Design for Development - Recently Updated Pages

LOGO on the Famiclone / 6502

rhyre — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:12:38 CDT

TV Computer Team

ifanchiu — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:45:47 CDT

T E A M

The Educational TV-Computer project had significant advancements made at Amy Smith's International Development Design Summit at MIT. The team members at this month-long design summit were: Jesse Austin-Breneman, Miguel Chaves, George Fuchie, Bill McIver, Anuj Nanavati, and Derek Lomas.

C O R E T E A M :
Miguel Chaves - Hardware Develoment , Brazil Market Research
Jeremy Douglass - Community Development, History of 8-Bit Educational Games
George Fuchie -
William McIver -
Anuj Nanavati - Ethnographic Studies, Market Research
Derek Lomas - Project Coordinator
Daniel Rehn - Visual and Experience Design, Cultural Research
Nikki Truitt - Marketing Studies

A D V I S O R S :
Srinivas Sukumar
Mike Cole - Advise on Cognitive Studies of Educational Games
Rajesh Gupta - Advise on Chip Viability, Low-Power Ecosystem, CDMA integration

Dustin Raphael - Toolkits for content development

Cicero Silva - Brazil Content Development
Chris Head - Toolkit for Content Development, EPROM
Cameron Esfahani - Manufacturing Due Dilligence, Components Expert
Bryant Chou - Programming Toolset Research

Needed:
Wireless Data Integration Engineer
8-bit graphic designer
8-bit music designer
8-bit game author/engineer
Cognitive Scientist for conducting learning studies

Derek Lomas
Project Coordinator

Daniel Rehn
Visual and Experience Design, Cultural Research

Jeremy Douglass
Community Development, History of 8-Bit Educational Games

Chris Head
Toolkit for Content Development, EPROM

Nikki Truitt
Marketing Studies

Bryant Chou
Programming Toolset Research

Cameron Esfahani
Manufacturing Due Dilligence, Components Expert

Dustin Raphel
Toolkits for content development

Eva Shon
2nd year grad student in Computer Science

Advisors

Srinivas Sukumar Producer	Mike Cole Advise on Cognitive Studies of Educational Games
Rajesh Gupta Advise on Chip Viability, Low-Power Ecosystem, CDMA integration	Mark Tovey Mass collaboration strategy, 8-bit programming and history

Srishti:
Prayas
Arun
Zack

Market Contact

Dr PC Jr

jeremydouglass — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:51:38 CDT

"The Doctor PC Junior was a game system in China and Hong Kong that was produced in the 1990s by the now-defunct Bung Enterprises. It is essentially a Famicom clone with a built-in disk drive; however, it was designed as a learning tool for children and an introduction into the world of BASIC and LOGO programming."
http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/drpcjr/dev1.html

[this site contains some related resources on technical information, BIOS, support patches etc. -- although it does not appear to have anything that contains the actual LOGO image]

http://mypage.direct.ca/c/ccovell/nesdev.html

Watch the Video Commercials!
http://www.crazygear.net/?p=67

http://www.robwebb.clara.co.uk/backup/bung/bungdpcjr.html

Lots of resources here:
http://mypage.direct.ca/c/ccovell/dev4.html

Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bung_Enterprises

Internet Archive site from 1997
http://web.archive.org/web/19971018201728/http://www.bung.com.hk/

This is the only source we've been able to find of LOGO running (perhaps) on a Famiclone-style 6502.

public wiki

DerekLomas — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:03:34 CST

Design for Development

Designing Technologies for Developing Economies

Case Studies of Technologies for Development
Website for 2008 course: Design for Development
taught by Derek Lomas at UC San Diego

P R O J E C T S

	Educational TV Computer This is a collaborative effort to develop effective educational software for 10 dollar 8-bit "TV computers." We believe that these existing computers could serve as a platform for locally-relevant, effective educational software for middle income families, particularly in developing economies.
	Remotely Taught 'Design for Development' Course This course was taught remotely from India to students at UC San Diego in 2008. Students were introduced to issues facing developing economies and design methodologies for addressing these issues. Weekly guest lecturers from India provided first-hand information. Several student prototypes were developed, and tested.

M O B I L E P H O N E A P P L I C A T I O N S

- IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Interfaces
  - Mobilization of Labor: Mobile Job Listings
  - Mobile Surveys
  - Voice-Lists
  - Anti-Corruption Line
  - Language Learning
  - Translation Call Centers
- Mobile Social Networking
Educational Applications
The Phrase Trainer
Language Learning
Standardized Test Practice

P O W E R G E N E R A T I O N

Street Computers: PCO as 'Public Computer Office'?
Evolving Home Phones into Internet Terminals
Green Buildings
Ecotourism -
- Help design an eco-friendly beach resort in Goa

Reciprocal Technologies

Issue Areas:

Reciprocal Technology Flow
Participatory Design
ICT4D
Corruption
Health Care
Over-Population
Rural Migration
Pollution
Inadequate Infrastructure
Unplanned growth and Slums
Informal Housing
Global Warming
Loss of resources due to overuse (deforestation)
Cultural barriers to change
Aids, Malaria and other disease
Unemployment
Insufficient Education
Insufficient Leisure Time
Lack of Financial Support for Arts and Research
Linguistic Diversity/lack of world language
(Internet is mostly in English)

Potential Partners

anujIDDS — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:35:12 CDT

Meeting Notes

anujIDDS — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:20:58 CDT

September 11, 2008

September 11, 2008

anujIDDS — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:19:50 CDT

Tasks:
* Wiki Page on Funding Opportunities
http://design4dev.wetpaint.com/page/funding+opportunities
(Please add what you know, Bill and Miguel)

* Find Standardized Test or Curriculum material for 6th grade students in India, Ghana, and Brazil (Focus on Math Skills, but try to find entire test)
India - Anuj
Brazil - Miguel
Ghana - Bill
Soft Deadline: September 18, 1 week from now

* Develop Interaction Design and Specifications for a good math learning game that can be programmed for the TVC
Derek and Anuj
Deadline: Sept 25

* Write Business Plan for Brazil Market
Miguel
Deadline: November 1

* Find out difficulty, cost, and minimum order quantity for building cartridges based upon our ROMs
Derek
Deadline: Sept 25

Soft Targets:
* Build open-source programming community... discuss programming platforms... distribute programming environment and toolset
* Plan outcomes for field distribution of TVC: How will we benefit from doing this? What questions do we need to ask? What is the method or procedure that should be followed?

Meeting Review:
Today we discussed the relationship between non-profit and for-profit playpower. Miguel discussed his plans for distribution and market research in brazil with ttp://www.itsbrasil.org.br/ . We discussed the imporatance of focusing on building content for the existing TVC platform.

