A Connected Planet

PROVIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ENABLE INFORMATION SHARING, EDUCATION, AND MEDICAL SERVICES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

ONGOING APP MAINTENANCE ACP HAS CONTINUED ITS DILIGENT WORK IN UPKEEPING A LIBRARY OF FREE MOBILE APPLICATIONS, AVAILABLE ON BOTH THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE AND APPLE ITUNES. THESE APPLICATIONS FALL INTO TWO DISTINCT CATEGORIES: THE FIRST ENCOMPASSES GENERAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY APPS, WHICH AIM TO FACILITATE THE ACQUISITION OF FUNDAMENTAL LETTER, WORD, AND NUMBER RECOGNITION SKILLS IN HAITIAN CREOLE. THE SECOND CATEGORY COMPRISES AUDIOBOOK APPS, ADAPTED FROM PHYSICAL BOOKS PRODUCED THROUGH THE MOTHER TONGUE BOOKS (MTB) INITIATIVE INITIATED BY THE MATNWA COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER ON LA GONVE ISLAND IN HAITI. THESE APPLICATIONS OFFER MULTILINGUAL SUPPORT, CATERING TO HAITIAN CREOLE, FRENCH, AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES. THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, ACP CONTINUED TO SUPPORT AND MAINTAIN THE "EDUCATION DE QUALIT POUR TOUS" (EDUQUAT) SERIES OF MATHEMATICS AND FRENCH-LANGUAGE ARTS APPLICATIONS, WHICH WERE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED AS PART OF AN INITIATIVE LED BY THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB) AND LES FRRES DE L'INSTRUCTION CHRTIENNE (FIC) IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, IN PREVIOUS YEARS. APPLICATION REBRANDING IN ADDITION, ACP IS IN THE PROCESS OF REBRANDING THE SET OF EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY ASSOCIATED WITH EDUQUAT (SEE ABOVE). IN LIGHT OF THE PERSISTENT VIOLENCE IN HAITI AND DRAWING VALUABLE LESSONS FROM THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE ENTIRE PROJECT, WE BELIEVE IN THE POTENTIAL OF THESE APPS TO POSITIVELY IMPACT EDUCATION AND WE ARE COMMITTED TO GIVING THEM A FRESH START WITH A NEW IDENTITY. ACP IS WORKING DILIGENTLY TO REVAMP AND ENHANCE THE CONTENT, FEATURES AND OVERALL USER EXPERIENCE TO BETTER SERVE THE NEEDS OF EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS. THIS REBRANDING EFFORT SIGNIFIES OUR DEDICATION TO INNOVATION, AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO REINTRODUCING THESE APPLICATIONS UNDER A NEW NAME AND A RENEWED COMMITMENT TO PROVIDING HIGH- QUALITY EDUCATIONAL TOOLS. THESE APPLICATIONS WILL INCLUDE THE SPANISH LANGUAGE. NEW PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT ACP ALSO FOCUSED ON AN EMERGING OPPORTUNITY WITH CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES (CRS) ON THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT "CONTINUITY OF LEARNING" PROJECT. THE FIVE-YEAR CONTINUITY OF LEARNING (COL) ACTIVITY AIMS TO BENEFIT OVER 25,500 PRIMARY-LEVEL HAITIAN STUDENTS AND MORE THAN 1,500 TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS ACROSS 170 SCHOOLS BY SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MORE RESILIENT EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT DELIVERS UNINTERRUPTED ACCESS TO A SAFE, QUALITY BASIC EDUCATION DESPITE INTERRUPTIONS FROM NATURAL DISASTERS SUCH AS HURRICANES AND MAN-MADE STRESSES SUCH AS INSECURITY WHICH MAY KEEP STUDENTS FROM THE CLASSROOM. ACP ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN A SERIES OF COMPREHENSIVE SECTOR-WIDE MEETINGS AIMED AT EXPLORING POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN DISTANCE LEARNING. ADDITIONALLY, ACP HELD SEVERAL MEETINGS WITH COL STAFF, INCLUDING SEVERAL CHIEF OF PARTIES AND EDUCATION DIRECTORS, TO SHOWCASE AND DEMONSTRATE ACP'S COMPREHENSIVE WORK, WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON ITS PRIOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION AND OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCE PROGRAMS. IN COLLABORATION WITH COMPUCONSULT, ACP COLLABORATED ON THE CREATION AND SUBMISSION OF A CONCEPT NOTE TO DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) FOR USAID'S CONTINUITY OF LEARNING (COL) PROGRAM WITHIN THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI. THIS INITIATIVE WAS TO BE EXCLUSIVELY CARRIED OUT UNDER THE PROGRAM'S FOURTH COMPONENT. THE PROPOSED PROJECT ENCOMPASSED FOUR PRIMARY PILLARS OF WORK: (I) THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A WEB-BASED LMS PLATFORM, REFERRED TO AS LMS GROOVY, WHICH WOULD INTEGRATE WITH THE PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY DESCRIBED BELOW; (II) THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW CURRICULUM-BASED LITERACY AND READING APPLICATION CONTENT CATERING TO STUDENTS IN GRADES 1 THROUGH 4; (III) THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NETWORK CALL CENTER TO OFFER TECHNICAL SUPPORT; AND (IV) THE FORMULATION AND EXECUTION OF A MARKETING PLAN TO RAISE AWARENESS AND ENCOURAGE USAGE.

