Henry Busulwa S
Makerere University
• Much is talked about the potential of Mobile phones on
teaching and learning
• Their use is not allowed in Secondary schools
• Might be an attitudinal issue / ignorance
• Smart phones can be used as computers to access internet
• Developed the idea, and developed it further since June
2014
• Document changes and coping changes in one Private
Secondary School in Uganda
• Prepared open education resources (TESSA science
secondary
• Needed to scaled up their use using mobile phones
• Developed the idea with selected stakeholders
(lecturers and teachers). who advised on introducing
specific guidelines
• Seminars with stakeholders: Parents, Teachers and
Students.
• Some parents could not believe that there would be a
secondary school which can allow use of phones.
• Worked with ICT teacher. The school seconded a
teacher to manage the project at school level.
• The Head teacher was not very keen
• Convinced the school board to Acquire WIFI
wireless for the school.
• Development and discussion of guidelines for
use of mobile phones in school
• Testing the use of the phones and monitoring
their use is continuing.
• Documentation of change since June 2014
• Silent Resistance by the school administration and parents to
accept that the Mobile Phones are an important tool to use for
teaching and learning.
• Smart mobile phones expensive than the ordinary phone (cannot
access WIFI) These are the ones parents wanted to provide the
students.
• Very few students brought smart mobile phones.
• Internet Connection expensive and limited. With four hours a
day it costs about 20 dollars.
• Some pupils did not use the phones for the purposes agreed, i.e
teaching and learning. They go straight into social media much
of the time they accessed internet.
• Slow positive change amongst teachers (18%) and
• Parents (9%) in accepting that phones are useful in learning.
• High Students’ enthusiasm, and eagerness (95%) to access
education resources could be promoted
• Teachers’ low attitude, coupled with inadequate capacity and
skills (73%), to use ICT pedagogies and tools is hindering
proper students guidance on the specific sites which enhance
interactive learning.
• In addition excuses of poor internet connectivity (76%) continues
to disadvantage the few teachers (27%) who are aware of
existence of Open Education Resources (OERs) and specifically
those who have used (15%) TESSA OERs.
• We would use phones if we learnt about them during our training
• We do not know how phones can be used to handle teaching, we were
not taught like during our training. Even accessing internet is not easy
• What is OERs, how can one access materials from internet
• The use of mobile phones is a good idea during the teaching of
computer lessons. However the current standing order from the ministry
is against that.
• The school administration is worried about discipline of the students and
the phones are likely to affect academic performance since it will be
difficult to control their use especially on social media.
• The nature of our students might abuse the guidelines.
• Use of phones will attract criticism from communities, school inspectors,
politicians
• Let’s wait for the official ministry policy
• Let my child study the way we used to study. Our children will only
get spoiled
• The type of phone we are being asked is very expensive
• Why change the way of teaching
• Phones likely to compromise the child- teacher contact time
• There is improved communication between our children and us- this
implies that whenever, the students have the phones they communicate to
their relatives even if it is a short stay with the phones.
• Students can learn about science, using phones? This is great. During
holidays I observed my child was on phone much of the time but was
not receiving or making calls but was interacting with colleagues using
social media.
• If worked out we shall be able to contribute to internet costs, so that
our children interact with international world.
• Our children can obtain reading instructions using internet
• Teachers have begun being creative in preparing lessons using
their phones to record and making lessons interesting.
• Accessibility to internet is becoming a reality. They are ready to
move on using the positive response from the few parents.
• We now spend some more time reading about what we are going
to teach on line because
• some students have already learnt about it.
• I would like to go and learn about a course on using internet for
teaching
Question
%
(N = 50)
Have you ever used Tessa materials or any other OERs in
teaching
20
Are you aware that there are OERs on internet
Need to learn basic skills of integrating ICT in education
Learnt about existence of OER through a friend
Do you use computers in teaching
Have you ever used internet
Interacting with each other will be the best way to improve our
skills on use of internet
30
80
90
30
30
95
Challenged with internet connectivity
Challenged with examination pressures
95
95
• The study recommends retooling of teachers and teacher
educators in using ICT pedagogies,
• Scaling up of smart phones to improve internet accessibility
especially in schools with no computers to embrace use of OERs
and internet.
• Teachers /teacher educators must develop positive attitude to
use of phones as learning tools, and be facilitators or mentors
of pre-service teachers in order to match with the modern
world of teaching and learning.
• There is need for a policy to promote use of phones as they
provide easy access to information and bring internet nearer to
teachers.