As a plan for content production, we discused: 1. identifying important skills that are tested n standardized tests in target market (ghana, india, brazil) 2. identify skill training games that address those skills 3. build a cartridge that contains these skill training games 4. enable for-profit distribution of branded TVCs containing this cartridge

Announcement:
Derek is presenting a paper about playpower and TVCs at the Meaningful Play conference. He wishes to publish several other papers as well.

Programming in C for NES

feriodice — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:40:57 CDT

How to compile and test a NES C program

===================================================================

First of all, you need to install some basic software, they are:

Jnes - NES emulator (download at http://jabosoft.com/?categoryid=3 )

C text editor - you can choose anyone

cc65 - C compiler for 6502 microcontroller that has extended NES support (download at www.cc65.org, but be carefull to download the NES version)

1) write your C code on the editor. The famous Hello World application code should be something like this:

#include <conio.h>

int main (void)

{

clrscr();

cprintf("hello world");

while(1)

{

}

Save this as test.c, for example.

2) Use de cc65 to compile your code by the following command line:

cc65 -t nes test.c (the -t parameter is mandatory to make the target system set to NES)

After that, an assembly file test.s would be generated on the same path. Run the following command:

ca65 -t nes test.s (this will generate the object file that will be needed for the linker)

Run the linker command:

ld65 -t nes test.o nes.o nes.lib atmos.lib -o test.nes

The linker will generate the .nes file that can be loaded on the Jnes emulator.

funding opportunities

anujIDDS — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:11:10 CDT

MacArthur Foundation
http://www.dmlcompetition.net/
Digital Media and Learning Competition
Participatory Learning Theme
Deadline October 15

Intel's INSPIRE*EMPOWER Challenge

http://www.intelchallenge.com/

Intel's INSPIRE*EMPOWER Challenge is calling for the best technology

solutions to address four areas of global need - education, healthcare,

economic development, and the environment. The contest will award seed

funding of $100,000 USD to one winner in each category.

Google.org - Inform and Power

http://google.org/projects.html

Google.org is giving grants for in education sector in developing countries, especially in India.

Right now they only accept grants through reference and application is not open to public. We can

apply for this if we can find a reference to introduce our project to Google.

IDDS Grants

Direct Fundraising Campaign

Review of Computer Aided Learning

DerekLomas — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:15:25 CDT

Several groups have investigated the efficacy and design of computer-aided learning software for use in education programs in developing countries.

The Poverty Action Lab
Investigated the use of Computer Aided Learning Software to teach math within 100 Schools within India, 2003. Used both off-the-shelf math games and developed games with Mumbai partner Media-Pro. "The computer-assisted learning program was also very effective, increasing math scores by 0.36 standard deviations the ﬁrst year, and by 0.54 standard deviation the second year. "
View Web Page
Read Paper

Leigh Linden also investigated whether Computer-Aided Learning was most effective when it supplemented teachers or replaced them, in a developmental context. He found that supplemental use was far more effective, especially for underachieving and older students.
http://www.columbia.edu/~ll2240/Gyan_Shala_CAL_2008-06-03.pdf

MILLEE
Matthew Kam and MILLEE have done incredible work to develop learning games for mobile phones in developing countries. They have published numerous papers about their iterative game design process.
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~mattkam/millee/

PLATO
PLATO is one of the largest computer-aided instruction software suites in the USA. They have a set of software that runs on the Playstation Portable (PSP)
http://www.plato.com/Elementary-Solutions/Early-Reading/PLATO-Achieve-Now-on-PSP.aspx

Our primary goal as an organization is to construct a full development process for the creation of new content (games and software) on the low-cost TV-Computer. The real value of educational computers is found in the design of the software, not the hardware. Many different educational games were developed in the 1980s and early 1990s for the Apple II, NES, and other 8-bit systems. We can review the history and efficacy of these games as models for the types of games appropriate for the TV-Computer. Independently, it is important to identify the skills that are important to socio-economic success within the specific contexts of our target market.

Skills for Success (in Context)
Surveying existing learning games for the Nintendo and Apple II

Video Demonstrations

New Learning Games on the TV-C: End-to-End Development Process
1. Development processes for games in general
2. Development process (for Nintendo specifically) (Jesse)
3. Culturally Appropriate Contextual Design Process for Learning Games

TV Computer

DerekLomas — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:11:01 CDT

Playpower.org is the homepage of the TV-Computer Project

This wiki serves as a space to document and describe our work. Welcome!

Funding opportunities

About Playpower.org
8-bit Learning Games for Radically Affordable Computers

A Global Problem
Millions of children around the world are unable to afford even basic education. This dampens economic growth, reduces political freedom, increases disease, and propagates ignorance and war. Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) is one solution that can enhance educational opportunities worldwide. But even the cheapest modern computers cost over $200, which are unaffordable to the billions of people around the world who could most benefit from CAL.

An 8-Bit Solution
Playpower.org is using a 25 year old computer chip technology (currently in production for video games) as the basis for an ultra-affordable educational computer. What the press has described as "the $12 computer," is a keyboard, mouse, and processor that connects to a TV screen and takes 1980's era 8-bit Nintendo cartridges. Playpower's goal is to discover and develop effective learning games for these $12 computers, games that help build the basic skills that can dramatically enhance a person's economic opportunities. We've found that in countries like Ghana, even learning to type can mean the difference between making a $1 per day to a $1 per hour. And a child who learns computer programming skills, from any background and in any country, stands to have a world of opportunities available to them.Our initial research shows that an 8-bit computer is powerful enough to be engaging and effective at building basic skills in reading, writing, mathematics, science and other subjects like computer programming. With clever puzzles, traditional video games, and text-based simulations, 8-bit computers can even teach skills like creative problem solving, critical thinking, logic, and entrepreneurship. So let's go 8-bit!

Who we are:
Playpower.org is a non-profit organization composed of individuals from India, Ghana, Brazil, Canada and the USA. Our largest working group is based in San Diego, at the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology, at UC San Diego. Playpower began at MIT, during the International Development Design Summit (IDDS) in the summer of 2008. Click here to see our team. More about the $12

Computer:
The Playpower platform is based on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a 25 year old technology that is now largely in the public domain (since hardware patents expire after 20 years). Dozens of manufacturers currently produce clones of the NES that come with a mouse, game controllers and a full keyboard. To see the full specifications of the platform, please click here: [link]
These computers are commonly packaged with educational content such as BASIC programming, typing games, math games, and english language learning games. Cartridges may contain hundreds of software titles, and plug directly into the keyboard (which contains the processor and video card).

One of the major advantages of this platform is that it uses a TV as a screen. This dramatically reduces costs for families that already own a TV. Television sets are surprisingly common in countries like India, where more than half of the population owns a set (even though 2/3 of the country lives on less than a $1 per day (ref)). Using a TV for learning games also creates the potential for social learning experiences, centered around groups of friends and family.

