Paper Info
Title
Reflecting on Video: Exploring the Efficacy of Video for Teaching Device Literacy in Rural Kenya.
Abstract
Substantial interest is focused on using video to disseminate agricultural information to rural farmers in the developing world. This paper explores the effectiveness of using this approach to improve rural farmers' device literacy---that is, their ability to use mobile phones for purposes other than making and receiving voice calls. Findings from our pilot evaluation, conducted with women farmers in rural western Kenya, suggest that videos combined with facilitators can be useful for improving women's confidence in sending text messages, using 'm-agriculture' applications, unsubscribing from services that deduct their mobile phone airtime, and, in general, increasing their awareness of the mobile Internet and its related services (i.e., Facebook and Google). More significantly, our findings also reveal underexplored issues that hinder women's mobile phone use: in particular, their concerns about losing money to Safaricom (Kenya's dominant mobile network provider), and the challenges that result from a wide variety of mobile phone screen interfaces. These findings encourage ICTD researchers and practitioners to pay greater attention to corporate power structures affecting mobile phone use, to recognize that rural farmers' information needs encompass more than just agricultural material, and to raise questions about scalability of instructional video.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1145/2909609.2909667
ICTD
Keywords
Field
DocType
Agriculture, Kenya, mobile phones, rural, Safaricom, video, women
Literacy,Mobile internet,Information needs,Advertising,Computer science,Developing country,Dissemination,Cellular network,Mobile phone,Scalability
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.60
13
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Susan Wyche19611.53
Charles Steinfield23754351.29
Tian Cai390.98
Nightingale Simiyu4100.99
Martha E. Othieno5100.99