This week MobilED
will debut its Audio Encyclopedia in a South Africa classroom. The
program is different in three main ways: it allows students to access
constantly updated information from Wikipedia through
a cell phone instead of a computer; it tells students the answer to
their query so the whole class can get the information at once; and it
lets students contribute back to the encyclopedia (although not
Wikipedia itself).

How it works is that students send their query to the database via text
message. Then the encyclopedia (with content pulled from Wikipedia)
calls them back. A voice synthesizer reads the article. Then if
students want to, they can contribute back following Wikipedia’s rules.

This sounds like a great idea – it will provide poor schools with the
most current information and it will be cost effective (although if the
kits are ultimately to be sold, it may still be out of the reach of
many schools). Also, as noted on their blog, allowing the students to
contribute to the encyclopedia could really empower them as content
creators and, to an extent, de-Westernize the encyclopedia – in both
format and content.

Thanks to Gunner at Aspiration Tech for the tip to this project.