ACP CONTINUED ITS COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVE WITH THE CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY (CMU) LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (LTI) TO DEVELOP AN OPEN- SOURCE TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS) CAPABILITY FOR UNDER-RESOURCED LANGUAGES. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, WE LEVERAGED OPEN-SOURCE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FROM CMU TO CREATE THIS CAPABILITY FOR THE ANDROID OPERATING SYSTEM. DURING THIS PHASE, WE ESTABLISHED AN ORACLE CLOUD PLATFORM HOUSING THE NECESSARY TOOLS AND A DATABASE FOR STORING RECORDED UTTERANCES, WHICH WERE THEN PROCESSED TO GENERATE SYNTHETIC VOICES. UPON BUILDING THE CORE INFRASTRUCTURE, OUR TEAM DEDICATED EFFORTS TO DEFINING OVER 2000 UTTERANCES, COVERING THE BASIC CREOLE VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE SPECIFIC TO PRIMARY-GRADE EDUCATION. THESE UTTERANCES WERE SOURCED FROM A VARIETY OF MATERIALS, INCLUDING NEWS ARTICLES, BOOKS, JOURNALS, THE BIBLE, AND PRE-EXISTING DATASETS. ORIGINALLY, WE HAD INTENDED TO RECORD THESE UTTERANCES AT A LOCAL UNIVERSITY IN HAITI. HOWEVER, DUE TO THE ONGOING VIOLENCE, THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, AND TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED BY THE US DEPARTMENT OF STATE, ACP MADE THE DECISION TO ENGAGE A PROFESSIONAL RECORDING STUDIO IN HAITI. THE RECORDINGS WERE CONDUCTED ACROSS TWO SESSIONS, FEATURING TWO DISTINCT VOICE ACTORS TO ACCOUNT FOR BOTH MALE AND FEMALE VOICES. THE SUBSEQUENT EDITING, CUTTING, AND EXPORTING OF THESE RECORDINGS WERE CARRIED OUT BY THE SELECTED PROFESSIONAL RECORDING STUDIO, WITH ACP CONDUCTING A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW TO ENSURE QUALITY. FOLLOWING THE INITIAL TTS CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT, ACP OPTED FOR A SECOND RECORDING SESSION, PRIMARILY TO ENHANCE VOICE CLARITY AND TO ACCOMMODATE THE USE OF QUESTIONS, WHICH REQUIRE A SPECIFIC TONALITY AT THE END OF SENTENCES. WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DEVELOPED TWO ENHANCED TTS VOICES, ENCOMPASSING BOTH MALE AND FEMALE OPTIONS, WHICH ARE NOW FULLY OPERATIONAL. ACP'S COLLABORATION WITH CMU REMAINS ONGOING, WITH A FOCUS ON FURTHER ENHANCING NUMBER AND NAME RECOGNITION CAPABILITIES. ACP HAS RECENTLY ENGAGED AN ANDROID DEVELOPER TO UNDERTAKE THE TASK OF MODERNIZING CMU'S FLITE ENGINE, AN OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT NECESSITATES LIBRARY UPDATES AND CORRECT COMPILATION. THE FLITE ENGINE HOLDS IMMENSE IMPORTANCE IN THE PROJECT AS IT SERVES AS THE PLATFORM FOR PLAYING THE NEWLY-CRAFTED SYNTHETIC VOICES. SUBSEQUENTLY, THESE SYNTHESIZED VOICES WILL BE INTEGRATED INTO THE FLITE ENGINE. ACP'S PLAN IS TO ULTIMATELY DISTRIBUTE FLITE VIA THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE FOR GLOBAL ACCESSIBILITY. SIMULTANEOUSLY, THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INFORMATIVE WEBSITE, FEATURING ONLINE TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS) TOOLS, IS IN PROGRESS, COMPLEMENTED BY THE EXECUTION OF A COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY.

ACP CONTINUED PROVIDING POLICY AND PLANNING SUPPORT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND (USCENTCOM) IN THE AREAS OF INFORMATION SHARING AND DISSEMINATION THROUGH THE USE OF CLOUD BASED PLATFORMS. ACP PROVIDES AN UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHARING (UIS) LIAISON OFFICER TO VARIOUS NATIONAL LEVEL AGENCIES IN THE WASHINGTON DC NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION AND ADVISORS AT USCENTCOM HEADQUARTERS IN TAMPA, FL. THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF THEIR WORK THIS YEAR FOCUSED ON PLANNING AND PROTOTYPING OF NEW CLOUD-BASED INFORMATION SHARING SYSTEMS TO ENABLE COMPLIANCE WITH NEW FEDERAL LAWS ON INFORMATION SHARING.