hopefully develop a better syllabus. The thinking is that if the students are interested in the topics, they will be more likely to learn the English.
We are looking to find inspiration for new mobile games.

By asking the students to help us create the yearbook by filling it with aspects of their lives, we simultaneously make progress on all of our project goals! How fantastic is that?

For the past several days, we've been talking with the students about the yearbook, and asking them questions to help us fill in the details. There are several sections to the yearbook including the "yearbook quote", a section full of photos they will take with cameras that we lend to them, and a section of drawings we will ask them to make.

We've already created a sample yearbook for the students with their photos in it and showed it them to gauge how much they would like such a thing. So far, they seem to love it -- seeing pictures of themselves and their friends is so exciting for them. We've also been having a really good time interviewing the students and helping them figure out what their "yearbook quote" should be. We've also begun handing out cameras so that they can take pictures of their lives outside of school.

Above are students gathering around to look at the photos in the sample yearbook.

Here, one of the students is showing his classmates, who is currently sitting in class, the yearbook through the window.

I'm pretty excited about this project. we've been collecting a lot of great information and making progress on all of our research goals. But most importantly, I'm really glad that we can give the students this small gift at the end of the project.

Getting Around India

2007-06-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

I'm finding that there are a zillion different ways of traveling around India.

First, we have our car, which Annnnooooozzzzzz is showcasing with dignity and grace.

The train system, which will get you pretty much anywhere you want to go in India in comfort.

I had to put this picture in there. It's about as Bollywood as it gets (except for the whole two guys holding hands bit)

Taxi.

Of course, there are elephants (okay, okay, i actually haven't seen anyone ride an elephant on the road).

And of course, swing... Okay, the swing won't actually get you anywhere, but that's not what Siddhartha was telling Anuj. You just can't trust that Siddhartha, I tell ya.

Introducing the Team!

2007-06-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well! It's been about three weeks now. Perhaps it's about darn time we've introduced the team!

Matt "the boss" Kam
He's in charge of this whole operation and is the lead researcher on this project. Without him, there'd be no MILLEE. He also is fond of making sure heads roll when appropriate.

Dave "What's That?" Nguyen
Here on an abbreviated stay to generally help out help out. Also, editor of the yearbook (to be blogged about).

Neha "Shaktimaan" Kumar :)
She loves Photography and to prove this we have a picture with some "supernatural" effects (for the above picture contact me).

Anuj "The Graduate" Tewari
He recently rocked his GRE's with scores that are TOO good, A++, A1, mind blasting!

Aish "Aishwara-aunti" Agarwal
Apparently named after a famous Bollywood actress.

Akhil "The Mystery" Mathur
He doesn't say much, but when he does say something, you'd better be listening.

Anuj "Anooooooooozzzzzz" Kumar
I still don't understand why they call him Anooz. Indians...

Jacek "Kabab-Uncle" Piwiec
Our visitor from the London School of Economics. Unfortunately named Kabab after making fun of me.

Siddharth "King of Delhi, Prince of Lucknow, Queen of England" Bhagwani
Siddharth makes sure that everything runs around here.

Siddhartha "Not to Be Trusted" Lal
He hides the 'a' from the pronunciation of his name. What else could he be hiding? I just don't know.

In addition to the team, we have a fantastic group of translators who, without them, we'd be, well, without translation.

Pavan

Srinivas

Supreetha

Vidya

Vijaya

We also work with our NGO partners

Babu Matthew

M.L. Ramanarasimha

Soundara Rajan

And of course, the teachers at the school we're working with.

As I'm still getting to know the team, there will be gaps in my knowledge. Please excuse me as this particularly entry gets updated.

Week 1: Cellphone Training

2007-06-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

This week (June 3-9) was a flurry of activities. We commenced our fieldwork at the village primary school on Monday. As some background info, the kids were aged 6-10 (grades 1-5). They excited to see us again and loved asking us to take photos of them. :)

Since a substantial fraction of the kids have neither used a cellphone before nor interacted with mobile applications, one of our objectives this week was to familiarize them with basic cellphone controls. We showed them how to play a Tangram mobile game on Mon and Tue in order to give them practice with the arrow, Enter, numeric and left+right soft buttons on the cellphone keypad.

A second objective was to establish the right set of expectations with the kids. We felt that when we were in Mysore in January 2007, we had inadvertently created an impression among the kids that we were there to have fun with them, when we introduced several games to familiarize them with the cellphone, prior to rolling out the educational cellphone games and audio modules a week later.

