Part three: MobilED – Mobile Tools and Services Platform for Formal and Informal Learning by Ford and Leinonen edited by Mohammad Ally (2009)

Part three:Applications of Mobile Learning
MobilED – Mobile Tools and Services Platform for Formal and Informal Learning

MERRYL FORD

MERAKA INSTITUTE

SOUTH AFRICA

TEEMU LEINONEN

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF ART AND DESIGN

FINLAND

Abstract

MobilED is a South African initiative aimed at designing teaching and learning environments that are meaningfully enhanced with mobile technologies and services. The deliverables are the development of a set of scenarios and guidelines on how mobile technologies could be used for teaching and learning within and outside the school context. The applicability of mobile phones in an educational environment is examined, with a specific focus on the differences and similarities between the developing and developed worlds. The first phase of the project in South Africa focused on the use of low-cost mobile phones, which are readily available in the developing world, and the second phase examined the use of more advanced mobile phones with multimedia capabilities. Pilot projects in South Africa are being replicated in Finland, India, and Brazil to explore the cultural, social and organizational context of the utilization of mobile phones in and out of school in a developing and developed world context.

Den här studien är intressant för den utforskar tekniken och utveckligen inom området i en del av världen som länge legat efter. De uttrycker det så här:

Mobile technologies, particularly the mobile phone, are set to play a major role in the development of the information society in developing countries. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Africa’s mobile cellular growth rate has been the highest of any region over the past five years, averaging close to 60 per cent year on year. The continent-wide total number of mobile phone subscribers at the end of 2004 was seventy-six million (ITU Report 2006). The economic and social benefi ts of mobile phones are evident at all socio-economic levels of society and the penetration

rate of mobile phones is signifi cant, especially given the fact that access to these devices is often shared.

En annan intressant synpunkt som det tar fram är mobilens fördelar framför PC:

Contrary to trends in the developed world, where PC and Internet connectivity is almost ubiquitous, mobile phones are currently the most important networked knowledge-exchange technology used in the developing world. From a developing country perspective, features such as limited or no dependence on permanent electricity supply, easy maintenance, easy-touse audio and text interfaces, affordability and accessibility are the most important considerations for using mobile phones as potential learning tools (Masters 2005; Mutula 2002; Stone et al. 2003).

Å tänk på vilken fördel det är för en kontinent som Afrika om det fungerar att kommunicera mobilt med tanke på alla avstånd som föreligger.

The contention that a “socially and educationally responsible definition (of mobile learning) must view the learner as the one being mobile and not his/her devices” (Laouris and Eteokleous 2005), and the ability for “anytime, anywhere” learning is still applicable in the developing world, but more as a positive side-effect. If we separate “mobile learning” into “mobile” and “learning,” the learning aspect is the most important concept in the developing world. The computing device just happens to be mobile.

De påtalar det faktum att även om det funnits tillgång till PC så har den inte använts på ett utvecklande sätt för kontineten utan mer som ett redskap i undervisning:

Even in developed countries where computer technology has been used for educational purposes for several decades, the delivery has rarely met the expectation. Teachers have used computers for drill and practice, automated tutoring and instruction and only lately as a tool for communication, collaboration and problem-solving (Statham and Torrell 1996). The use of technology or media does not in itself improve learners’ learning achievements. Learning is infl uenced more by the instructional strategy than by the type of medium used (Clark 1985).

Det är hög tid för förändring...

There is thus a desperate need for a new approach to integrating technology into the classroom, particularly in the developing world environment. The model needs to take into account issues of usability, accessibility, and affordability, while ensuring that appropriate pedagogical models are adhered to.

Deras upplägg på studien i projektet tycker jag visar på att de är väldigt införstådda i den mobila teknologin och vad man kan använda den till. Deras visioner är konkreta och mätbara samt att de inte är överdrivet optimistiska utan känns realistiska att utföra och studera.

MobilED Philosophy and Principles

The idea of the MobilED project is to create technology that supports existing social infrastructures and increases the potential of current practices with mobile phones by introducing new opportunities for knowledge-sharing, community-building, and shared creation of knowledge in the authentic context of studying and learning.

The approach of the MobilED project is to integrate research-based ideas of using mobile technologies in teaching/learning with active scenarios of real learning programmes. The project includes the design, development, and piloting of prototype applications where multimedia and language technologies (voice, text, images) will be used via the mobile phone as tools in the learning process.

The aim will be to enable all members of society (especially those in the developing world) to become active participants in the information society by being contributors to, and not just passive recipients of, information.

MobilED Objectives

The MobilED project has four key scientific, technical, and developmental objectives:

• To explore and comprehend the cultural, social, and organizational context of young people in and out of school in three developing countries (South Africa, India, Brazil) and in a developed country (Finland) in their utilisation of mobile technologies, particularly mobile phones.

