Using Handheld Mobile System to Address Illiteracy

(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 13, No. 6, June 2015 Using Handheld Mobile System To Address Illiteracy M. Samir Abou El-Seoud AbdelGhani Karkar Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science The British University in Egypt – BUE Cairo, Egypt samir.elseoud@bue.edu.eg Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering Qatar University Doha, Qatar a.karkar@qu.edu.qa Amal Dandashi Islam Taj-Eddin Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering Qatar University Doha, Qatar amaldandashi@gmail.com Academic Researcher and Computer Science Specialist, Cairo, Egypt islam_t@hotmail.com Jihad Al Ja’am Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering Qatar University Doha, Qatar jaam@qu.edu.qa In Egypt, the total number of illiterate people aged 10 years or more has exceeded 16 million in 2012, according to the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) [7]. According to [8], there exist 112.81 mobile phones per 100 Egyptian citizens. Abstract—Handheld device systems have been used as tools for teaching people with special needs due to cognitive function enhancement by utility of multimedia, attractive graphics and user-friendly navigation. Can a handheld device system, such as cellular phone, be used for teaching illiterate people? This paper explores and exploits the possibility of the development of an educational mobile system to help the illiterate people in Egypt. The flexible business model of mobile phone has proved to be viable particularly in developing countries. Despite infrastructural shortcomings, high cost of ownership, limited power available for charging devices, mobile devices had been widely penetrated the society at all levels [2]. Index Terms—Graphical User Interface; Audio; Graphics; Video, Wireless; Mobile System; Arabic alphabet; Arabic speaking illiterate people; illiteracy. The nature of current technological advances in the mobile phones domain generally suggests the future decrease of the cost of smart phones for customers in general. That includes the customers of developing countries. Recently, in the Egyptian market, there are cheap Chinese versions of Android based devices. In the future, it is expected to become more affordable to lower income segments. I. INTRODUCTION Literacy can be defined in many ways. The U.N. defines a literate person as someone who can “…with understanding, both read and write a short simple statement in his or her everyday life” [19]. Learning the alphabetic letters could be more difficult than numbers for illiterate people [14]. With the international effort to eliminate illiteracy, the problems related to inequalities have deepened. For instance, in Egypt, children of different social backgrounds do not have equal opportunities to learn and reap benefits. Furthermore, they are trapped and cannot get out of the vicious circle of poverty. Although the number of illiterate people around the world is estimated to be 800 million, they still can use the mobile appropriately. For the best knowledge of the authors, little research has been done to understand the reasons behind that. Most of them are from developing countries and females represent a high percentage of the 800 million [2]. Egypt has recognized that illiteracy is one of its core pillars to develop. Despite the effort that has been done in past decades under different governments, education remains a challenge. Even though the percentage of illiteracy is decreasing, the number of people struggling to 77 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 13, No. 6, June 2015 TABLE I. read and write is increasing. This is a sign or indication that there are a few issues regarding the implemented educational policies. One of these issues is the approach and the way they teach the students. Participants P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 In a previous work of [15][16], the authors proposed a system to teach deaf people using Cell phones technology. In this paper, the authors will expand and re-use their previous work of teaching deaf people into teaching the Arabic alphabet to Egyptian illiterate people. ILLITERATE PARTICIPANTS CHARACTERISTICS Experience level Novice Novice Novice Novice Novice Age group 21-34 35-65 12-20 21-34 35-65 Gender Male Female Female Male Female A. First Experiment The experiment will start with an introduction explaining what tasks needed to be performed by the participant. The tasks are: The authors found online products that teach Arabic alphabet to nonspeaking Arabic people [4][5][6]. To the best knowledge of the authors, they did not find studies centered on teaching the Arabic alphabet to Arabic speaking illiterate people using mobile systems. The authors realize that the problem of teaching the Arabic alphabet to Egyptian illiterate people should be divided into two steps:  First, dialing a specific number,  Next, talking for a few seconds,  Last, exit the call.  Gathering baseline data of how illiterates recognize and react with the mobile interface, The results of the tasks for the five participants, see table 1, are shown in figure 2. The results in figure 2 show the dialing and calling (i.e. talking) times in seconds for every participant plus the average. It is clear, from figure 2, that the dialing time is substantially greater.  