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Tablet PCs preserve indigenous knowledge
TECHNOLOGY Kasper Rodil/Polytechnic of Namibia/Aalborg University
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swipes and finger taps of a tablet interface proved easy to pick up. “If this is how to use computers, then I have no problems,” said one old woman who tried it out. The 3D environment, running on an Android-based Motorola Xoom tablet and based on a 3D video games engine, shows
“Video segments, such as the slaughtering of a goat, pop up as floating 2D panels in the virtual village” avatars that depict the villagers as they are engaged in various tasks. Short video segments, such as the slaughtering of a goat, –Log in to the virtual village – or the lighting of a sacred flame, pop up as floating 2D panels in the virtual village. Other links will access more general knowledge, such as which herbs can be used to treat specific ailments, how to look after animals or how Tablet computers could help villagers in the Kalahari preserve to navigate between scattered cultural knowledge for future generations villages using the sun. Despite a few teething problems – elders complained land and keeping cows and goats. developing a drawing app for the Niall Firth that the colouring of the cows was But this gap means that they miss tablet which mimics the way the THE Herero people know just not accurate enough, for out on much of the village’s elders draw diagrams in the sand what to do when a horse is too example – the animations met accumulated knowledge, which is to explain what they mean. “The wild or unpredictable: they lash a traditionally passed on orally by with overall approval. “They are idea is that we have as little donkey to it, which forces the good in their look and in the sense the elders. friction as possible between the horse to slow down and helps to that they will be kept there forever Along with researchers at the device and the user,” he says. tame it. Unruly animals have been Polytechnic of Namibia in and they will never be forgotten,“ It is crucial that the elders are dealt with this way for generations Windhoek, Rodil’s team is working involved in the development of said one Erindiroukambe elder. by the inhabitants of the small Rodil will present his latest with Erindiroukambe’s elders to such an app, says Rodil. “The village of Erindiroukambe, which develop a 3D visualisation of the work at the Participatory Design participatory design is key. We lies in the heart of the Kalahari Conference in Roskilde, Denmark, village on a tablet computer. Their don’t want to just impose our desert in eastern Namibia. in August. knowledge will be embedded in ways upon people.” But times are changing and, as Urban migration has disrupted this virtual village to be stored for For villagers who had never used young men leave to work or study future generations. Rodil is also how information has historically a computer before, the intuitive in cities like Windhoek, 400 been passed down the generations, kilometres away, it becomes much says Niall McNulty, who helps run harder to hang on to this kind of the Ulwazi programme in Durban, local knowledge. Kasper Rodil, at South Africa. This uses digital Laptops are great, but if you’ve he delivered solar-powered tablets to Aalborg University in Denmark, technology to enable communities never seen one before, you need a handful of villages in Ethiopia, one and his colleagues want to see if in the area to record indigenous someone to show you how to use it. per child. Each tablet was preloaded tablet computers can help bridge knowledge and history. Touchscreens are far more intuitive, with educational software, but no the gap. “The human race would “As mobile devices become which is why Nicholas Negroponte, instructions, and logged how the lose some colour if we lost this ubiquitous in Africa, the need who founded the One Laptop per children interacted with the device. kind of knowledge,” says Rodil. for this type of regional and Child initiative, is turning his Within two weeks the children, who Typically, young men stay in language-specific content, and attention to tablets instead. previously couldn’t read, were using the city for a few years before the tangible link it provides Together with the Massachusetts an average of 57 apps each and returning to their home village to between communities and their Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, learning to recite the alphabet. pick up the traditional semimultiple pasts, becomes all the nomadic lifestyle, working the more important,” McNulty says. n
An app for folklore
One tablet per child
16 June 2012 | NewScientist | 21
For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technology
swipes and finger taps of a tablet interface proved easy to pick up. “If this is how to use computers, then I have no problems,” said one old woman who tried it out. The 3D environment, running on an Android-based Motorola Xoom tablet and based on a 3D video games engine, shows
“Video segments, such as the slaughtering of a goat, pop up as floating 2D panels in the virtual village” avatars that depict the villagers as they are engaged in various tasks. Short video segments, such as the slaughtering of a goat, –Log in to the virtual village – or the lighting of a sacred flame, pop up as floating 2D panels in the virtual village. Other links will access more general knowledge, such as which herbs can be used to treat specific ailments, how to look after animals or how Tablet computers could help villagers in the Kalahari preserve to navigate between scattered cultural knowledge for future generations villages using the sun. Despite a few teething problems – elders complained land and keeping cows and goats. developing a drawing app for the Niall Firth that the colouring of the cows was But this gap means that they miss tablet which mimics the way the THE Herero people know just not accurate enough, for out on much of the village’s elders draw diagrams in the sand what to do when a horse is too example – the animations met accumulated knowledge, which is to explain what they mean. “The wild or unpredictable: they lash a traditionally passed on orally by with overall approval. “They are idea is that we have as little donkey to it, which forces the good in their look and in the sense the elders. friction as possible between the horse to slow down and helps to that they will be kept there forever Along with researchers at the device and the user,” he says. tame it. Unruly animals have been Polytechnic of Namibia in and they will never be forgotten,“ It is crucial that the elders are dealt with this way for generations Windhoek, Rodil’s team is working involved in the development of said one Erindiroukambe elder. by the inhabitants of the small Rodil will present his latest with Erindiroukambe’s elders to such an app, says Rodil. “The village of Erindiroukambe, which develop a 3D visualisation of the work at the Participatory Design participatory design is key. We lies in the heart of the Kalahari Conference in Roskilde, Denmark, village on a tablet computer. Their don’t want to just impose our desert in eastern Namibia. in August. knowledge will be embedded in ways upon people.” But times are changing and, as Urban migration has disrupted this virtual village to be stored for For villagers who had never used young men leave to work or study future generations. Rodil is also how information has historically a computer before, the intuitive in cities like Windhoek, 400 been passed down the generations, kilometres away, it becomes much says Niall McNulty, who helps run harder to hang on to this kind of the Ulwazi programme in Durban, local knowledge. Kasper Rodil, at South Africa. This uses digital Laptops are great, but if you’ve he delivered solar-powered tablets to Aalborg University in Denmark, technology to enable communities never seen one before, you need a handful of villages in Ethiopia, one and his colleagues want to see if in the area to record indigenous someone to show you how to use it. per child. Each tablet was preloaded tablet computers can help bridge knowledge and history. Touchscreens are far more intuitive, with educational software, but no the gap. “The human race would “As mobile devices become which is why Nicholas Negroponte, instructions, and logged how the lose some colour if we lost this ubiquitous in Africa, the need who founded the One Laptop per children interacted with the device. kind of knowledge,” says Rodil. for this type of regional and Child initiative, is turning his Within two weeks the children, who Typically, young men stay in language-specific content, and attention to tablets instead. previously couldn’t read, were using the city for a few years before the tangible link it provides Together with the Massachusetts an average of 57 apps each and returning to their home village to between communities and their Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, learning to recite the alphabet. pick up the traditional semimultiple pasts, becomes all the nomadic lifestyle, working the more important,” McNulty says. n
An app for folklore
One tablet per child
16 June 2012 | NewScientist | 21