The annual ICT4D Conferences have proven to be an invaluable opportunity for NGOs, private sector organizations, universities, governmental agencies and foundations to share their experience in using ICT to increase the impact of development programs and to learn from each other. In 2016, 715 individuals from 76 countries and 301 private sector and public sector and civil society explored the ways to harness the full power of digital solutions to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Our thanks to Accenture, Catholic Relief Services, Esri, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, iMerit Technology Services, Inmarsat, IS Solutions, Making All Voices Count, Mercy Corps, Microsoft, NetHope, Oxfam, Pandexio, Qualcom Wireless Reach, RTI International, SimbaNet and World Vision for making that possible.
Bloom is a new publishing software tool that has gained worldwide recognition for its flexibility and ease of use in the development of locally-generated reading materials. Developed by experts in SIL International, and the winner of a recent All Children Reading grant from USAID and World Vision, Bloom is a free program that is being used in a number of African and Asian countries to facilitate the development of reading materials in community languages.
Bloom contains templates for the development of levelled and decodable books as well as natural text; Symphony language analysis software is integrated into the Bloom tool, to help the writer maintain desired levels of readability. Illustrations and photographs are easily included in the text as well. The Bloom library contains a number of books that have been developed as "shell" books and can be translated into the desired language.
This demonstration will provide its audience with an understanding of what Bloom can do and how to use it.
If you are attending the training session, kindly install Bloom in your computer beforehand. The link to install Bloom is http://bloomlibrary.org/installers/BloomInstaller.3.3.4.exe
Bloom only works on a PC, and not a tablet. Bloom runds on Windows 7 or later. It does not work on Windows XP. It does not run on Mac or Android. Bloom requires .Net Framework 4.5. This is a Microsoft product that comes with Windows 8 or 10. If you have Windows 7 you may need to install .Net Framework on your computer. It also requires Art of Reading, which can be downloaded from the Bloom Website. The version should be 3.5.