Based on the information gathered from the previous step, a suggested system could be developed. The study will concentrate on the first past and will pave the ground for the second part in a sequel paper. II. DATA GATHERING The objective of this section is to gather baseline data about the effectiveness and the usability of the mobile interface. The two experiments are conducted using a Samsung device, running an Android operating system that contains the ePhone application; see figure 1. As authors mentioned at the introduction section, the target of this study is to gather baseline data of how illiterates recognize and react to the mobile interface. This empirical study involves five novice illiterate participants. All users have no previous background of using mobile phones. Some other empirical studies involve only seven novice participants [1]. For some empirical study investigations, the baseline data is more important than the number of participants. The baseline data will be used for further investigations that involve more participants. The profile of the five novice illiterate participants is shown in table 1. Figure 2. The results of the tasks for the five illiterate participants plus the average of the dialing time and calling (i.e. talking) time. After the participant finishes the experiment, a general feedback will be discussed with the participants. The general feedback discussion will focus on:  How well do participant read and understand icons?  Which icons were problematic and why?  What participant thinks of the overall performance of the application? B. Second Experiment The experiment will start with an introduction explaining what tasks needed to be performed by the participant. The tasks are:  First, start a game, Figure 1. Smart phone mobile numbers call interface 78 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500  Next, go through the levels until reaching the results, (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 13, No. 6, June 2015 TABLE III.  Last, start another round. TYPES OF ERRORS AND ITS MITIGATION FOR THE SECOND EXPERIMENT After the participant finishes the experiment, a general feedback will be discussed with the participants. The general feedback discussion will focus on:  How flexible is the navigation/usage of the developed application?  Does it satisfy the needs and requirements of the test subject?  Does it provide an understandable interface of minimal knowledge requirement? Type 1 Error Inefficient Click 2 Wrong Answer 3 Rapid Clicks Mitigation method the finger size of the participant are to be considered Installing a voice narrator that instructs the participants Adding a sound effect to their clicks to quickly adapt to the program Level Irritant Irritant Moderate C. General Feedback  What possible usability/understanding errors could arise from the test? The general feedback discussion, of both experiment 1 and experiment 2 with the five participants, shows that:  Are the test subjects able to go through the application from start to finish seamlessly? 1) Small icon confusion: The participants did not know where they should click on to create a new contact, after hesitating for a few seconds and searching for the icon due to its size, they finally identify the icon that will lead them to the new contact page. The results of the tasks for the five participants, see table 1, are shown in table 2, and table 3. The results in table 2 show the type of errors that every participant committed when performed a certain task. The type of error is described in table 3. 2) Multiple clicks: The participants clicked twice on the send button in order to send the message. The first time the participants pressed on the button while the screen keypad was opened. The participants attempted once more after closing the keypad.  How tolerable are these errors, and how can they be fixed in favor of higher usability? TABLE II. Participants P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 3) Recognition delay: The participants press on the image, thinking it is a button. However, they immediately realize what is it? Hence, they click on the actual call button. When participants were attempting on exiting the application, they took a while to recognize which icon performs such action. Since it is the only icon that has no a description. RESULTS OF THE SECOND EXPERIMENT Tasks Start The Game Playing The Game Reach Results Screen &Start Another Round Start The Game Playing The Game Reach Results Screen & Start Another Round Start The Game Playing The Game Reach Results Screen & Start Another Round Start The Game Playing The Game Reach Results Screen & Start Another Round Start The Game Playing The Game Reach Results Screen & Start Another Round Type of errors 0 3 2 Time of each interface (Approx.) 