Rachel Heavner

In an effort to explore innovative ways to provide teachers with helpful and relevant materials to improve their English proficiency and teaching techniques, this research paper examines the potential use of the Worldreader Mobile phone application to provide Tanzanian teachers with language resources. As the literature review will show, the widespread potential for the use of mobile phones across Tanzania and more particularly for educational purposes, provides a sound basis for further expansion of the Worldreader Mobile application. The exploratory research conducted shows that the integration of visual materials, textbooks, activity sheets, and dictionaries into the Worldreader Mobile database would be well received by Tanzanian teachers to support their teaching.

Mobile technologies have become more normalized for data collection, education for displaced communities and interventions at a distance. Yet, questions remain around how to effectively bring these technology interventions from pilot efforts to broad scale adoption. Worldreader is demonstrating operational success in its digital reading programs in Kenya. In 2014, Worldreader, in partnership with the Kenyan National Library Service (knls), launched its digital reading program, called LEAP (Libraries E-reading Activities Partnership) in eight libraries. By December 2017, LEAP had successfully scaled to all 61 public libraries in the country. This paper outlines five key insights for moving from pilot to country-level scale: 1. Start slow, start smart 2. Leverage economies of scale 3. Step by step: Implement in phases 4. Manage change: Creating a unified vision of success 5. Implement sustainability from the start. These learnings can inform others leveraging technology to improve edu...

In pursuit of inclusive and quality education opportunities for all, this paper highlights the importance of access to books and the need for a format neutral approach to reading programs in the Global South. Format neutrality allows for the provision of books in both analog (paper) and digital formats. In this paper we highlight the ways in which a variety of organizations are using the digital reading ecosystem to contribute towards education for all. We highlight four areas that we believe support a greater embrace of technology: the dramatic increase in the availability of local content, the overall cost effectiveness of digital reading programs, improved access to reader data, and accessibility for the print disabled. The paper also identifies areas where costs are likely to drop even further in the years to come due to market forces. Finally, we offer recommendations for the international education community to leverage digital formats alongside print materials in reading programs to promote greater scale and cost effectiveness.