I am a doctoral student at the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Califoria at Berkeley, and part of the TIER research group. Here is information on research from the summer of 2005, done while working with Microsoft Research, India. For more information on this project, I can be reached at here.

The objective of this study is to look at how children in rural India are using computers and software provided to them through a program facilitated by the Azim Premji Foundation, funded by various state governments in the country. Here is a link to the presentation explaining the main findings of the work - social and organizational factors affecting computer aided learning, and behavioural aspects of children's learning in shared access scenarios.

The presentation has embedded video shots of children using computers in groups, explanations of which are included in the presentation, though the videos themselves are not stored here for space constraints.

The presentation and final report will be available here.

Karnataka
Kodagu (rural 'Coorg' district, known for coffee estates) 20.6.05
Dakshin Kannada (economy largely based on paddy and beedis, mostly tropical with some hills) 21.6.05
Udupi (coastal district, paddy mostly wet tropical landscape) 22.6.05
Bellary (dry plains - some paddy and groundnut growing, some mining and industry) 5.7.05
Raichur (hot, dry northern district, agriculture mainly in paddy and sunflowers) 6.7.05
Gadag (central K'taka district, cloth - hand and powerloom - very important) 7.7.05

Mumbai
Chembur (Central Mumbai area, the school surveyed is in a Maharastrian slum area) 13.7.05

Orissa
Cuttack (Peri-urban part of district, the economic hub of the state) 18.7.05
Mayurbhanj (tribal region near WB border, some informal economy) 19.7.05
Puri (remote portion of coastal district, across Chilika lake) 20.7.05
Ganjam (economically backward southern Orissa, partly Telugu speaking) 21.7.05
 

Presentation of Key Findings - 5.8.05, Bangalore
 

The study is being supported by Microsoft Research India and the Azim Premji Foundation.