SPEAKER SERIES

DIGITAL STUDYHALL: VIDEO BASED INSTRUCTION IN RURAL INDIA

WHAT: CIS is hosting a monthly Speaker Series which will include a presentation by a UW researcher (faculty/staff/student) accompanied by two panel members from varying disciplines.  

WHERE: Mary Gates Hall Rm. 420

WHEN: February 18^th, 2008 3-4pm

LECTURER: Richard Anderson – Computer Science Department

TITLE: Digital StudyHall: Video Based Instruction in Rural India

ABSTRACT: Digital StudyHall is an education project in Lucknow, India that aims to link together strong urban schools with poor rural schools through facilitated video instruction.  Lessons are video recorded in the urban schools, and then shown in rural schools by classroom teachers.  A key component of the instruction is that the classroom teachers will stop the video for classroom activities.  The Digital StudyHall project is about three years old and has been replicated at a number of sites in India and Bangladesh.  To date, the evaluation studies of Digital StudyHall have been limited – looking at results of a small number of schools without adequate controls.  In this talk, Richard will first give background on the Digital StudyHall project, and then describe a research study that they are starting with twelve schools in Lucknow which have not previously been involved with the project.  The goal is to assess educational outcomes of the teaching methodology and also to gain a deeper understanding of deployment costs and issues.  Additional information about Digital StudyHall is available at dsh.cs.washington.edu.

PANEL MEMBERS: Mike Eisenberg (Information School) and Steve Kerr (College of Education)