Why?
At Playpower.org, we believe that education is vitally important for a prosperous and peaceful global society. Computer-aided learning holds a great deal of promise as a supplement to traditional teacher-based education. In many countries, public schools are in a very poor state--in India, researchers have found that the teacher attendence rate averages at 75%--meaning that public school teachers often don't even show up to school! Families are forced to pay for public schools or tutors, but this is often beyond the reach of many families. While great effort has been put into improving public schools, it is an effort that takes enormous amounts of funding and often, the schools have been resistant to change. Computer aided learning shows such promise as supplemental education because it can be scaled more effectively than training good teachers. Because there is already such a significant market for supplemental education, we simply hope to introduce a better product that can help parents ensure their children receives quality instruction.

Affordable, educational computers could provide significant value to millions of people around the world who currently have insufficient access to education. For instance, in Ghana, a relatively prosperous african nation, only 10% of 6th graders can perform basic math. In India, ... In many countries around the world (including the USA), public schools are not adequately educating their students. Market solutions can scale rapidly... and even for families making less than $5 a day can afford a $12 computer.

Research on the $12 TV Computer Project - International Development Design Summit 2008

Team:
1. Jesse Austin-Breneman: ACCA, Cusco, Peru
2. Miguel Chaves dos Santos: Engenheiros Sem Fronteiras – Brasil, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo. E-mail: miguelcs.email@gmail.com
3. Rev. George Fuachie: Kintampo North District, Ghana. E-mail: revgeorge1955@yahoo.com
4. Derek Lomas: University of California, San Diego. E-mail: dereklomas@gmail.com
5. William McIver, Jr.: National Research Council of Canada and Faculty of Computer Science, University of New Brunswick. E-mail: wmciver@acm.org
6. Anuj Nanavati: NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, California. E-mail: ananavati@gmail.com

- The contact for the project report is William McIver, Jr. (mciver@acm.org).
- Updated versions of the project report will be made available via http://www.appropedia.org/IDDS and http://design4dev.wetpaint.com/page/TV+Computer .
- General correspondence about this project can be sent to tvc.idds08@gmail.com .

Formerly, the Educational Home Computing Initiative

History of Home Computing

DerekLomas — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:57:51 CDT

The 6502 and the z80 were the two most important chips that launched the home computer revolution in the 1980s.

The TRS80 was the first computer for Daphne Koller, Stanford AI researcher, and MacArthur Genius grantee. NYT Article
http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc1.html

Educational Home Computing Initiative

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:10:30 CDT

Educational Home Computing Initiative:
Video games for global development?

O V E R V I E W
The Educational Home Computer Initiative (eHCI) is organizing the development and deployment of educational software for highly affordable computers that connect to a family's television set. These 8-bit systems are currently available in China and India for less than $12. These computers are sold with a fully functional keyboard, mouse, and game controllers, and hundreds of cartridge-based programs. We are exploring the possibility of using 8-bit computers as a platform for locally-relevant, effective educational software for middle income families, particularly in developing economies.

W H Y ?
The price of TV computers (~$12) is far more accessible to the middle classes of developing countries than traditional PCs (>$300). India, for instance, has a burgeoning middle class but a per capita income of less than $1000 USD. Nevertheless, TV penetration in India has now reached 50% of all households, which not only provides a platform for TV-computers but also potentiates a demand for more interactive media experiences. The interactivity offered by 8 bit platforms may seem limited in comparison to modern computers, but keep in mind that millions of first-world consumers bought and loved Nintento NES only a decade and a half ago. By combining games with educational content, 8-bit TV computers can be highly appealing to both children and parents. Many families will also collectively benefit from a shared computer experience (around a TV) than the individuated experience of a laptop or PC.

I N T R O
A couple of us were walking down the streets of Bangalore in March 2008, and saw an 'educational' tv game set being sold for rs550 (about $14). It came with a keyboard, game controllers and two game cartridges. One cartridge claimed to contain "9,999,999 games in 1"and the other taught typing... and 48 other skills. We were skeptical, and bargained, and ended up walking away with rs500 ($12.50) educational computer. Turns out it actually worked. It's a real computer.

One major question is: What should we try to teach to students in developing contexts?

reviews of existing educational software

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:02:15 CDT

8-bit Educational Games:
Lemonade Stand - This game teaches basic economic theories by having players make business decisions. Fun and classic!
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing - This is one of the best franchises for computer-aided learning of typing skills. Versions were made for the Apple IIgs
Oregon Trail - One of the best educational games ever made
Rocky's Boots - This game required players to construct mechanical logic gates, so that objects would be arranged correctly on a conveyor belt
Mario is Missing! - This game attempted to teach geography using Mario-themed subplots, but was not very well regarded
Number Munchers - Learning factors... a pretty fun game, and very simple. Stimulates automatic thinking about factors...

Contemporary Games:
Learning Planet - a web-based collection of educational games, highly organized
Leapfrog Games
Mathblaster

Reviews of ATARI 2600 Educational Games

Games and Education

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:58:26 CDT

Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gee, J. P. (2007). Learning and games. The John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning, , 21-40.

Miracle Piano, and the Nintendo-based Music Learning System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Piano

http://www.cofc.edu/~seay/cb/simgames.html

Author talks about the difference between simulation and non-simulation games. He also talks about incorporating simulation games into classrooms.

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/kafai.html

Game design from the instructionist and constructionist's views.

http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/Changing%20The%20Game-final_2.pdf

Analysis on bringing games into classroom.

http://twinpinefarm.com/pdfs/games.pdf

This essay discussed the proposed benefits of using games as cognitive tools.

http://www.cofc.edu/~seay/cb/simgames.html

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/kafai.html

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ftinterface?content=a713826996&rt=0&format=pdf

http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/Changing%20The%20Game-final_2.pdf

http://twinpinefarm.com/pdfs/games.pdf

The links below are the ones that I found helpful in the research from the two sites mentioned in the nytimes article.

http://www.lumosity.com/info/program/brain_games

http://www.lumosity.com/info/science/results

http://www.lumosity.com/blog/working-memory/

http://www.lumosity.com/info/science/processing_speed

Happy Neuron - Games for Cognitive Enhancement

Free Music Training Games: http://ababasoft.com/music/

Rural Ghana Content

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:57:37 CDT

The late computer scientist and education visionary Randy Pauch said “[t]he best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they’re learning something else” (2007). Daniel Roy of Education Arcade at MIT gave us the same message in the early days of the TVC project. His research and experience suggests that drilling and practicing games do not attract students. Roy also suggested that we examine the idea of developing story or adventure games (2008).

A subgroup of the TVC project team decided, in consultation with Rev. Fuachie, that a prudent starting point for content development for rural Ghana that would follow Roy's advice would be to adapt traditional Ghanaian games and stories to the platform. The hypothesis is that familiarity with these games and stories would provide a bridge into the technological environment of the TVC. The TVC could then be used to implement variations on existing Ghanaian board games and stories to incorporate additional concepts. The natural starting points here were the board game Owari and the collection of Ananzi stories.