• To develop research-based models and scenarios of how mobile technologies could be used for teaching, learning and empowerment of students within and outside the school context.

• To develop concepts, prototypes, and platforms that will facilitate and support the models and scenarios developed.

• To test, evaluate, and disseminate the scenarios, models, concepts, prototypes, and platforms in the four countries.

Technology Used

The basic technology components being used in the project are:

• Mobile devices and network(s): GSM/SMS phones, multimedia phones, Internet tablets, PDAs, the US$100 laptop (OLPC project of MIT), etc.

• Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia.

• Social software: Mediawiki, blogs, knowledge-building tools, etc.

• Open Source language technologies: speech interfaces, audio usage,etc.

• Open Source telephony and software frameworks and platforms.

Jag blev inte förvånad över att se de goda resultat som studierna visade i projketet utan jag tycker snarare att de visar på styrkan i mobilt lärande med hjälp av mobiltelefoner. Bara det finns kunniga personer som designar projektet :

 

The results of the pilots show that the use of a mobile phone as technology tool to aid the learning process can work extremely well. The barrier of entry was very low – the learners themselves were very open to using the technology and the teachers could focus on facilitating the learning process, rather than having to grapple with new, unfamiliar technologies (as is the case with traditional computers). Thus both learners and teachers felt empowered and confident in using the phones as learning tools. In addition, a mobile phone is a portable device and can be used anywhere, anytime – the teacher does not need to take her learners to the technology (as per the computer lab model), but is able to take the technology to the learner. A mobile phone also opens up the possibility of using the technology on fi eldtrips and out of typical classroom environments, thus demonstrating again the potential to use the mobile phone as a complementary tool to a traditional computer.

 

Conclusion

The MobilED consortium will be refl ecting on the results of these pilots and

will use the results to develop future strategy. Some of the ideas that have been suggested in South Africa include:

1. Using the service to disseminate ideas and lesson plans to teachers by creating slide shows of lessons with audio narrations in all eleven of South Africa’s official languages. A teacher could send an SMS with the title of the lesson to the server and this would be sent the slideshow (if they have an MMS-capable phone) or he/she would be phoned back and the audio played. The teacher could add an audio/video annotation to add his/her ideas to the lesson plan.

2. Making existing educational video/animation “bytes” available to teachers and learners via MMS and data services.

Worldwide interest in the project has been overwhelming: Brazil will start its own MobilED pilots in the near future, and Colombia and Mexico are also planning pilots. Even comparatively wealthy countries like New Zealand are showing interest. For more information on the status of the project and future plans, refer to the MobilED website (http://mobiled.uiah.fi ).

En av de "orosmoln" de målar upp som skuggar deras framgång är en sak som ofta debatteras i Sverige och i hög grad i den skola som jag normalt arbetar i som lärare.

Despite this enthusiasm, however, a major problem being faced in trying to institutionalize the use of mobile phones is the current negative publicity regarding their illicit use in schools. There is no question that currently there is a lot of “under the table” use of mobile phones in classrooms and that they can be distracting influences. This came out very strongly in many of the interviews held while we were collecting data for MobilED. After the pilots, Cornwall Hill decided to champion the use of mobile phones in their school and started developing a strategy for institutionalizing the phones. Additional work needs to be done, but some of the results are discussed below.

Det som krävs enligt mig är också något som de förespråkar nämligen en tydlig förhållning till mobilers användande och en tydlig strategi från skolan:

Because mobile phone use is difficult to monitor in a classroom setting, the appropriate use of these instruments can be encouraged through valuesbased principles, instead of managing it on a rules-based system. Values must be clearly defined, understood, communicated, and practiced. Individual responsibility and accountability can be stipulated and its acceptance is to be encouraged amongst all stakeholders. Well established communication channels can also help ensure proper participant behaviour. Developing a clear strategy for the formal use of these instruments to facilitate learning is paramount to the success of adoption, and this strategy can be divided into three different phases.

- The first phase focuses on creating awareness amongst the various stakeholders in a school setting.

-  The second phase consists of an adjustment and developing period where competencies are identified and policies drafted.

- The final phase involves the identification of mentors to coach and form ongoing relationships with those already involved in the initiative.

 

 

Slutligen så tycker jag att den visdom de påtalar i om hur vi ska "brygga" gapet mellan I-länder och Utvecklingsländer talar för sig själv. Om vi tillhandahåller redskapen så besitter de förmågan att utveckla kunskapen....

Thus, the platform could be used for e-government, e-health, NGO support, SMME support, etc., in developing countries – all aspects integral to socio-economic growth. The MobilED platform enables all people in the developing world not only to access information, but also to contribute information back – thus becoming active participants in the information society. It is making a significant step towards bridging the “digital divide.”

/Helge Lundgren