Third Stage: Intervention StudyFinally, we will explore the opportunities tosupplement the existing teaching and learningpractices by providing a much needed accessto digital resources using low-cost open-source mobile platform. We will provide theoffline learning devices with customizedcontents to selected teachers for three monthsin our targeted public schools that lack accessto digital resources to support teaching andlearning. This will help focus on evaluatingthe usefulness of the proposed solution. Theevaluationwilladoptanapproachrecommended by(Sharples, 2009), which is toaddress usability (will it work?), effectiveness(is it enhancing learning?) and satisfaction (isit liked?).The teachers will be asked to completequestionnaires at 1, 8 and 12 weeks after theyare issued with the devices. They will beasked to indicate the frequency of use of thedevice and it will help reveal changingpatterns of use and interest over the givenperiod of time. Each survey will be followedby an interview to discuss the meaning of theresults and also to raise other issues andproblems. Theywillalsobeaskedtocomplete written logbooks of their dailyactivities with the device, including thelocation, duration and type of activity, whichwill reveal patterns and frequency of useacross location during the study period.Post-questionnaires at the end of the projectwill address the issues that will arise from theearlier surveys and interviews and will consistof both open and closed questions.Thepurpose will be to find out what features ofthe device they had used, whether they hadfound it to be a useful tool for supportinglearning and teaching, what sort of strategiesthey adopted when using it and what thebenefits and limitations were of using themobile device for offline learning.ConclusionA copyleft open-source approach providesthe opportunity for the community to directlyinfluence the hardware roadmap of a deviceand thus may generate new and sustainablesolutionswithinspecificmarkets.Thisresearch aims to explore devices such asWikireader - an unconnected device with asinglefunctionalityand thetinyLinuxpowered hackable device - Nanonote. Themain benefit will be giving the users a one-stop access to learning materials at anytimeand anywhere without requiring to go onlineusing smart devices.Thisstudywillalsohighlightthedevelopment challenges faced working with asub US$100 device including usability issuesand the lack of a standard graphical userinterface. Overall this study will showcasealternative open hardware solutions to morerestrictive proprietary solutions which arecurrently dominating the mobile landscape.It is however not possible to predict inadvance how the teachers will use theunconnected devices or even if they wouldadopt them at all. However, due to lack ofresources in the context of governmentschools in Nepal, it may be possible to see theclear benefit of use and deduce learning gains