Hence, this time, we wanted to be clear that the primary purpose of our presence was to help them learn English. On Wed to Fri, we introduced an audio unit on the cellphone that aimed to develop their English vocabulary and acquaint them with simple English sentencial forms (including pronouns), which they can subsequently use to construct new sentences.

Our third objective was to learn more about them, so that this cultural knowledge can inform our designs of mobile applications for this learner group. We conducted semi-structured interviews with them, during which we asked them questions about their families, after-school activities and future aspirations.

In the process, we were surprised to learn that the older kids (grades 4-5) have prior cellphone experience. We had initially thought that none of them had used cellphones before. From our interviews data, out of the 47 kids from grades 2-5, 19 of them had parents who owned cellphones. It also appeared that many parents were comfortable with letting their older kids use the the equipment. I was amazed at the cellphone penetration rate in that village.

In terms of results, we were seeing better post-test gains this time, mostly because we were careful not to create expectations among the kids that we were there only to play electronic games with them. We are also getting very helpful feedback from our interpreters. We hired several of the same interpreters from the January 2007 study, and they are now much more comfortable and familiar with our work to give us design feedback.

Onward!

Week 0: Laying the Basic Infrastructure

2007-06-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

I'll just number the weeks starting from zero. I thought this convention makes a lot of sense since week 1 marks the first week where we start working at the rural school. :) Also, I notice that David has been posting blog entries that provide an account of the situation from a somewhat rose-tinted pair of lenses (IMHO), so I shall attempt to be the countervailing voice. :)

Week 0 (May 27 to June 2) is mostly settling-in for us at the farmhouse. We used this time to sort out the basic infrastructure that we usually take for granted in the developed world: setting up a Wi-Fi Internet network, seeing the installation of an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system, arranging for the regular shipment of safe drinking water, etc.

Although I have to point out that we continue to be plagued with power outages on a daily basis. There is a cache of candles and matchsticks that David enjoys tinkering with. :) There was also a time when the Internet hubs at the service provider's were down, but thank goodness they have been working fairly well for the past week. It puts a damper on work and morale each time basic infrastructure fails...

In previous fieldwork, we had eaten out for most of our meals. This was another major damper on efficiency, given the long (IMHO) waiting and transport times. This time, there is a cook at the farmhouse who prepares our meals, which makes it possible to improve efficiency. However, I should also point out that there is room for improvement in the meal hours, and we are working on these aspects.

On Friday, we paid a courtesy visit to the Block Education Officer and teaching staff at the rural school where we'll be conducting this summer's fieldwork to thank them for their support. After presenting with the "thank you" letters from my thesis advisor, everything is set for the remaining 10 weeks. :)

Snakes!

2007-06-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the delay in posting a blog entry. I have been preoccupied during the last three weeks, mostly with getting local logistics up to the point where we can finally work on research with some semblance of productivity and safety precautions.

The most important point about doing fieldwork in a developing country is safety - from both natural and human elements. I thought this is a good time to mention this since one of my team members saw a snake right outside our farmhouse a while ago. I'll be discussing possible safety measures with the landowner, e.g. sulfur.

Given the amount of electronic equipment that we need for our work, the locals have also adviced that the farmhouse be covered on a 24/7 basis by a security guard. Call me a security freak, but that's an instinct acquired from my days in the military.

I'll post my backlog of updates soon.

Hi, how are you? What is your name?

2007-06-13T02:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we just finished our first week at the school! It's been a really busy week for us as we and the students got acquainted with each other, but it was really exciting for the team as well as the students. Some of the team were already acquainted with the school due to the February field study, but for many of us, this was our first time. Here are some of the highlights from my perspective.

The kids were really excited to see us! When we arrived the kids were waiting for us at their main gate. You can see from the photo above that one of the girls even started climbing over the gate! They were so adorable! As we approached, the students had their hand outreached ready for a shake and a 'Hello, Uncle". I have to admit, however, that when I first saw this, the thought of my hand, in all its american hyperhygenic glory, making contact with their's was less than appetizing. Don't even get me started on how I felt when I realized they also wanted to plant a nice wet kiss on my hand as well... Anyways, all these worries are now at ease as I grew more comfortable with the kids and settled into their world (that, and I'm now packing hand sanitizer).

