Innovative and Sustainable
Mobile Learning in Africa
John Traxler
University of
Wolverhampton, UK
john.traxler@wlv.ac.uk
Jenny Leach
Open University, UK
j.leach@open.ac.uk
Our Issue
The apparent disjunction between
innovation and sustainability
Are they incompatible?
In Africa, are either achievable?
Our Presentation
• The environment
• DEEP in South Africa
• PDAs
• Working with schools
• ‘micro’ teacher training
• SEMA in Kenya
• Mobile phones
• Working through government
• ‘macro’ teacher training
• Discussion
Physical Infrastructure 1
• Sparsity, vast distances and low densities of population
• Schools in sub-standard buildings or none at all,
– especially rural schools,
• Poor roads, transport systems and postal services
• Poor landline phone networks,
– unreliable and often unprofitable
• Poor mains electricity, unreliable and concentrated in
towns and cities
• Little or no Internet bandwidth outside major cities
– Often just internet cafes or hotel business centres in cities
• Very few modern PCs or peripherals in the public sectors
– And little user expertise
• especially in smaller towns and rural areas.
Physical Infrastructure 2
• Lively and energetic mobile phone networks
– Carrying GSM increasingly GPRS
• The potential for solar power or local generation
• A regulatory and licensing system in a state of flux
• High levels of mobile phone ownership,
acceptance and usage.
Education and Teacher Training
• Free Primary Education / Education for All
– large class size
• problems attracting and retaining pupils
– un-trained or under-trained teaching force
• with only a limited repertoire of pedagogies
– over-centralisation
• within schools and across the schools sector
– shortage of materials for teachers and pupils.
Digital Education Enhancement Project
http://www.open.ac.uk/deep
Jenny Leach
Research Centre for International Research and Development in Teacher
Education across Cultures and Societies (RITES)
The Open University, UK
Study 1 (Funder DFID & Hewlett Packard)
•
•
•
48 teachers in 24 primary schools (12 in Egypt and 12 in Eastern Cape)
Participating teachers carried out and evaluated a sequence of curriculum focused,
school based professional development activities using a range of resources and
new technologies, including lap tops.
Use of the HP Jornada 565 Pocket PC in this study was viewed primarily as a
source of personal support for project participants.
Study 2 (Funder: bridges.org)
• 28 teachers in 14 rural schools in the Eastern Cape
•
•
Professional development activities devised specifically for handhelds, orientated
towards the Eastern Cape context. E-books developed with the local culture,
literature and environment in mind.
Each teacher had an iPAQ (including Pocket Excel, Pocket Word, Pocket MSN, i
Task, Outlook, Microsoft Reader, Calculate, Games, iPAQ image zone) and
professional resources including (science & literacy activities etc e-books)
Context and teacher prior experience:
Egypt (Study 1)
• Urban Cairo serving the
most disadvantaged
communities;
• Majority of teachers 20-30
years of age; 50% are
female
• 22 had ‘some’ experience
of ICT prior to the project,
but only 3 had used them
‘a lot’ and only half had
used them in their
teaching;
• None had used a handheld
computer.
Context and prior experience Eastern
Cape (Study 1 & 2)
• Remote and disadvantaged
schools;
• 60% with no electricity; 50%
no telephone connectivity;
• 2/3rds of teachers aged 40-49,
over half female;
• Majority had never used a
computer; of the 10 who had,
only 5 had used them
‘occasionally’ in relation to
teaching;
• None had used a handheld
computer.
The Cairo Experience
• Handheld seen as ‘useful’;
• 19 used it once a week or more,
3 daily;
• Majority thought it helped their
‘understanding of the language
and concepts of ICT’;
• 9 thought it was ‘of more’ or
‘equal’ value to other computers
they had used;
• Home use was the most
common although some also
used the device with pupils in
the classroom.
Limitations - Cairo
• Arabic is teachers’ home
language;
• Lack of support for Arabic a
disincentive for use in writing
practices;
• All teachers mentioned the
language issue constrained their
use of the device;
• Functions used most frequently
those least language dependent
e.g. calculator, games, camera
The Eastern Cape Experience
• Handheld highly popular;
• Most used it once a week or
more, several on daily basis;
• Majority used device both at
home and in the classroom;
• Several used the device whilst
travelling;
• Majority report it helped their
‘understanding of the language
and concepts of ICT’;
• Many thought it was ‘of more’
or ‘equal’ value to other
computers they had used: ‘I can
do anything I may do with other
computers’
Eastern Cape experience
•
•
•
•
‘Using the hand held gives me
information. It is very helpful for
preparing lessons at home, because
it is easier than writing by hand’.
‘I use it for getting and making
resources when I get to school – I
have used it in recording project
information, making notes,
recording students’ language
practice..I take pictures and get
resources for my lessons.. I use the
calculator a lot’.
‘It is very educational to my
learners…’
‘The Jornada is my companion’.
Limitations - Eastern Cape
• Data loss due to loss of battery
power frequent;
• Many teachers had to walk
considerable distances or work
out a system for regular
charging at home;
• Sudden, total loss of precious
data ‘devastating’ for teachers
and students.
Common misconceptions
• State of the art computers
inappropriate tools for teachers
in poor environments;
• Devices will be stolen or lost;
• Handhelds will be too complex
for teachers to use, especially
novice users;
• Small PC do not lend
themselves to classroom use,
especially when there are very
few devices and many students.
DEEP’s 4D Technologies
• Developmental;
• Democratic;
•Deep Learning;
•Dignity
• Network coverage
– Towns
– Highways
– Coast
• Pay-As-You-Go almost
universal
• Teachers seem to be ‘early
adopters’
– Digital Links ICT Scoping
Study
network ->
<- population
• Network coverage
– 70% of the country’s
population in 30% of the
country’s area
– includes all towns with more
than 10,000 inhabitants, major
roads, borders, coasts and
NGO centres.
