Providing families with a smartphone based mobile app, based on the Marathi dubbed version of Sesame Street, (Galli Galli Sim Sim), to promote mother-tongue literacy skills
Project Name
Play.Connect.Learn (PCL)
Location Implemented
India
Technology Used
Software/Apps
Competition Entered
Grant Competition 2014
Reading Skill Targeted
Foundational, Reading
Status
Winner
The Challenge
Across India, pedagogy, quality of education, and the lack of participation by families and communities in promoting reading skills are challenges to enhanced learning outcomes. Rote learning is the most common approach to teaching literacy which leads to failures in comprehension, letter/word recognition and fluency. As such, 46% of children in grade 1 are unable to recognize a letter in their mother language and nearly 50% of children in grade 5 are unable to read grade 2 level text.
The Big Idea
PCL leveraged the growth of TV and mobile coverage in rural India to foster the participation of families and communities in promoting mother tongue reading skills. PCL built a mobile application accessible on low-end smartphones that featured the characters of Galli Galli Sim Sim (the Marathi dubbed version of Galli Galli Sim Sim, a children’s TV program based on the series Sesame Street). The app used a progressive learning mechanism, allowing children to read and learn at their own pace.
Results
12,000 children in six districts of Maharashtra State.
Featured Innovation
Play.Connect.Learn
Read ebooks and play literacy games in the Marathi language of India on this smartphone-based app developed by Sesame Workshop India.
Blogs and Media
Research and Resources
Play.Connect.Learn
Read ebooks and play literacy games in the Marathi language of India on this smartphone-based app developed by Sesame Workshop India.Engaging Families and Communities to Support Student Reading Skills Development
A summary on the impact and potential for scale of four ACR GCD-funded innovator projects focused on improving the engagement of families and communities in children's reading.Sesame Workshop Evaluation Report
An evaluation report on the results of the ACR GCD-funded "Play.Connect.Learn" project, implemented by Sesame Workshop in India.Samarth’s Story
Sesame Workshop India shares the joy of 7-year old Samarth as he discovers that he too can read with the support of technology and a few friendly muppets.Sesame Workshop India Trust / Anuragini Nagar
ACR GCD-funded innovator Sesame Workshop India shares their innovation to provide families with a mobile app based on the Marathi-language version of Sesame Street to improve children's reading.How Technology Can Transform Child Literacy in Developing Countries
Learn from School-to-School International and ACR GCD-funded innovators Creative Associates, Little Thinking Minds and Sesame Workshop about edtech projects for children in developing countries.
