Low cost tablet enhanced pedagogy for early grade reading: Indian context

In our research we have designed pedagogy for Low Cost Tablets (LCT) to enhance early grade reading in multi-grade classrooms in rural areas of India. The use of LCT helps meet the challenge of education in areas where there is a lack of qualified tutors and shortage of computing resources. The program has been implemented with (N=38) students in tribal areas of Kerala. Reading was the most common problem with the primary children, while mathematics and reading comprehension was a major challenge for children who were in middle school. Our pilot study students were able to learn faster on their own without requiring formal training due to the ease of use and the touch based interface of LCT, and they liked the idea of repeating lessons as many times as they wished. Teachers were trained in the use of LCT for assessment and early intervention and effective ways to bring up the reading skills of the students. Our findings confirm that LCT is powerful motivator in education and has a huge potential to address the issue of school dropouts. Our proposed pedagogy for LCT and findings will be of interest to educational policy makers who are looking at LCT options such as Aakash tablets to improve literacy levels among early grade learners.