Cellphone Games Teach English

November 6, 2009
Stacey Mason

Carnegie Mellon University is conducting a study using cellphone games for teaching English to students in rural India. The study will span two years and, backed financially by Nokia and by the Macarthur Foundation, will distribute 450 cell phones to students in Andhra Pradesh. Project MILLEE seeks to use the 4 billion mobile phones in the world — of which half are in developing countries — to engage kids who cannot afford private classes.

The MILLEE web site is also a nice mix of gloss and scholarship, useful to students, contributors, and to the press.

“In particular, we adapt the traditional village games with which our target child learners are already familiar, so as to ensure culturally appropriate game designs. ”
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