Animated information
Short video animations provide agricultural advice to farmers
Barry Pittendrigh
Animations developed to be viewed on cell phones provide a unique way of delivering agricultural advice, as the short videos can be adapted for a variety of languages.
Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) develops educational materials designed to help learners with low levels of literacy in developing nations. They use three-dimensional animations to convey agricultural and medical advice that can be used to improve the quality of people’s lives. These two-minute animations can be viewed on a range of electronic devices including cell phones with video capacity. Using Bluetooth technology, the animations can be transmitted from cell phone to cell phone. The voice-overs for each animation can be easily adapted for a range of local languages.
The animations are shared on an online journal called the Sustainable Development Virtual Knowledge Interface (SusDeViKI). This journal specialises in educational material for low-literate learners in impoverished settings. Educators can easily search for, view, and download SAWBO’s animations onto their computers. They can then transfer them onto cell phones for use in the field as part of ongoing educational programmes. The educational animations can be left on the phones of community members, and viewed at any time.
One of the big problems with many development messages, especially those created and tested in the academic community, is that these ideas are often placed in peer-reviewed journal articles, making it very difficult for educators to access these materials in a format that would allow them to take the information to target populations in the field. But SAWBO’s animations have overcome this barrier and are easy to access and distribute.
When we hear the term ‘animation’, many of us will think of Saturday morning cartoons, but the medium has come a long way in the last few decades with the advent of high-quality three-dimensional animations. One of the great advantages of animation is that it can be used to show concepts and techniques that are often hard to capture with live-action filming. This art form is now being used extensively in the medical profession to show biological processes. And SAWBO’s videos mark the first time that this technology has been used to help semi-literate learners, and to bridge the gap between the academic literature and practical educational tools.
Partnership
Since its inception, SAWBO, an initiative of the University of Illinois, has produced four animations. Three focus on pest control strategies for dealing with insects that attack cowpea plants, and one deals with cholera prevention.
The cholera prevention animation can be viewed in many languages, including Haitian Creole and Hausa from Niger. Half a dozen new animations on both agricultural and medical subjects are currently being developed for both agricultural and medically related issues.
The scripts for the animations draw on scientific literature, extension documents, and material from international aid agencies that has already undergone considerable testing and previously been used educational in programmes.
SAWBO recently developed an animated video based on some exciting new research findings in Mali. The Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER), Mali’s leading research institute, has successfully used extracts from neem seeds to produce a natural insecticide. SAWBO used the findings of this project to develop an animated video showing farmers mashing the seeds and producing a spray to protect their crops from insects.
Once an animation is complete, the team works with partner groups, and experts in the relevant field to make sure the animations are technically correct. They also work with partners to translate the scripts into many major world languages, including French, Spanish, and many local and regional languages and dialects.
To date, SAWBO has worked with several partner groups in West Africa who are working on the problem of protecting cowpea crops from insect attack. The animations are being tested and used as part of a wider educational initiative taking place in five countries and aimed at on protecting dry grains and pulses. This project is funded through the CRSP USAID research programme.
Several strategies for deploying the animations are being tested, including transferring the videos from cell phone to cell phone, as well as distributing disks to farmers’ groups and farmers field schools. There are also plans to distribute the disks to video viewing clubs.
As the cost of cell phones decrease, especially ones with video and Bluetooth capacity, SAWBO’s focus is to research the most effective networks for dissemination, so that when new animations are completed, the content can be efficiently distributed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry Pittendrigh is an endowed chair professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a researcher with SAWBO, together with Julia Bello-Bravo, Francisco Seufferheld
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related resources
The cell phone-ready versions of the videos are available on the web:
Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) Facebook page
Sustainable Development Virtual Knowledge Interface SusDeViKI