Title:
Teaching Rural Farmers With Cell Phone Videos
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Mobile phones are an important business tool for
farmers in rural areas. But they also put a valuable
educational tool in their hands. The University of
Illinois in the United States has a project called
SAWBO -- Scientific Animations Without Borders. It
produces educational videos that can be downloaded
to cell phones. The goal is to help people in
developing countries improve their lives. One video,
for example, shows farmers how to make a natural
insecticide from neem seeds to prevent insect damage
to crops. The videos use computer animation. Some of
the animated characters are a little funny looking
-- like a farmer with a long nose. But the subjects
are serious, including a health video on preventing
cholera. Team member Francisco Seufferheld says the
information in the videos is meant to be quickly
understood. "The information is digested in such a
way that in two minutes, we can transmit a complex
idea."The team has made a few videos so far. These
are available in a total of eighty languages,
dialects and accents. Professor Barry Pittendrigh
says there are plans for more videos later this
year.Purdue University in Indiana is using videos to
promote a project in Africa called PICS, Purdue
Improved Cowpea Storage. The aim is to get farmers
to use special bags to keep air and bugs out of
their cowpea harvests.The Purdue researchers have
produced their videos in different countries in
Africa. Crop scientist Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer says
this helps local farmers relate to them. The
researchers did an experiment in Niger with a video
showing how to close the bags. Professor
Lowenberg-DeBoer says the process is not difficult
to do, just difficult to describe. "Closing the bags
is something that, if you see it, you will
understand it very quickly. And most people do. But
explaining it in words is quite difficult."The
researchers tested the seven-minute video on seven
mobile phones. They wanted to see if people would
share the video using Bluetooth wireless technology.
With Bluetooth, files can be passed to a nearby
phone even if neither phone is connected to the
Internet. "In one month, the video had spread to one
hundred eighteen people in fifty different villages.
And we think that this is just incredible impact."
For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal. For
daily news and information plus activities for
English learners, go to voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
