Edutainment based Mobile Phone Games for Health Communication in India

Mobile learning is the convergence of mobile computing and e-learning. Mobile learning solutions are highly effective and mobile learning content delivery has been rated as a successful ICT based learning method for development communication and edutainment. As Tuberculosis has become serious health concerns in India. It is the youth that comprise the larger share of the patients afflicted by them. Several edutainment strategies using low cost mobile phones as media are being tried by national and international organizations to run awareness campaigns about these diseases. To study the effectiveness of the games, one game was selected- that was on Tuberculosis. The game was field tested with semi urban youth living in Bardarpur, Delhi. Semi structured interview schedules were used to collect data from the youth. An objective type awareness test on based on the information contained in the game was prepared and administered to the respondents before and after playing the games to assess any change in awareness about the diseases before and after playing the games. It was found that all the youth had played mobile phone games to entertain themselves and compete with their friends with in the privacy of their home or in public places as per their convenience. The mobile phone game was liked by a large number of respondents as they reported it was easy to play, very interesting and challenging and entertaining. Almost all the youth wanted to acquire these games in their own mobile phones and share them with their friends and family. The youth were not aware about the process of downloading such games in their phones. Analysis of the Awareness Test clearly indicated an increase in awareness about Tuberculosis after playing the games. The youth gave several suggestions to improve the games. New mobile phone edutainment games were suggested on health (particularly reproductive health), social issues, and environment and on topics from the school syllabus of the youth. The youth expressed a desire to participate in designing mobile phone games for edutainment.