One of the jobs I've taken up here is to be the group photographer, which is awesome because I get to capture everything that's going on! And boy do the kids love it! They will do anything for a photograph. Above is a picture of one of our favorite students sweeping away, hoping that it grabs my attention (he obviously knew how to play his cards).

Everyday, since then, 99% of what the students say goes something like this

"Uncle, one photo.
Please, uncle, one photo.
One photo, Uncle, one photo.
Please.. pleeease.."

Then I eventually cave in and take their photograph, and the kids come running toward me to see their photo on the digital screen... Above, you see the kids screaming and jumping for a prime spot as they know Aish is about to capture a photo. I thought I might secretly take out my camera to capture this, but the kids are sly and knew almost right away as you can see them running toward me.

One of the few pieces of equipment we let the kids play with are the tripods and they LOVE playing with these things. Considering the tripod is relatively complex (c'mon, admit it!), these kids figured it out in record time assuming they have had limited exposure to what this strange device actually does. Here again, the camera comes out, and all the kids run to pose.

Once I realized the power I had with my camera, I used it to my advantage. Instead of the screaming mass of kids that normally greeted the camera, I got them to all line up neatly single file before I agreed to take a photo. If the act of getting a bunch of primary school kids to line up single file isn't proof enough of the awesomeness of this power, perhaps the fact that I gave all my instructions in English is (remember, the kids only know Kannada, their native language). Isn't that amazing?

So in the first week, we introduced mobile phone games to the kids. Here two of my favorite students showing off after they've completed the tangram game. Some of these kids have been exposed to cell phones because of the February field study, others have access to phones at home, but many of the kids have never had a chance to use a mobile phone in their life! However, most students learned really quickly, a nod to either their intelligence or good design.

Throughout our trials there was a strong sense of cooperation among the students. Here, one students (quite a trouble maker too) works with another student cooperatively to solve the tangram game.

During downtime, the students sit outside and busily working on their homework on the ground. Of course, they can make some time for a quick snapshot :)

Anyways, the team is having a GREAT time out here. We have plenty to say, so you'll be hearing from us again real soon!

added June 14, 5:15pm -- I totally forgot. The title of this blog entry comes from their fondness of this typical american greeting. They love it so much that they will say it, even if they already know your name.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

2007-06-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Today, it rained. And then it hailed! For the past week, we've been trying to figure out the best way to make ice for a nice frosty drink. After we had just figured it out, ice comes falling out of the sky! Did I mention we were in Mysore, India, smack in the middle of the tropical zone? If the gods aren't toying with us, I have no other explanation.

Nandanavana Farms

2007-06-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

It's been a busy few days here for the MILLEE team here in Mysore. And if the primary school we are studying is where all the magic is happening, Nandanavana Farms, where we are staying, is where that magic is made.

Nandanavana Farms is a beautiful farm house located near the majestic Lalit Mahil Hotel. It's got three bedrooms, one is reserved in Divya's honor (who we desperately wish would come out here on a daily basis), and the other two comfortably sleep the 7 boys who are currently here. It's not as crowded as you might think, but definitely cozy for this all-american boy.

The house comes with a pretty cool staff. Here's our cook. He feeds me food which is one of the primary shortcuts to my good favor. Needless to say, he's one of my favorites.

The house comes with a lot of great recreational features, like this tree house and swing set which we've totally taken full advantage of! I've always wanted a tree house.

Here you see some of the gang furiously coding away. We've since provided them with a table so that it's slightly more ergonomic.

On a daily basis, we are discovering something new. For instance, the sense of accomplishment that you get when you realize that the internet has gone down, yet you are still alive and life can continue smoothly. Or, perhaps, the joys of discovering that you can make ice in the kitchen freezer.

Anyways, the gang's all here and we're all doing great. Hope everyone's summer is going well!

We've Arrived!

2007-06-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

The team has arrived in Mysore. Most of the team has been here for about a week now and I (Dave) arrived just yesterday. We've been very busy getting the infrastructure set up before we head off to the school on Monday.

India is such a fantastic and beautiful place, and I'm looking forward to getting to know it better. Picture of our accomodations will come very soon. Please stay tuned!

Dave

Off to India!

2007-05-26T01:24:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to David Nguyen for setting up this blog!

As I write this blog entry from Singapore on my stop-over enroute to India, I can't help feeling encouraged by the progress that we have made and the lessons that we have learned since the MILLEE project started in mid-2004, even though these steps are understandably miniscule in the larger scheme of things.