– at a local level coverage still
be incomplete and unreliable
– pushing into rural areas
– per-second tariff appeals to
poor
– Safaricom
GPRS now on both networks and moving to pre-paid
• Mains electricity
– A limiting factor on
network expansion
• Internet connectivity
– Practically non-existent
• Some internet cafés in
biggest towns, not in
schools or ministries
National Organisation
INSET
zQASO
National - MoEST
Province
Province
……….
District
District
…….
Province
…….
Zone
DEO
Cluster
School
…….
HT KRT gKRT
Cluster
School
…….
MoEST
ID code
SMS texting is an appropriate
technology for two issues
• in-service teacher
training
– &
• schools census returns
Education Management
Information Systems (EMIS)
• Current data collection
– Courier, phone, post:
slow, error-prone,
costly
• Current data analysis
– Non-existent
• Proposed: annual,
termly, monthly
The Challenges
• Universal Primary Education
– Massive increase in enrolment
•
“implementation of the FPE programme in 2003 resulted in an upsurge of enrolment in public primary schools by over 1 million pupils from 5.84 million to 6.94
million”
– Educational IS
•
•
•
•
Infant feeding
Girl-child marriage
Falsified returns
Rescue girls
– Teacher Training
•
•
•
•
•
Retention
Girl-child marriage
Corruption
Over-centralised school management
Over-crowding
» the theme: “leading from the middle”
School Empowerment Programme
• Appropriate technologies
– A/V, print ………..and SMS
• GPRS, smartphones, SD cards
• Capacity building
– With MoEST
• Partners
– BBC, CEL ….and UoW
– Supporting GoK MoEST with DfID Imfundo
– Alwan, KIE etc (local producers, developers)
• Targets
– 200,000 in-service primary teachers (HTs & KRTs)
The SEP Component
Formats include:
• Study guide
– Week-by-week support
• Content:
– hints, tips, outlines, lists,
summaries, revision
• Reminders:
– assessment, contact,
broadcast, discussion,
video, meeting
• Discussion:
– feedback, seminar, query
• Pastoral:
– Support, encouragement
• Urgent:
– cancellation, change
TAC
KRT 1
KRT 2
HT
KRT n
KRT 1
KRT 2
TAC
KRT n
HT 1
HT 2
Collabora
tion
Rules
SMS, WAP,
GPRS
Peer groups
{clubs}
SMS
Syntax
QASO
HT n
TAC 1
TAC 2
Calendar of
SEP events
HT Support Group
Meeting ; INSET
Reviews
TAC n
DQAS
O
QASO
1
QASO
2
Message
Database
EMIS
Database
Cluster Groups
QASO –TACs /
TAC-HTs
HT
QA
SO
Ta
c
TC
QA
SO
QA
SO
H
H
WWW {HTTP
Access}
EMIS
Admin &
Reporting
EMIS admin
page
SEP admin &
reporting
SEP admin
page
SEP
Monitorin
g
SEPmonitoring
HT
The System
MoE IT team
SEP admin (sema
!)
SEP managers
QASO
n
SEMA registration
register # 4010101202# krt# beatrice maeba#34# f
REGISTER # 4010101204 # GKRT # EMILY OMWAKA # 42 # F
SEMA activation
ACTIVATE #153
SEMA convene
convene# #HT#5150702#26:05:06 09:00#ENKASITI#ATHLETICS MEETING prison
SEMA
messages
Send#51502#zQASO#Swara na Ndovu haziambatani. Utachonga viasi
Send#51502#zqaso#the alleged case is under the police- Ronga and cid hqts. However,
records in sch do not show existance of the name.
Send#51502#zqaso#the sema system has poor filtering capacity. it works on gigo
principle. We started late but we r on coarse. Joj
Send#51502#zQASO#wangoru, im still in Rongai. Lets catchup as i land back. Thanks.
Joj
EMIS data
EMIS 1070102234 FT20 MT30 1B23 1G34 2B12 2G45 3G51 4B15 4G76 5B23 5G100 6B77 6G9 7B42 7G91 8B99 8G11 1S99
Emis 187ft 2MT 8 1b 2 4 1g9 2b 23 2g22 3b3 3 3g 18 b4 45 4g 26 5b 48 4g 34 5b 45 5g 25 6b 49 6g 33 7b28 7g 22 8b 14 8g 8
Emis 401 0501208 FT19 MT 4 1B41 1G30 2B48 2G38 3B55 3G71 4B61 4G59 5B61 5G58 6B52 6G60 7B42 7G48 8B42 8G3
EMIS 40100201241 FT13 MT2 1B35 1G36 2B19 2G30 3B31 3G40 4B30 4G48 5B48 5G48 6B37 6G53 7B42 7G44 8B25 8G37
emis 4010101201 ft26 mt7 1b74 1g72 2b97 2g91 3b130 3g124 4b150 4g157 5b128 5g140 6b107 6g130 7b116 7g98 8b78 8g125
Concerns
• Innovation vs
Sustainability
– Can we have both?
• Digital Divides:
– Other dimensions
» What about remote
rural areas, women
teachers?
– Exemplars or equity?
• Development
– Must we re-enact
Developed Countries’
evolution of e-learning or
mobile learning?
Traxler, J., & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2005). Mobile Learning in Developing Countries (G. Chin, Ed.). Vancouver, BC: Commonwealth of Learning.
Kukulska-Hulme, A. & Traxler, J. (2005) Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers, London, Routledge