1 second(s) 4 second(s) 2 second(s) 0 0 0 1 second(s) 10 second(s) 3 second(s) 0 2 2 1 second(s) 3 second(s) 5 second(s) 4) Small icon recognition: Delay leading to hesitation. The icon made for creating a new contact is relatively small in comparison to other buttons. The participants invest quite some time to search for the icon in order to create a new contact. They are hesitating by going back and forth in the application page, in order to search for where the task should be performed? III. PROPOSED SYSTEM 0 0 0 1 second(s) 5 second(s) 2 second (s) 0 0 0 1 second(s) 6 second (s) 3 second(s) Users interact with mobile applications through different graphical user interface GUI components such as buttons, icons, or nested menus …etc. Controversial user interface (UI) topics include the issues of inclusion [18] or exclusion [3][10] of text labels. Moreover, they use drawings [9] instead of icons. Common UI components - the concept of soft-keys, vertical scrollbars, short text labels [11][12] and the concept of a focus in lists [20] – were described as hard to understand [2]. Chipchase’s work [13] shows that illiterate users could perform tasks such as turn on their phones and accept 79 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 13, No. 6, June 2015 incoming calls, whereas dialing numbers to make outgoing calls proved difficult for some. However, simple tasks such as changing the clock or sending a message could be easy for some illiterate users by memorizing the steps. In that respect, it is important to understand the causes of all these problems while interacting with the mobile. We should take into consideration that the mobile devices will be rapidly penetrating the market of developing countries targeting the majority of population and could help support the education of illiterate people. 3) Game Keeper: which is responsible for reading the score achieved in the game and storing it in the database; 4) Performance Tracker: which is responsible for reading stored score information and displaying them according to the attempts made by the user; 5) Audio Player: which is responsible for playing suitable audio files related to the opened page, in addition to providing audio feedback to the user after playing the game? Without any loss of generality, from now on all snapshots of the mobile application will have audio interaction between the user and the mobile application, even if not explicitly mentioned. The participants in the experiment mainly faced critical errors which would either lead them to invest too much of their time in order to perform a particular task or even end up discarding the task. The time spent on each task exemplifies the delay that challenged participants face to perform a particular task. 6) Multimedia Generator: which takes as input Arabic text and utilizes Natural Language Processing techniques to classify the text and retrieve multimedia elements (i.e., images and videos) related to the text. To design an interface for illiterate Arabic speaking people, a number of changes need to be considered in the GUIs. It has been recommended to:  Avoid long text, i.e. minimization of text reliance.  Exposure to text in conjunction with audio  The developer should state underneath the symbol or using yellow tool tip text to explain what this particular button does. That condition is suitable more for barely educated than illiterate.  Excessive use of pictures, shapes, handwriting, special signs, and colors. Extremely value audio and graphic support in GUIs for illiterates  Increase the size of the icon and clarify what each icon is used for. Illiterate persons may not understand the symbol of the icon. The users were able to read and recognize nearly all icons, except the “create new contact” icon, which resulted in quite some delay time to the user. The problem behind that icon was that it was too small and did not have a statement of some sort stating what this icon does. Figure 3. System components (need to add component of multimedia generator) A. System Architecture The system is composed mainly of two parts: the application server that contains all mobile resources (e.g., pages, games, database, etc.) and the mobile application which sends queries to the server to load the required resource elements, as shown in figure 4.  Aim to use more recognizable icons instead of menus; the proposed system should require the least possible amount of memorization for the illiterate users. IV. DESIGN THE PROPOSED SYSTEM Based on the previous results of [14] and [17], a mobile application will be designed. The mobile application consists mainly of five components as shown in figure 3: 1) Page Loader: contains the list of games; 2) Data Keeper: This is the Game Engine. It has a score counter that counts the time, number of mistakes and the number of correct answers. The game also stores if the user has selected the correct answer from the first time; Figure 4. System architecture 80 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, B. Snapshots  Snapshot-1 When the mobile application is launched, the following main screen will be displayed which allows the user to access the basic buttons and listen to the recorded voice associated with them, as shown in figure 5. Figure 7. Snapshot-3  Snapshot-4 Various icons that have particular meaning will be displayed in the mobile application, if the user pressed and held any button for two seconds, a loading progress will appear on the button to play an explanation voice record which explains the usage of the button, as shown in figure 8. Figure 5. Snapshot-1  Snapshot-2 By clicking the icon of the boy playing football; on the top row in Snapshot 1, the screen shown in figure 6, will be displayed. The icon in the upper row can be clicked to go back to the previous screen. Figure 8. Snapshot-4  Snapshot-5 When the user enters the learning mode in the application, it will load the progress of the user stored in the mobile. The mobile application starts by reading available options by playing audio files and waits for the user to choose one: 1) study the Arabic numbers; 2) study the Arabic letters; 3) input Arabic text to retrieve multimedia elements and 4) play games to evaluate what the user had learned, as shown in figure 9.  