For those who don't know about MILLEE, here's our one-para elevator pitch: the MILLEE project targets disadvantaged children in the developing world who do not have the opportunity to attend school regularly because they need to work for the family in the agricultural fields or homes. We believe that by making lessons available in the form of mobile games on the cellphone -- which is the fastest growing technology platform in several emerging economies -- we can potentially complement the public school system (which is not generally viewed in some regions to be effective) by making educational resources more accessible to this segment of learners, and at times and places that are more convenient to them.

Our work is currently focused on India and on English as Second Language. English is a "power language" in India that is used by people in the upper classes. The lower-income groups, including the "dalits" (or the "untouchables"), believe that knowing English gives their children a ticket to a better life.

We are fortunate to be working with fantastic Non-Government Organization partners who are among the leading experts in rural education in India. Urvashi Sahni, who runs the Study Hall Educational Foundation in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), helped us to bootstrap this project and introduced me to the educational obstacles that disadvantaged children in India face. For the current phase of the project, we have been working with the Mysooru Literacy Trust in Mysore (Karnataka) to perform our technology design and evaluation on a larger scale than our previous pilots in Uttar Pradesh.

I also can't help feeling lucky that the MILLEE project has attracted the interest of students from many universities all over the world, including the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (India), the Indian Institute of Technology at Guwahati (India), the London School of Economics (UK), Stanford University (USA), and of course, the University of California at Berkeley (USA). Several students from these universities will join me on my doctoral dissertation fieldwork this summer. This international development project is indeed international in the nationalities that make up our team!

On looking back, I also can't thinking that I have gained a lot from the two years that I've spent completing graduate work at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. As someone who's pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science, it has taken a lot of effort to get to the point where I can have a coherent conversation with researchers in language and literacy, including second language acquisition, which I originally knew nothing about. The preparation to undertake this multi-disciplinary project has been a long haul.

I am catching my flight to India in a few hours. This will be my 6th round of fieldwork in India, and also my longest. I plan to spend 11 weeks at a village school near Mysore to field test our cellphone software prototypes. We also plan to engage in another round of participatory design with the rural students, and this time, we hope to get their teachers, and the broader village community such as their parents, involved. We are also going in search of indigenous knowledge, e.g. to understand the traditional Indian games that these kids play, in order to incorporate this knowledge into our game designs.

We have been planning this round of fieldwork since 2006 and formal preparations started in March 2007. I am so grateful to one of our team members, Siddharth Bhagwani, who arrived in Mysore a week ago to make sure that the accommodations, logistics, etc. are ready for the arrival of the rest of the team. In fact, many of my team members are among the most capable students who have ever accompanied me to India. But the task ahead is also the toughest that I have ever embarked on. I hope that all I have learned in the last 6 years of graduate school is enough.

I have to go now. I will be back online again when I am in India and have Internet access.

Wish us good luck!

MILLEE experiences from a former undergrad

2007-05-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, my name is Maksim and I am a former undergraduate member of Matt Kam's MILLEE project. I was in the group from January to December 2006, and I'll share in this entry an account of a few of my experiences in the group as well as a few general ideas that I learned through my involvement. Not only is MILLEE moving forward in addressing a very relevant social problem, but it also gives undergraduate students many opportunities to contribute and learn in an ambitious Human-Computer Interaction research group. I hope to highlight this great attention to undergraduate students.

I originally joined the group at the beginning of the Spring 2006 semester by answering a bulletin that called for undergraduate participants in the group. I had begun looking for a research group right before the start of the semester, and decided that the MILLEE group was a great opportunity.

Like many multidisciplinary research projects, MILLEE has an interesting and practical technological side (working with Windows Mobile smartphones). However, what I felt differentiated MILLEE from many other groups is that it has a very strong social aspect to the project as well - designing a framework for English learning among low-income students in India.

As it turned out eventually, the social aspect was the side that I was exposed to more than the technological side. The biggest concept that I immediately realized about performing HCI research in the MILLEE group is that it involves a lot of work and preparation! In fact, the technological knowledge/programming side is critical but makes up less than half of the research process.

Consider my first semester's work in the group, characterized as only a warm-up exercise - the undergraduate participants were split into pairs and were challenged to think of a computer game that teaches some subset of the English language. One additional constraint was that this game had to be relevant and interesting to low-income learners in India. This was harder than it seemed and not just about fun and games - I learned, for example, that supermarkets are rare in some developing regions.

