A Connected Planet

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

ACP CONTINUED WORK MAINTAINING ITS LIBRARY OF FREE APPLICATIONS IN THE GOOGLE PLAY AND APPLE ITUNES STORES. ACP MAINTAINS TWO TYPES OF EDUCATION- RELATED MOBILE APPLICATIONS. THE FIRST TYPE OF APPLICATIONS IS GENERAL EDUCATION APPS WHICH ARE USED TO TEACH BASIC LETTER, WORD AND NUMBER RECOGNITION. THE SECOND TYPE OF APPLICATION ARE DIGITAL BOOK APPS BASED ON HARD COPY BOOKS PRODUCED BY THE MOTHER TONGUE BOOKS (MTB) PROGRAM STARTED BY THE MATNWA COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER ON THE ISLAND OF LA GONVE, HAITI. THE APPLICATIONS SUPPORT THE HAITIAN CREOLE, FRENCH, AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES. OVER THE YEAR, ACP MAINTAINED THE "EDUCATION DE QUALIT POUR TOUS" (EDUQUAT) SERIES OF MATHEMATICS APPLICATIONS DEVELOPED IN PREVIOUS YEARS AN INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB) IS INITIATIVE LED BY LES FRRES DE L'INSTRUCTION CHRTIENNE (FIC) IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI. ACP COMPLETED WORK WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME (UND) ALLIANCE FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION (ACE) ON A TASK TO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE APPLICATION FOR THEIR ANA AK TIGA BOOK SERIES. THE BOOKS ARE A SERIES OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS CONTEXTUALIZED FOR HAITI WHICH INCORPORATE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) PRINCIPLES. THE BOOKS ARE WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY HAITIAN AUTHORS AND ARTISTS, THE BOOKS PULL ON HAITI'S RICH CULTURE WHILE INTEGRATING KEY ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING. THEY ALSO INCLUDE HELPFUL ACTIVITIES FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS TO DO WITH LEARNERS AT THE END OF THE STORIES. THE BETA APPLICATION IS BASED ON THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES CALLED "IDENTIFY YOUR EMOTIONS". THE PROTOTYPE APPLICATION INCLUDES AN AUDIOBOOK, DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND CHILDREN'S GAMES. 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 PARTICIPATED IN A SERIES OF MEETINGS TO DISCUSS POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS.

ACP CONTINUED ITS INITIATIVE TO DEVELOP AN OPEN-SOURCE TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS) CAPABILITY FOR UNDER-RESOURCED LANGUAGES WORKING IN COOPERATION WITH CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY (CMU) LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (LTI). WE ARE DEVELOPING THE CAPABILITY FOR THE ANDROID OPERATING SYSTEM USING A SUITE OF OPEN-SOURCE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FROM CMU. DURING THIS PERIOD, WE SET UP AN ORACLE CLOUD PLATFORM WHICH CONTAINS THE TOOLS AND A DATABASE TO CONTAIN UTTERANCES (PHRASES) WHICH ARE RECORDED AND PROCESSED TO CREATE THE SYNTHETIC VOICES. AFTER CREATING THE CORE INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORM, THE TEAM WORKED ON DEFINING 2000+ UTTERANCES FOR THE BASIC CREOLE VOCABULARY AND UTTERANCES SPECIFIC TO THE PRIMARY GRADE EDUCATION SECTOR. THE UTTERANCES WERE SOURCED FROM VARIOUS EXCERPTS (NEWS ARTICLES, BOOKS, JOURNALS, THE BIBLE, ETC.) THE PLAN HAD BEEN TO RECORD THE UTTERANCES IN HAITI AT A LOCAL UNIVERSITY. HOWEVER, DUE TO THE ONGOING VIOLENCE, THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, AND US DEPARTMENT OF STATE TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS, ACP DECIDED TO HAVE THE UTTERANCES PROFESSIONALLY RECORDED IN HAITI. THE RECORDINGS WERE MADE OVER TWO SESSIONS, WITH TWO VOICE ACTORS, IN ORDER TO ACCOUNT FOR BOTH A MALE AND A FEMALE VOICE. THE EDITING, CUTTING AND EXPORTING OF RECORDINGS WERE ALSO DONE BY THE SELECTED PROFESSIONAL RECORDING STUDIO AND ACP REVIEWED THE FINAL RECORDINGS FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE. A FIRST TTS CAPABILITY WAS IN TURN CREATED. AFTER REVIEW OF THE TTS, ACP CHOSE TO HAVE A SECOND RECORDING SESSION FOR TWO PRIMARY PURPOSES: FIRSTLY, TO HAVE A CLEARER VOICE QUALITY (ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS TYPICALLY ALLOW FOR BETTER TTS QUALITY) AND SECONDLY, TO ACCOUNT FOR THE USE OF QUESTIONS (RAISED TONALITY AT THE END OF A QUESTION). A NEW AND IMPROVED TTS VOICE IS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY. ACP IS NOW WORKING WITH CMU ON NUMBER AND NAME RECOGNITION. A WEBSITE AND ONLINE TTS TOOL ARE ALSO BEING DEVELOPED AND A MARKETING/COMMUNICATIONS PLAN IS UNDER WAY. ACP STILL PLANS TO DOCUMENT THE METHODOLOGY USED TO DEVELOP THE HAITIAN CREOLE TTS CAPABILITY AND CREATE A MULTILINGUAL VIDEO PROGRAM OF INSTRUCTION WHICH COULD BE USED IN OTHER AREAS OF THE WORLD WHERE THE NEED EXISTS TO CREATE TTS CAPABILITIES FOR LOCAL LANGUAGES.

IN COLLABORATION WITH INNOVED AT THE UNIVERSIT OF QUISQUEYA (UNIQ) IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, AND IN RESPONSE TO THE TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING (T4T) PROGRAM WITHIN THE EDUCATION GLOBAL PRACTICE AT THE WORLD BANK GROUP (WBG), ACP BEGAN A RESEARCH STUDY ON THE EXISTING TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (TPD) PROGRAMS IN HAITI. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH STUDY WAS TO IDENTIFY EFFECTIVE USES OF TECHNOLOGY THAT ENHANCE TEACHING PRACTICES. THE TASK PERTAINED SPECIFICALLY TO DEVELOPING A LANDSCAPE REVIEW OF ALL PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS IN HAITI, AND IN TURN PRESENT A DIAGNOSTIC OF TPD PROGRAMS AND POLICIES TO PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTRY FOR ENHANCING AND SCALING TPD PRACTICES, SPECIFICALLY BY LEVERAGING LOW-TECH SOLUTIONS.

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. 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.