Owari
Owari is in the class of Mancala games that are played in various cultures around the world. Owari fits some of the criteria we established for educational content for the TVC. It requires counting and encourages the development of critical thinking in forming game playing strategies. Owari is often played 1 on 1, but can be played as 2 on 2 or 3 on 3, therefore encouraging collaboration among team members. We envision the development of variations of Owari that are highly engaging and encourage the development of other skills.

The game board consists of cups or indentations in a board (or sometimes the ground) that represent “houses.” Each player or side has six houses. Two addition cups are used to hold stones that are captured from one's opponent. Each house is given four stones initially. The typical rules of play in Ghana are then as follows (cf. http://members.aol.com/sstev74322/owari11.htm ):

1 Players alternate in picking up the all of the beads from one house on their side of the board and of their choosing.
2 The player who has the turn must “sow” one bead in each of the houses that follow in an anti-clockwise direction around the board the house from which they picked up the stones. The player then examines the house into which they deposited their last stone.
3 Depending on the number of stones now in this house, there are different courses of action:
3.1 If the last house into which a stone was deposited does not have 2 or 3 stones, no action is taken and the other player has a turn.
3.2 If the last house belongs to the opponent and the number of beads is 2 or 3, the player collects all of those beads.
3.3 If a player collects beads, then they look at the next to last house to see if it satisfies the same criteria as 3.2. If it does, then the player collects those stones as well.
3.4 If the player has 11 or more beads – enough to wrap around the board – the player skips the house from which they picked up the stones while sowing stones.
4 When a player has no more beads, the game is over. The player without beads is the loser.

We developed storyboards for Owari as part of a standard game design process. These are shown in Figures 10 through 17 below. These shown not only how the game is played, but one possible variation which can engage the players with simple arithmetic expressions showing the results of a move.

Anansi the Spider
The Anansi the Spider is the character within the most well-known collection of stories in Ghana. The Anansi stories are well-known in many other parts of Africa and the world (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anansi ). Anansi is a trickster. The stories are traditionally told within family settings, such as those described in our market analysis for Ghana. Beside entertainment, they are meant to teach children moral lessons. The advantage of using the Anansi stories as the basis for computer-aided learning is that they are well-known in Ghana and could, thus, provide a cultural bridge to the TVC. There are also many stories in the collection, thus, raising the possibility of a series of related story games.

One well-known example of these stories is Anansi and the Baboon. One rendering is given as follows:

Ananzi and the Baboon
ANANZI and Baboon were disputing one day which was fatter. Ananzi said he was sure he was fat, but Baboon declared he was fatter. Then Ananzi proposed that they should prove it. So they made a fire, and agreed that they should hang up before it, and see which would drop the most fat.

Then Baboon hung up Ananzi first, but no fat dropped.

Then Ananzi hung up Baboon, and very soon the fat began to drop, which smelled so good that Ananzi cut a slice out of Baboon, and said;

“Oh! Brother Baboon, you’re fat for certain!”

But Baboon didn’t speak.

So Ananzi said:

“Well, speak or not speak, I’ll eat you every bit to-day.” — which he really did.

But when he had eaten up all of Baboon, the bits joined themselves together in his stomach, and began to pull him about so much that he had no rest, and was obliged to go to the doctor.

The doctor told him not to eat anything for some days; then he was to get a ripe banana and hold it to his mouth; when the Baboon, who would be hungry, smelled the banana, he would be sure to run up to eat it, and so he would run out of his mouth.

So Ananzi starved himself, and got the banana, and did as the doctor told him; but when he put the banana to his mouth, he was so hungry he couldn’t help eating it. So he didn’t get rid of the Baboon, which went on pulling him about till he was obliged to go back to the doctor, who told him he would soon cure him. He took a banana and held it to Ananzi’s mouth; and very soon the Baboon jumped up to catch it, and ran out of his mouth; and Ananzi was very glad to get rid of him. And Baboons to this very day like bananas.

— Recorded by Sir George Dasent.
(Source: http://www.elfinspell.com/WitandHumor/14Ananzi.html . From “West Indian Negro Wit and Humor” IN The World’s Wit and Humor, Vol. XIV, Russian, Scandinavian, and Miscellaneous Wit and Humor; The Review of Reviews Company; New York; 1906; pp. 284-290. )

We explored ways in which Anansi stories might be adapted to a computer-based setting. We designed a first version of a game based on Anansi and Baboon using collaborative design techniques. Our research indicates that there are a number of general models for designing such games. We will explore these indepth in the future. The method we developed was to decompose the narrative to give the player decision points related to the character dialogue. One flow would render the original plot of the story. Other paths would yield alternate lessons. We also found in this particular story that the orders from the doctor to Anansi to fast for three days opened the possibility for iteration with critical judgment points at each stage. In this case, the player can be given the choice to fast for another day or to eat. The player must face certain consequences for deciding to eat early. A state diagram for a first version of our game is given in Figure x.

Costs

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:56:27 CDT

JPAL study of Computer Aided Learning
Each school had 50 students which used 4 computers, which is a cost of $15 per student (if the computers were ~$1000 and depreciated over 5 years). If each school was 500 students total, then the cost of a computer lab to replicate their gains would be $40,000.

We can replicate this model, and assume that together, the TV Computer and a Television cost $70.
Therefore, the cost of a 40 TV-computer lab to serve 500 students would be $2,800, at a cost of $1.12 per student (depreciated over 5 years--$5.6 with no depreciation)

Overview of Target Market

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:56:13 CDT

This marketing analysis was prepared in a large part through ethnographic research with Rev. Fuachie and the other three Ghanaians at IDDS 2008. Their insights were necessary in helping us understand issues that must be addressed in marketing the TVC in rural Ghana.

Market research

We were constrained during IDDS 2008 to performing market research through interviews with Rev. Fuachie and the other Ghanaian participants and statistics that we were able to gather. A thorough market analysis should include trials within Ghana where we attempt to sell TVC units in various market strata (e.g. rural and urban areas). Observational data and feedback from consumers would be invaluable in improving our product design and its marketing plan.

Initial product requirements

The product must meet the following requirements (at minimum):

Durability: Rural Ghana is highly communal. A typical event is for large extended families to gather at night in their home compounds to watch a single TV. The TV is often brought outside of the house into a courtyard so that there is enough room for everyone to watch. This raises the prospect of many hands on the device and jostling to use it. The electronics would also need to be protected from the dust and moisture in the compound.
Power sources: Electric service is far from universal in these areas. Families typically power their televisions with car batteries. The TVC is manufactured to be powered with AA batteries in addition to the common AC/DC power converter. A related issue is the need for a lighting source to see the keyboard at night, as many people lack bright lighting in their homes or compounds. The use of kerosene lighting is typical in this region, as was highlighted by Kurt Kornbluth during IDDS 2008.
Multiple inputs: The communal nature of activities in rural Ghana means that the TVC should be shareable by 2 or even more people concurrently. For example, the Owari board game allows up to 6 people at a time. It currently supports two inputs. Future work might explore expansion to four players.
Culturally-relevant educational content: General educational content as provided on existing versions of the TV computer would certainly be valuable. It would ideal, however, if content were provided with the TVC that provides a “cultural bridge” for students to computing. This might include the use or adaptation of traditional board games and stories.
Content for adults: There is a great need for skills development and adult literacy training in Ghana. Thus, it would be ideal if content were developed specifically for adults and if content geared toward children could somehow involve parents so that they can learn alongside their children. Other ideas that have been discussed is the development of video or audio content that can run autonomously while an adult performs chores in the home. This would provide for hands-free enternainment and education.

