Reading in the mobile era

Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. Summary Millions of people do not read for one reason: they do not have access to text. But today mobile phones and cellular networks are transforming a scarce resource into an abundant one. Drawing on the analysis of over 4,000 surveys collected in seven developing countries and corresponding qualitative interviews, this report paints the most detailed picture to date of who reads books and stories on mobile devices and why. The findings illuminate, for the first time, the habits, beliefs and profiles of mobile readers. This information points to strategies to expand mobile reading and, by extension, the educational, social and economic benefits associated with increased reading. Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. This report shows how

DROUGHT EARLY WARNING SYSTEM AND PREPARATION OF PLANTING PATTERN OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGES IN CONNECTION WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY-BASED

In developing countries, drought due to natural disasters such as flood result in massive loss of farming practices. Warning communities of the incoming flood provides an effective solution to this by giving people sufficient time to prepare and protect their crop pattern and farm activities. However, the range of early warning system solutions introduces a tangle of conflicting requirements including cost and reliability, and creates several interesting problems from factors as diverse as technological, social, and political. The complexity of these systems and need for autonomy within the context of a developing country while remaining maintainable and accessible by nontechnical personnel provides a challenge not often solved within developed countries, much less the developing. After describing this problem, the paper discusses a proposed solution for the problem, initial experiments in implementing the solution, and lessons learned through that work. Keywords : Early warning system, drought, cropping pattern. mobile applications

e-ESAS: Evolution of a Participatory Design-based Solution for Breast Cancer (BC) Patients in Rural Bangladesh

Healthcare facility is scarce for rural women in the developing world. The situation is worse for patients who are suffering from diseases that require long-term feedback-oriented monitoring such as breast cancer. Lack of motivation to go to the health centers on patients’ side due to sociocultural barriers, financial restrictions and transportation hazards results in inadequate data for proper assessment. Fortunately, mobile phones have penetrated the masses even in rural communities of the developing countries. In this scenario, a mobile phone-based remote symptom monitoring system (RSMS) with inspirational videos can serve the purpose of both patients and doctors. Here, we present the findings of our field study conducted on 39 breast cancer patients in rural Bangladesh. Based on the results of extensive field studies, we have categorized the challenges faced by patients in different phases of the treatment process. As a solution, we have designed, developed and deployed e-ESAS—the first mobile-based RSMS in rural context. Along with the detail need assessment of such a system, we describe the evolution of e-ESAS and the deployment results. We have included the unique and useful design lessons that we learned as e-ESAS evolved through participatory design process. The findings show how e-ESAS addresses several challenges faced by patients and doctors and positively impact their lives

A MOBILE PHONE-BASED ICT SOLUTION FOR REPORTING AND TRACKING UNREPORTED REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROBLEMS IN THE OUTLIER COMMUNITIES OF KERALA, INDIA.

Many global, national, and regional initiatives are in place to improve the health system and health status of people living in rural areas. The goal of providing universal, equitable and affordable health care has a profound place in the national agenda of many developing countries. With an increasing percentage of populace in the developing countries now relying on mobile phone for managing the activities of their daily lives, there are great potentials in relying on this technology to monitor the health issues among the under-served population. In this research, we describe a health information system, KHID that is developed to facilitate the reporting of reproductive health issues among the women living in slum communities in the State of Kerala, India. The Information Communication and Technology (ICT) solution proposed in this research aims to mitigate the gaps in symptom reporting and tracking, a major deficient that constraints the reach of health care to those living in the low-income low-resource communities in developing countries

Learning with Mobiles. A Developing Country Perspective on Mobile Technologies use in Learning for Livelihood Support

Paper VI is excluded from the dissertation until it will be published.This doctoral thesis focuses on understanding the role of mobile technologies as tools to enhance learning for livelihood support. To date, the body of knowledge on the use of mobile technologies for development is growing, as mobiles avail a chance for many developing countries’ communities to improve their economic and social well-being. The current integration of mobile technologies for development has to a large extent focused on information dissemination, with less emphasis on how mobiles offer learning spaces to propel development. Yet, mobile technologies offer possibilities for access to learning for communities in resource constrained settings. Dedicated studies in pedagogical integration of mobile technologies in teaching and learning mainly focus on formal and informal learning classroom-related activities, neglecting the substantial majority like smallholder farmers who constitute the biggest percentage in many rural areas.publishedVersio

Defining Archetypes and Requirements for mHealth Interventions in Rural Kenya: An Investigation in Collaboration with CURAFA™