In addition, I had some catching up to do because most people in the group had some connection to India, whether from their parents or through their visits to the country, while I had no knowledge aside from what you would find in an encyclopedia article about India. It may appear fun and trivial to create a computer game storyline - my partner and I were very excited to mold our game as a cross between Super Mario and Prince of Persia for example - but it was also pointed out to us that the game not only had to be fun and relevant to children, but that it also had to apply some pedagogical techniques to help in learning the material.

Matt Kam did an analysis of many existing educational computer games and commercial language learning packages, and summarized the main teaching techniques of these software in the form of "design patterns" and asked the subgroups to integrate some of these patterns in their game design. The whole semester's work was really just a warm-up exercise for the next semester, but already shows that the work done in MILLEE is not only about fun and games and not just about doing something "cool."

Not only is the MILLEE project something different and new, it also has to work for the chosen user group. This requires lots of preparation in studying the way of life of urban slums/rural Indian children through field research as well as studying good approaches for teaching and motivating students from the current research literature. Finally, it has to make sense financially in terms of having a viable business model or adoption plan - the cost of smartphones is still prohibitive to many families in India, especially those of urban slums and rural areas.

Despite these three barriers and restrictions - effective teaching strategies, fun and relevance to users, and financial sense - MILLEE has started to make some positive progress and is moving forward in its goal to make the learning of English as a Second Language via computer games more accessible for underserved Indian children.

During my time in the group, the graduate student researchers have been very supportive in helping the undergraduate researchers grow as researchers. I have gotten lots of great advice about the research process, graduate student life, and the HCI field. Matthew Kam also offered to hold reading group sessions to develop critical reading skills in reading research papers that are relevant to the group's work. Finally, he was available for meeting anytime to discuss progress and offer advice. Matt even went as far as offering to help me better understand the weekly readings in CS260, which was the graduate level HCI class at Berkeley when I signed up for it in my last semester (unfortunately I felt overwhelmed in the class and decided to drop it in the second week of the semester).

The great thing about MILLEE is that if an undergraduate researcher shows that he or she can handle the work and produce good results, then their role in the group will increase to challenge and grow them as HCI researchers. Although for several reasons (mostly due to class work load, a part-time job, and no goals to get a Ph.D.) I could not take on as much of a role in the software development or social aspects of the research project as I would have wanted, I very much appreciate and thank all the attention that the Matt and the other graduate students in the group and the Berkeley Institute of Design had given me. Matt has mentored many talented undergraduate researchers who have gone on to be successful in their chosen endeavors.

My time in MILLEE has been very interesting and valuable, even if it wasn't what I had initially expected when I sent Matt an email and asked if I could join the group. As an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major, I was primarily excited to write code for educational computer games on smartphones. It turned out that I didn't write even one line of code over my two semesters, but that did not mean I didn't enjoy my time in the group or thought that it was a waste of time. I got to see some of the research process up close in a unique HCI research group. I also learned that writing software is but one portion of the actual work required to achieve the goals of a research group.

In conclusion, I saw the huge demand for English as a Second Language in India and was intrigued by Matt's vision of the cellphone eventually becoming a vehicle for making English learning more accessible anytime, anywhere in India and other developing countries. Overall, I think this group gives a great opportunity for undergraduates to participate in a very socially-relevant HCI project. This project has the potential to bring lots of positive impact to the lives of urban slums and rural Indian children through the power of educational computer games. I would like to thank the group for giving me the opportunity to get a "front-seat" view of HCI research as well as for allowing me to assist in some of the group tasks. I wish the group luck this summer during their field work in Mysore, India!

Hi!

2007-05-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for joining us! Matt Kam and I (Dave Nguyen) are heading to Mysore, India to do some field work with primary school children. This work is to support the MILLEE project which is trying to develop mobile technology to support literacy to children in developing regions.

The MILLEE project is a project at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). Our group is composed of grad students from the Technology and Infrastructure of Emerging Regions (TIER) group and the Berkeley Institute of Design (BiD). Filling out the rest of our team of 12, we also have several students from India and the London School of Economics joining us.

We're hoping that this blog provides a good venue for everyone to keep up with the work we're doing as well as provide us with a nice diary of observations. If anyone has ANY comments or questions on the work we're doing and the observations we have made, we would love to hear from you!

MILLEE Team.