Characterizing the market segments in rural Ghana

The market in rural Ghana can be characterized as follows:

Social Structure: Rural Ghanaian society revolves around large extended families having a strong social structure and traditions. Decisions about purchasing a new product would be made through discussion with many family members and friends. Information about new would also be disseminated in this way.
Economic Activities: The dominant economic activities in rural Ghana are agriculture and fishing. Many families run small farms or have fishing concerns.
Child labor: Many families pull their children out of school to help with the family farm, fishing, and marketing. While this practice should be halted, it raises the need for complementary education in the home.
Markets: Communal market days are held for the exchange of products and services. These are open air areas where people set up stalls and offer a wide range of products and services. This is a key area in which the TVC should be marketed.
Human development: As the statistics in Section 1 detailed, rural Ghana can be also be characterized as having fairly widespread primary school enrollment, but with a significant drop off for pupils who advance after year 5. The ratio for entry into primary school by girls is nearly 1:1, but girls are often pulled out of school to help with family work and to live with aunts when they are older. A significant proportion of adults cannot read. A significant proportion of adults are also unemployed.

A Persona: Kofi – Student in a rural Ghanaian village

We employed the user-centered design process of developing a “persona” (Pruitt and Grudin, 2003) to understand and describe the targeted demographic for the TVC in Ghana. Our persona is a young boy name Kofi. This persona was constructed in close consultation with Rev. Fuachie. Statistics presented in other sections of this document were also used to construct this persona. We anticipate the development of other personas in the future.

Kofi and his family
Kofi Chiu is a 8 year old boy living with his family in a small village named Ntareban close to the Black Volta river in the Kintampo district of Northern Ghana. Kofi’s father Kwabena Chiu supports the family of 7 with his average yearly income of $800 from growing and selling yams and millet on his small 1.3 acre farm. Kofi’s mother Gifty Diabado usually takes care of the kids at home and occasionally grows peanuts in the farms. Kofi has 2 elder brothers who go to school and occasionally help their father in the farm. To make some extra money and provide food to the family, the eldest brother Mathias Chiu accompanies his father in fishing at 4 am in the morning before going to the school. They bring fish back home and the mother cooks some of them and sells the rest to make money. Kofi also has 2 sisters who help their mother with the daily chores like fetching water, washing utensils, and cooking at the home.

Evening activities at Kofi’s house
In the evenings the father returns from the farms while the mother and the girls are busy preparing food for supper. The entire family usually eats together. Kofi’s house also has a small TV that the father bought from the nearby city when he went there to sell some of his yams. The family usually brings the TV outside of the house in the main compound so their neighbours and other relatives can also watch it at the same time. The TV watching time is usually between 7-9 pm in the evening. Sometimes Kofi watches his brothers and sisters play the game of Oware before the bed time. Occasionally the parents tell the ancient Ghanaian stories of Ananzi before the bed time.

Kofi always wants to play with his father’s cell phone when he is not around but the father does not allow that. The father bought the phone for about $40 from the used electronics market in the city. He usually uses the phone to get in touch with the local yam distributors and contact friends and other relatives.

About Kofi’s school
A few years ago the Government of Ghana started providing free education for all primary and junior high schools in Ghana. Since last year they have also started providing free lunch meals to all the students in the primary schools. Because of free education and meals most of the parents send their children to the school. Even though Kwabena and Gifty did not go to school, they really wanted their children, especially Kofi, to get educated.

Kofi is now in second grade at the Methodist Primary School in the neighbouring village of New Longoro. He has to walk about 3 miles one-way everyday to his school. This long walking distance makes it really difficult for young Kofi to get to school during the rainy season.

In the second grade Kofi studies how to read and write in English and some basic mathematics.
Kofi’s school has six small classrooms and usually there are about 35 students in one classroom. The school is trying to set up a computer lab but they haven not managed to get enough funding from the Ministry of Education in Ghana. The school also has a television set that they use for national distance learning sessions.

Kofi’s favourite outdoor activities
During the weekends Kofi usually plays football with his friends or hunt rats in the woods. When needed Kofi sometimes helps his father in the farms. Sometimes he also follows his elder brothers when they go hunting for birds for fun. Kofi also enjoys playing hide and sick with his same-age friends in the village.

About Kofi’s village
The village of Ntareban has about 50 small houses made of mud walls and thatched roofs. There are about 5 houses in one small compound where close relatives live together. There is a small clinic and a church in the village, but there is no school. The village is not on the main electricity grid and everyone uses kerosene lamps as a primary means of lighting. About 30% of the houses in the village have TV which they use it mostly during nights. Due to lack of electricity in the village most of them use the care batteries to power their TVs.

The neighbouring village of New Longoro has a school and a small credit union. This school is shared by 4 surrounding villages including kofi’s. New Longoro is on the electricity grid and people from Ntareban come here to charge their car batteries.

How will TVC help Kofi shape his future?
Kofi’s father earns about $2/day from farming and fishing. Using the TVC with proper educational content Kofi can learn basic computer skills and get supplemental academic education. Kofi can be the person working in an office in the city earning $10-$13/day just by learning typing skills. Kofi can also use the TVC to help him prepare for the standardized test to get into a junior high school. Apart from the educational experience Kofi can also gain business skills and knowledge about farming and fishing (better techniques and market information) to help his father.

Business models

We are evaluating three types of models for disseminating the TVC. Paul Polak has encouraged us – and all IDDS 2008 participants -- to use a for-profit model. He makes a compelling case for this in his book Out of Poverty (2008:186). He contends, in part and in a more nuanced and comprehensive way than we present here, that most NGO models have not been effective in creating sustainable and scalable solutions nor have they been able to demonstrate measurable impacts.

Nonetheless, some in our group argue that while the TVC has survived within a for-profit business model, that model has not produced the hardware extensions nor advanced content development that would be necessary to turn it into a full fledged personal computer. These hardware extensions include adding a general secondary storage mechanism. Some game companies produced their own special cartridges that allowed players to save their scores or game states, but the TVC does not offer a general mechanism for storing content. The TVC also requires data communication capabilities to make it useful in today's networked world. More advanced content development is needed in the areas of: computer-aided learning, exam preparation, skills development software, and culturally-tailored programs and e-Books. One question is whether a non-profit function within the overall TVC project might better facilitate the funding of these extensions.