Designing and implementing successful mobile health (mHealth) applications is always challenging, but even more so in countries and communities in rural areas where the target population have access to limited resources. While some mHealth initiatives have shown success and potential in Kenya, still too many fail. One of the reasons for failure is the limited understanding of the health-seeking behavior and social-technological context of the rural Kenyan population. This study aims to use a mixed-method approach to define archetypes of rural Kenyan patients and translate them into requirements which can guide the design and implementation of user-centric mHealth interventions in rural Kenya. With this study, we show how practitioners can leverage existing organizational and social structures in developing countries to develop mobile health applications tailored to patients’ needs

Multi-stakeholder assessment of a Mobile and Temporarily Interconnected Systems prototype: People-First Tourism

While tourism has often been proposed as a mechanism for equitable and sustainable development in developing countries, most destination communities remain relegated to the role of passive “tourees” who are unable to participate in economic opportunities often controlled by tourism retail monopolies. Guided by information systems (IS) research on mobile and temporarily interconnected systems (MTIS), this work examines the ubiquitous nature of information services for users on the move. That is, users that are largely dependent on mobile telephones and temporary tourism services. Stakeholder interviews included local South African micro-entrepreneurs from under-resourced rural and peri-urban communities and other national and regional stakeholders. The findings informed the development and early implementation of a web marketplace for tourism micro-entrepreneurs (i.e., www.peoplefirsttourism.com) that bridges hyper-connected consumers with under-resourced micro-entrepreneurs who use simple mobile phones. Further, this study builds on interdisciplinary research to enrich discussions about ICT for Development (ICT4D)

The malaria system microApp: A new, mobile device-based tool for malaria diagnosis

Background: Malaria is a public health problem that affects remote areas worldwide. Climate change has contributed to the problem by allowing for the survival of Anopheles in previously uninhabited areas. As such, several groups have made developing news systems for the automated diagnosis of malaria a priority. Objective: The objective of this study was to develop a new, automated, mobile device-based diagnostic system for malaria. The system uses Giemsa-stained peripheral blood samples combined with light microscopy to identify the Plasmodium falciparum species in the ring stage of development. Methods: The system uses image processing and artificial intelligence techniques as well as a known face detection algorithm to identify Plasmodium parasites. The algorithm is based on integral image and haar-like features concepts, and makes use of weak classifiers with adaptive boosting learning. The search scope of the learning algorithm is reduced in the preprocessing step by removing the background around blood cells. Results: As a proof of concept experiment, the tool was used on 555 malaria-positive and 777 malaria-negative previously-made slides. The accuracy of the system was, on average, 91%, meaning that for every 100 parasite-infected samples, 91 were identified correctly. Conclusions: Accessibility barriers of low-resource countries can be addressed with low-cost diagnostic tools. Our system, developed for mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets), addresses this by enabling access to health centers in remote communities, and importantly, not depending on extensive malaria expertise or expensive diagnostic detection equipment.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Analyzing User Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Clinical Settings through Point-of-Care Mobile Applications

The advent of mobile phones has led to global connectivity surpassing any global conversation previously known. However, despite having access to this global network through mobile devices and ever expanding internet access, many developing countries still lack basic medical technology. In many resource-poor medical settings, existing monitors used to process and display medical data received from various sensors (temperature, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) are either missing or unreliable. Furthermore, these devices are rarely designed with an interface appropriate for the needs of the end user. Additionally, the use of mobile apps for medical purposes is increasing in developing nations. However, very little structure exists to properly evaluate the usability and potential of specific medical apps. My project aims to provide an alternative to traditional monitoring systems by creating a mobile application for smartphones and tablets that serves to display patient vital signs through a modality that is easily learned and understood by the targeted end user. My project proposes to utilize current mobile phone technology available in rural, developing communities, as well as clinical settings in developed countries, to process and display patient vital signs for diagnostic and point of care purposes. The focus of this study was the experimental analysis of the mobile application user interfaces to promote widespread acceptance and continuous use of the technology for more consistent recording of patient vital signs. Three user interfaces were created for both smartphone and tablet devices and tested at two locations: Oaxaca, Mexico and Clemson, SC. These interfaces were systematically reviewed by measuring potential end users\u27 response to the technology following their direct interaction with the mobile applications. User experience was assessed using a survey that evaluated layout and function of the applications. Statistical analysis of the survey results revealed a variety of correlations between interface design and usability. It was also determined that the technology has the potential for widespread, global implementation. However, further studies integrating the mobile sensors into the interface design should be performed to determine the full potential of the technology