Snapshot-3 Figure 6. Snapshot-2 When the user clicked the icon “possible” (Arabic: Momken), it is possible for him to click he icon “drink” (Arabic: Ashrab) located in the middle, therefore, a collection of drink flavors will be displayed to allow him to select the flavor he wants, as shown in figure 7. Figure 9. Snapshot-5 81 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,  Snapshot-6 Before starting the game, the user can watch an animated cartoon lesson to learn about the specified topic. Each lesson does not exceed three minutes duration to keep the user’s attention. Snapshot 5, shown in figure 10, shows a mathematic lesson to perform basic objects enumeration. A B Figure 12. Snapshot-8  Snapshot-9 The screens A and B, shown in figure 13, are pages used to teach the user Arabic letters. The application recite Arabic letters, as shown in screen A, then several examples are given for each letter, as shown in screen B. Figure 10. Snapshot-6  Snapshot-7 After watching the lesson, the user can play games related to the lesson for self evaluation. The following screens A and B , shown in figure 11, show two different game evaluation pages to evaluate what the user learned about the enumeration of objects. In screen A, the user is asked about selecting the appropriate number that is presented by the hand; in screen B, he is asked to sort numbers drawn on eggs in the right order. A A B Figure 13. Snapshot-9  Snapshot-10 The screens A and B, shown at figure 14, represents a game that evaluates the user through various questions in different styles about what had been learned about Arabic alphabetic letters. In screen A, the user is asked to select the image where its name starts with the presented letter. In screen B, the user is requested to connect the appropriate letter with its corresponding image that its name starts with the presented letters. B Figure 11. Snapshot-7  Snapshot-8 The following screens A and B, shown in figure 12, is another game pages to evaluate the user and what been learned about the order of the week days. In screen A, the user is asked to sort days by selecting the appropriate day written on the mushroom. In screen B, the user is required to see which day the boy is asking for, and select the appropriate day written on each leaf. A B Figure 14. Snapshot-10  Snapshot-11 After watching the adding process lesson, the user can play games related to that lesson for self evaluation, as 82 http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ ISSN 1947-5500 (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Vol. 13, No. 6, June 2015  Snapshot-14 After playing the game, feedback results will be displayed for the user in both written and audio forms as shown in figure 18. The score is divided into three fields: shown at figure 15. The user is asked to select the correct answer from the presented numbers. a) Completion time (in ms), b) Number of correct answers from first attempt, c) Number of wrong answers. Figure 15. Snapshot-11  Snapshot-12 In the snapshot 12, shown in figure 16, an animated cartoon lesson that teaches a lesson about week days. It gives full explanation how to pronounce days in order and how they are ordered. The lesson explains how days are sorted by constructing and connecting train parts in order according to the written day on each part. Figure 18. Snapshot-14 V. CONCLUSION A number of researches concurred that the current mobile phone user interface design is not highly recommended or suitable for illiterate individuals [14]. They found that utilizing audio and graphic support in user interfaces is highly valuable for the enhanced cognition and usage friendliness for illiterate people [14]. Figure 16. Snapshot-12 The study of the relation between illiterate, semi-literate people and their society in the context of using mobile phones is still at its beginning stages. The rapid technical development and the changing market of mobile phones certainly increase opportunities for illiterate individuals in terms of cognition and communication.  Snapshot -13 Snapshot 13, shown in figure 17, demonstrates an example of the feedback a user would get after entering Arabic text into the system that translates as, “A rabbit has brown or white fur. It eats carrots and moves around by jumping.” The use of enhanced GUI systems, complemented with multimedia support such as audio, image and video enhance the usage experience for people with literacy related challenges. In this study, the authors paved the ground for the proposed system to be investigated in a sequel paper. REFERENCES [1] [2] Figure 17. Snapshot-13 [3] [4] 83 A.G. Sutcliffe, M. Ennis and S.J. Watkinson, “Empirical studies of end-user information searching”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science 51(13), 1211–1231, 2000 H. Knoche, and J. 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