In the end, a hybrid model which integrates for-profit and non-profit operations might be the best for the TVC project.

For IDDS 2008, we have developed aTVC distribution model that estimates profitability under different price targets specifically for Northern Ghana. These are given in Table 1.

Product distribution

Tariffs
We consider the TVC to be an educational product. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative indicated in 2005 report that a “zero-rate duty” applies to educational materials in Ghana (USTR, 2005). Thus, we would seek an import license from the government of Ghana under this classification.

Distribution channels
Families tend to buy television sets in the larger cities or villages in their districts. A family must contend with transport costs to and from the location where the television are sold.

Shipping and distribution process & costs

Our current understanding of Ghana suggests that the following approach to shipping and distribution should be taken:

(1) TVC units would be purchased from Shanghai. This would be on the scale of 3,200 units based on the volume of a shipping container.
(2) A 40 foot shipping container would be used to transport the TVCs from Shanghai to Accra. This cost is $4350.
(3) TVCs would then be shipped from Accra to Sunyani by truck. The cost is estimated to be between $500 and $5000 dollars. Sunyani is the capital city of the Brong-Ahafo Region. See Figure 3. In 2005, it had a population of approximately 80,000 (http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/2005_world_city_populations/Ghana.html ).
(4) TVCs would then be distributed by taxis and trucks to approximately 250 village centers within the Kintampo North, Tain, and Bole districts where people buy television sets. This cost is estimated to be $2,000. The cost to hire someone to take one load from Sunyani to an individual village center is $4 an extra $3 per load would be required for labor. Taxis and trucks would not have great difficulty during the rainy season (May to the middle of July).
(5) Sellers in villages will demand an estimated 20% profit on all products.

Marketing issues and approaches

We developed two marketing approaches: one for schools and another for homes. The school marketing approach was further divided into separate plans for public and private schools.

For each marketing approach, we present a list of stakeholders. At the end of this section, we also present what is called a “persona,” which is a type of profile describing the primary customer or user of the TVC. This persona indicates relationships to the various stakeholders seen in these three marketing plans.

Marketing to Public Schools
The stakeholders for public schools are the following:

· Minister of Education, Science & Sports for Ghana
· Regional head of education ( over several districts)
· District Director of Education
· Head teacher
· Village officials
· Best students / students
· Teachers
· The Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

Protocol and resource allocation methods dictate that marketing of products to public schools must begin at least at the level of the region minister of education, if not the national Ministry of Education & Sports. It is at the same time necessary to gain buy-in at the school level – from both teachers and students. For these reasons, we decided that a two stage marketing approach was necessary in which all stakeholders are brought together in the second stage. Our proposed process is the following:

Stage 1 – Engagement with administrators: During this stage, the regional Minister of Education & Sport would be approached. An indepth discussion would be sought with the minister on the potential value of the TVC would have in the schools under his/her jurisdiction. Ideally, the product could be demonstrated with young family members of the minister. An agreement to engage the school community directly would be sought. Unit sales would be attempted at this level.
Stage 2 – Engagement with the school community: Each school district holds an annual festival which is an opportune time to market the TVC because it brings all the stakeholders together. Officials from the ministry, community leaders, teachers, and students gather for sports and educational events in a festive environment. Several students and teachers would be identified ahead of the festival. They would be trained in the use of the TVC so that they are prepared to demonstrate its use during the festival. The TVC would be demonstrated before the entire gathering in small groups to facilitate proper viewing. A few units would be offered as a prize to the school that wins the traditional festival competition. Unit sales would be attempted at this level.
Stage 3 – Seeking an agreement: The results of Stage 2 would be discussed with officials and other stakeholders (if permitted by the ministry). An agreement to purchase the TVC would be sought. Terms would be agreed upon.

Marketing to Private Schools
The stakeholders for private schools are the following:

Minister of Education, Science & Sports for Ghana
Association for private schools
Private parent teacher association (PTA)
Proprietors for private schools
Students
Teachers

All private schools are subject to the jurisdiction of the national Ministry of Education & Sport. Most private schools in Ghana belong to the same industry association. Private schools can be engaged directly at the level of the association of private schools. Our proposed process for marketing to private schools is the following:

Stage 1 – Engage the national association: The private schools association of Ghana must be approached first. Demonstrations of the TVC would be held. Permission to meet with the regional chapters of the association would be sought.
Stage 2 – Engage the regional association: The regional chapter of the private would then be approached. Demonstrations of the TVC would be held. Proprietors of individual schools would be approached about purchasing units for their schools and for permission to engage their teachers, students and parent teacher associations. Unit sales would also be attempted at this level with individual school proprietors.
Stage 3 – Engage individual schools: Teachers, students and parent teacher associations would be approached. Demonstrations of the TVC would be held.

Marketing to Families
Three venues for marketing the TVC to families will be explored:

Family Homes: Door-to-door sales could be attempted. The advantage of this approach is might be an ideal setting to initiate social marketing (aka “viral marketing”). Large extended families gather in the evenings, often outdoors, to watch TV in their compounds. Demonstrations of the TVC would then have a relatively large home audience in the context in which the product would be used. There are a number of disadvantages to this approach. The housing density is relatively low in this region making travel between homes more expensive than in an urban setting. Most families are occupied during the day. Thus, the night time is virtually the only time that marketing could be attempted in homes. Many homes in rural area also have no electricity and use kerosene lighting. A low light environment is not conducive to demonstrating this product. A salesperson would have to carry supplemental lighting.

Village Markets: People gather frequently during “market days” in or near their villages. This an ideal setting for displaying a product in front of a large audience. A special van could be outfitted with a number of televisions and TVCs to allow people to have a hands-on experience with the product. One possibility is to train selected local students in using the TVC and have them on hand during market day demonstrations. This local connection would foster social marketing between children and parents and between children in their schools.

Special Community Gatherings: Community members can be called together for special gatherings by sounding a gongon, a traditional Ghanaian percussion instrument. Gatherings could potentially be called to present TVC demonstrations to large numbers of people.

Branding

An initial approach to branding has been developed working in dialogue with Rev. Fuachie during IDDS 2008. In addition, a brief scan of technology branding approaches in Ghana was performed using Web sources. A more indepth study of branding in Ghana is warranted. We have, however, developed the following interim assumptions about branding:

· Lack of brand presence: Brand presence for consumer electronics does not appear to be strong in Ghana. Consumers appear to be attracted to products mainly through identification with general product categories (e.g. PCs as opposed to DELLs or Lenovos), price, and word-of-mouth. More research is necessary to confirm these assumptions.
· Usefulness of cultural bridges: Cultural tie-ins for the TVC are likely to be useful in lieu of a brand. These could be messages or images which show Ghanaians that they can appropriate the TVC for their own needs and cultural settings.

