Improving adult literacy has been a challenge for many years. The first UK phonics-based adult literacy course, developed and operated by City of Glasgow College, has been changing lives across the city and West of Scotland. This project builds upon that success to create a free smartphone app to deliver literacy training in a creative way using smart technology.
The app will feature interactive multimedia gameplay, with handwriting and voice recognition to facilitate user data entry to complete exercises, containing links to local adult literacy training providers.
It can be used to support the delivery of face-to-face phonics-based literacy courses or be used in standalone mode to allow learners to develop at their own pace, overcoming the considerable social stigma that can be attached to low literacy levels.
The main technical component of Citizens Literacy will comprise the development of a smartphone app (iOS & Android) that can be used with or without a user account (to store progress and personalisation). User-generated data can be stored locally or in a cloud database associated with an account. App content will be created appropriate for mobile use to keep user costs down.