Following these assumptions, we developed a several concepts for packaging the TVC, which incorporated messages and images that would be familiar to across a wide range of geographic strata and ethnic groups in Ghana. Figure 7. depicts a hypothetical box which captures basic elements that might be employed. This is a decidedly less commercial representation than those seen in the market now for Famicom clones.

This box design attempts to link Ghanaian vignettes to the use of the TVC and to a message about education. Here we see photos and drawings of traditional settings in rural Ghana: a school yard, a classroom, a typical home compound, a fishing village, and a family gathered to watch television. These are all centered around a stylized Ghanaian flag in the shape of the country to convey a sense of national pride in the product. A Ghanaian expression about education – which originated in the Ashanti language – is “learning gives knowledge and experience.” This is displayed on the box in English and four of the most common indigenous languages in Ghana (some translations are pending): Ashanti, Ga, Ewe, and Dagomba. The Ashanti phrase is: Adesua ma nimdeƐ ne Suahunu.

The back of the box would give basic information about its contents. A simple example is given in Figure 8.

Advertising

Advertising the TVC in electronic media is also a possibility in rural Ghana. National and local radio and television outlets offer not only advertising, but the possibility to conduct interviews concerning the TVC project. Interviews are ideal for initiating social marketing processes. Further research is necessary to determine actual advertisement costs, but Ghanaian participants of IDDS 2008 think that indivual one minute radio advertisements on regional FM stations can be purchased for less than $5 USD. Additional research is required to determine appropriate advertising styles for the rural Ghana market.

Overview of Approach

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:56:01 CDT

Approach: Use an existing low-cost computer as a platform for computer-aided learning

Newly manufactured 8-bit computers are currently available in India for a cost as low as $10. These computers save money by connecting to an existing TV as a screen, however, they come loaded with accessories such as a full keyboard, mouse, 3 game controllers, and a suite of educational software and games. The educational content available on these computers is limited, but still powerful--for instance, a user can program in BASIC within 2 clicks of turning on the computer. We wish to make use of these existing TV-Computers as a target platform for the design and deployment of higher-value learning games and educational software.

Several studies have been done to show that computer-aided learning can be surprisingly effective in a developing context. The radically low cost of these TV-Computers makes computer-aided learning directly affordable, without subsidy, to broad sectors of the market for which computers are not currently cost-effective. The three largest sectors of the market seem to include: families (to provide supplemental education to their children), schools (to provide computer education), and finally businesses (to train their employees).

What will we do?

Our Goals

Increase the educational value of ultra-low-cost educational TV computers

Create a low-cost software production process

Develop software development kit
Develop method for contextual design of effective learning games
Facilitate local content production

Acquire existing educational software
Extend the physical hardware capabilities
Develop effective teaching methods that incorporate the TV-Computer

Facilitate the dissemination of educational TV-Computers in appropriate markets
Start a non-profit organization to facilitate and subsidize the design of effective learning games
Encourage the formation of for-profit entities that create content and distribute TV-Computers

Problem Definition

DerekLomas — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:55:48 CDT

Problem Statement

Kofi is an eight years old second grade student who lives with his family in a village in Northern Ghana. Kofi’s parents earn about $2 a day from farming and fishing to support a family of 7.

Kofi loves outdoor activities like football and hunting in the woods. Kofi’s house has a used TV powered by car batteries that the family and other villagers watch in the evening.
Due to adverse economic condition of the family and lack of high-level education, Kofi is deprived from advanced education which could help him get a much higher paying job ($13/day) in a nearby city when he grows up.

Product description: the TVC

The television computer (TVC) which is the basis of this project is based on the 8-bit Nintendo (NES) Family Computer (Famicom) architecture. These machines were developed by Nintendo in the early 1980s. It was one of a number of video game console offerings at the time.

Famicom Clones
Famicom clones are currently being sold in India and other countries for between $10 and $25 USD. These are often represented on the packaging as “Educational TV Computers” or simply “Educational Computers.” Brand or model names include MITASHI, Victor-60, and Victor-90. It remains unclear who or where the actual manufacturers are. See Figure 1 .

Low Price Point
The less than $25 USD price point was the genesis of this IDDS 2008 project. The low cost of existing TVCs raised the question of whether they could -- with a few hardware enhancements and new software -- be the basis for a new class of computing platform that would be accessible to families and schools who cannot now afford even the $200 to $500 USD personal computers that have emerged in recent years.

Current Offerings
The current Famicom clone packages typically consist of a keyboard which contains the CPU and hardware interfaces, one or more game cartridges, two game controllers, a mouse, a light gun, power and AV cables, and an instruction booklet. The contents of one of these packages is shown in Figure 2. A close up of the keyboard is shown in Figure 3.

Necessary Extensions
To turn one of the Famicom clones discussed above into a more functional computing platform approaching today's norms, it would have to have a general purpose secondary storage system and a data communications system.

Current clones employ read-only memory (ROM) cartridges, which contain games. These are used by plugging them into the keyboard. By definition, data cannot be saved to this cartridge. Thus, any data that are entered by users, such as in the typing programs, are lost when the computer is powered down. What is needed is a persistent random access memory (RAM) system that allows users to save any data they create.

Additionally, the Famicom clones discussed above do not offer data communications capabilities. This precludes access to the Internet or even simple data transfers to other computers.

The viability of making these extensions is discussed below.

To whom would we sell the TVC?

An initial single market focus
The $10 Famicom TV Computer clone has strong market potential given its price point. Nonetheless, we think that considerable care should be given to positioning this type of product in any developing region. This includes development economic, cultural and technical knowledge about a given market. Given time and resource constraints for IDDS 2008, it was prudent for us to focus on one market at this time: rural Ghana.

It is within our overall conception of this project to examine the feasibility of marketing the TVC in any geographic region where our analyses indicate that it can provide customers with the value discussed above and where there is a receptor capacity for it. Other markets that have been discussed thus far during IDDS 2008 – based also on our group's collective knowledge – included urban India and both urban and rural Brazil.

The global receptor capacity for the TV Computer is significant. Based on data from the International Telecommunication Union Dutta, Lanvin and Paua (2004) estimated that in 2002 one in three people in the world owned television sets and while only one in eleven people owned computers. This is out of an estimated global ownership of approximately 1.8 billion television sets and 550 million personal computers (Dutta, Lanvin, and Paua, 2004).

Specific geographic region: Rural Northern Ghana
Current plans are to focus on marketing the TVC in the geographic area encompassing the Kintampo North District Ghana as well as parts of the Tain and Boley Districts. Our team member, Rev. George Fuachie, is a resident and leader in the Kintampo North District and serves communities in the Boley and Tain districts. IDDS 2008 is also fortunate to have three other participants from Ghana, albeit from other areas of the country. It was prudent to develop a marketing plan for area for which we had available knowledge.

The Kintampo North District is within the Brong Ahafo Region of Northern Ghana. See Figure 4. Brong Ahafo Region is in the central and western part of Ghana. Kintampo North District was created in 2003 when it was split from what is now Kintampo South District by President Kufuor. Bole district, which is part of the Northern Region, is shown in Figure 5.

Demographics of Ghana overall

Population & Income

The population of Ghana is over 23 million (CIA World Fact Book – Ghana).
The median age is 20.4 years (CIA World Fact Book – Ghana).
Ghana had a gross national income (GNI) per capita in 2006 of $520 (US$) (UNICEF, 2008).
GDP per capita (PPP US$) is $2,480 (2005) (UNDP, 2007/2008).i
Population below PPP $1 per day is over 44% (MDG Monitor, 2008).
Unemployment rate:11% (2000 est.) (CIA World Fact Book – Ghana).
Population below poverty line 39.5% (2007 est.) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
Ghana's 2000 census database has “18.9 million individuals grouped into 3.7 million households” in approximately 89,000 localities (Colulombe, May 2005).
Ghana's 2000 Census reported that the median number of households over the 110 districts in existence at the time was 24,852 (Colulombe, May 2005)

Literacy & Education
Attainment of the Universal Primary Education (UPC) objective within the Millennium Development Goal framework is a serious issue for Ghana. Advancement from primary to junior high school is based on exam results, which makes the quality of primary education an especially critical issue. The following statistics help to describe the literacy and educational situation in Ghana overall:

The adult literacy rate (people aged over 15) is 57.9% (UNDP, 2007/2008).
The literacy rate of 15 to 24 year olds is 70.7% (both sexes) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
The net enrolment ratio in primary school education is 70.4% (both sexes) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
The Gender parity Index in primary level enrolment (ratio of girls to boys) is 1.0 (MDG Monitor, 2008).
The percentage of pupils who start grade 1 and reach grade 5 is 60% (both sexes) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
Combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary, and tertiary education is 50.7 (statistics as of 2005) (UNDP, 2007/2008).
Most Ghanaian primary schools have no text books according to a 2007 Chicago State University press release announcing an initiative is developing text books for Ghana (http://www.csu.edu/urelations/CSUDistributesTextbooksinGhana_000.htm ).
Pupil / teacher ratio (primary) 35 (2006) (UNESCO, August 2008)
Primary Qualified Teachers as percentage of teaching force is 70.8% nationally (2006/2007) and 55.9% in 40 of the most deprived districts (UNICEF, 2007).
The ratio of pupils to trained teachers in pre-primary education is approximately 1:160, 2005 (UNESCO, 2008).
The ratio of trained teachers to teachers for pre-primary education is approximately 25%, 2005. (UNESCO, 2008).
The percentage of primary 6 students who achieved proficiency (> 55%) in English on Ghana's National Educational Assessment was 23.6% (Republic Of Ghana, 2006).
The percentage of primary 6 students who achieved proficiency (> 55%) in mathematics on Ghana's National Educational Assessment was 9.8% (Republic Of Ghana, 2006).

Technology

The ITU reports a widening digitial divide, including in Africa (http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2008/0805201425.asp?A=HOME&O=FPMN). A “Connect Africa initiative” was announced, with the objective of connecting more than one billion people in Africa by 2012.
The source of data for (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004) is the International Telecommunication Union.
Ghana had an average of 77 television sets per 1,000 people (as of 2001). (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). Televisions: 1.9 million (2001) (CIA, 24 July, 2008).
Ghana had an average of 27 Radios per 1,000 inhabitants (as of 2001) (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). 12.5 million (2001) (CIA, 24 July, 2008).
Main telephone lines in operation, 2001 242,122 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). 356,400 (2006) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2001 87 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Cellular mobile telephone subscribers, 2002 405,000 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). 5.207 million (2006) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
Personal computers, 2001 70,000 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Households online (as % of households with computers), 2002, 75 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Internet users (estimated), 2001 40,520 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Personal computers (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2001, 93 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Computers installed in businesses (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2002, 90 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Internet users (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2001, 95 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). Internet users: 609,800 (2006) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
Computers installed in businesses (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2002, 90 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
Internet hosts: 2,899 (2007) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 12 (2000) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
Ghana's Digital Access Index for 2002 is 0.16, which places it into the low access category (http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2003/30.html ). As a comparison Sweden was the highest with 0.85 and the U.S. had 0.77. The DAI includes the following components: infrastructure, affordability, knowledge, quality of service, usage.

Demographics of Kintampo North, Tain and Boley Districts in Ghana
Kintampo North and Tain Districts are within the Brong-Ahafo region. The Bole District is within the Northern Region. These districts are mostly within the rural savannah strata of the 2000 census. The following geographic and demographic facts have been located from various sources:

The rural savannah strata of Ghana overall has 15% of Ghana's households or 555,000 households.
Ghana's 2000 Census reported that Northern region 1,820,806 ( Coulombe, May 2005)
Bole District is 4800 square km. (GhanaDistricts.com)
Bole District reported a population of 127,188, approximately 88% rural (Coulombe, May 2005)
Ghana's 2000 Census reported that the Brong-Ahafo region has a population of 1,815,408 (Coulombe, May 2005)
Kintampo North District has an area of approximately 5,108km² (GhanaDistricts.com).
Kintampo North District has a population of approximately 96,358 (GhanaDistricts.com). Approximately 73% are rural (Coulombe, May 2005)
Tain had a population of 85,216 in 2004 (GhanaDistricts.com). Approximately 70% are rural (Coulombe, May 2005).

Specific Market Segments
Based primarily on ethnographic input from Rev. Fuachie and combined with demographic data from a variety of sources, including UNDP, UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank, we have decided to examine the prospects of marketing the TVC to two types of customers in rural Ghana:

(1)Primary and Junior High Schools (both public and private); and
(2)Homes.

What value will consumers want from the TVC?

According to Rev. Fuachie and the other Ghanaian participants of IDDS 2008, potential customers in rural Ghana, and any other part of the country, would want or could be sold on education, job skills development, and entertainment.

The usefulness of skills development that is possible with the TVC are confirmed by other evidence. A 2002 article in the New York Times reported that data entry clerks in Ghana who were working at Data Management, a firm to which the City of New York had outsourced work, were making almost three times the minimum wage (Worth, 2002). A 2003 article in CNNMoney.com reported that data entry clerks in Ghana who were working for Affiliated Computer Services, a firm that processes medical claim forms for Aetna, were making ten times the minimum wage in Ghana at the time (Thomas, 2003).

We, therefore, conclude that the TVC would need to enable consumers to develop in the following areas :

math, literacy, and critical thinking skills for basic primary education;
preparation for entrance exams into junior high level;
preparation for secondary and tertiary level exams;
adult literacy and numeracy; and
basic job skills, such as typing and accounting.

This would be achieved by the development of special content for the TVC. This is discussed elsewhere in our report.