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Connect to Develop Africa:

Leveraging Mobile Learning Initiatives

Annette McFarland Master’s Candidate, Global Human Development

Walsh School of Foreign Service

Georgetown University

1 From ‘Africa Update.’

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LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ABC Alphabétisation de Base par Cellulaire, or ‘Basic literacy through cell phones’

CNDLS Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship

EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment

GSMA Groupe Speciale Mobile Association

HDI Human Development Index

HIPC Heavily Indebted Poor Countries

ICT Information and Communication Technologies

IMF International Monetary Fund

ITEL Initiative on Technology Enhanced Learning

LIC Low-Income Countries

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MPLD Mobile Phone for Literacy and Development module (Tostan)

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

PISA Program for International Student Assessment

PPA Participatory Poverty Assessment

PPP Public-Private Partnership

RCT Randomized Control Trial

SMS Short Message Service

TALULAR Teaching And Learning Using Locally Available Resources

TIMSS Third International Math and Science Study

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

USAID United States Agency for International Development

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Mobile technologies, (including both hardware and software; the physical infrastructure,

devices, and platforms that facilitate connection over cellular networks and the Internet), are

increasingly ubiquitous, even in developing countries, where mobile phones offer innovative

solutions to systemic problems. M-Pesa, the mobile-phone based money transfer and

microfinancing service begun in Kenya and Tanzania in 2007, has famously expanded basic

banking services to millions of people who were previously unable to access formal bank

accounts. More broadly, mobile technologies facilitate information exchange within and across

social groups, and have the potential to transform social and institutional landscapes to support

improved governance across Africa.

This paper is particularly concerned with the potential that mobile technologies have to

transform government educational systems. Education is an important mechanism of economic

growth and human development, as well as a key service governments provide to their citizens.

How can mobile technologies shape and change teaching and learning in present and future

educational contexts in Africa? Consequently, how might African governments incorporate

mobile learning initiatives into their education systems?

A review of communications and economic theory will provide insight into the

mechanisms through which modern mobile technologies can promote development. In the field

of international development, best practices tend to arise in the practical course of doing applied

work. By bringing theory to practice, therefore, a framework can be established for the

successful implementation of mobile learning initiatives across Africa.

This paper will create such a framework from which mobile learning initiatives can be

understood, designed and integrated into the formal and informal education systems of African

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countries. In this paper, “Africa” refers to all countries on the continent.2 I will begin by

summarizing the African educational context, and then explore the potential of modern

technology, specifically mobile phones, to enhance education in Africa. I will outline the criteria

for successful development policies, programs and projects, and comment on the capacity mobile

technologies have to facilitate social and institutional transformation. The paper will conclude

with recommendations for African governments in order for them to leverage mobile

technologies to enhance learning and development.

This paper references three mobile learning initiatives which have been implemented in

Africa and which exemplify certain key criteria of success. One initiative has been carried out in

a formal educational setting (MoMaths in South Africa), and two have been implemented in

informal community settings (Tostan’s Mobile Phone for Literacy and Development module in

Senegal and Project ABC in Niger).

The Need for Educational Investments in Africa

It is well proven that investing in education, thereby increasing the stock of human

capital, is an essential ingredient of economic growth and poverty reduction. The United States

Agency for International Development (USAID) stipulates that “improved access to inclusive

quality education can reduce extreme poverty by creating a more skilled workforce, improving

health outcomes, empowering marginalized groups, reducing inequality (girls, minorities,

chronically poor), and building resiliency,” (‘USAID Announces’). Average private rates of

2 Though examples cited are drawn largely from Sub-Saharan African countries, one important resource covered both Africa and the Middle East (AME), and many conclusions drawn in this paper are more broadly applicable to

developing countries both within and outside of the African continent.

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return to education are 10 percent per year, a stylized fact that survived recent analysis in a

World Bank working paper (Montenegro & Patrinos).

Access to education remains an issue in Africa. The second Millennium Development

Goal (MDG) of achieving universal primary education will not be met by the 2015 deadline.

Sub-Saharan Africa trails behind all other regions with the lowest adjusted net enrollment rate

for primary education of 78 percent as of 2012, (‘Millennium’). The same report stated that there

were 33 million children of primary school age in Sub-Saharan Africa who were not in school.

This includes children who never attended school as well as those who dropped out. “In Uganda,

for example, about 90 percent of children are enrolled in primary school, but more than half of

these students drop out before they complete primary school,” (Wagner 1).

African governments must continue to prioritize access to education in order to ensure

that all children have the opportunity to attend primary school.3 However, it is also time to shift

the conversation from mere access to the quality of education provided. This focus on quality is

important because “at minimum 200-300 million children [are] in school but learning almost

nothing” (Crouch). In his book The Rebirth of Education: Schooling ain’t Learning, Lant

Pritchett makes a compelling call to action to address the glaring deficiencies of educational

systems in developing countries, as evidenced by their low performance on international

comparative assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and

the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). Examining PISA scores, Pritchett

determines that “the typical Brazilian student would be below the seventh percentile (6.8) in the

Danish distribution,” (Pritchett Rebirth 42). Developing countries are often one standard

3 This is a basic human right as defined in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 28,

(‘Convention’).

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deviation or more below the average for Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD) countries.

“Making sense of written words (whether printed or digital) and communicating through

shared texts with interpretive, constructive, and critical thinking is one of the central cognitive

tasks that formal schooling around the world tries to confer,” (Wagner 4), yet many children in

Africa attend school but do not acquire the basic cognitive skills of literacy or numeracy. The

Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) reveals that many students in Africa are unable to

read at all. In Mali, where students were assessed in a local language,4 “between 81 percent and

92 percent of students tested were unable to read a single word,” (‘Assessing’). In Malawi, 83

percent of children have completed primary school, but only 34 percent of children are actually

numerate. In Niger, 71.3 percent of the population over the age of 15 was classified as illiterate

in 2007 (Aker et al. 5). Throughout Africa, “poor educational quality means that many

students…are entering the workforce at a disadvantage and governments are unable to realize the

productive potential of their populations,” (McFarland).

Africans are ill-equipped to enter today’s increasingly globalized workforce, and the

problem is only going to grow. Africa is currently experiencing what demographers call a youth

bulge. There are 200 million youth aged 15-24 in Africa and nearly 70 percent of the African

population is under the age of 35. If trends persist, the United Nations Children’s Fund

(UNICEF) predicts that “one in every four people on the planet will be African by the year

2100,” (‘Africa’). This means that education and employment will need to be top priorities for

African governments well into the future.

4 French, Songhoi, Fulfunde, Bomu or Bamanankan.

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The Case for Technology (specifically mobile learning) in African Education

As information and communication technologies (ICT)5 become universal, educators and

researchers are naturally interested in how to best incorporate ICT into the classroom.

Georgetown University has an Initiative on Technology Enhanced Learning (ITEL), which

provides grants to faculty members in order to explore various ways to use existing technologies

in their courses. One faculty cohort is investigating the efficacy of incorporating tablets into the

classroom as instructional-support tools. It is hoped that bringing these technologies into the

classroom will “help students learn in richer and deeper ways” (‘Initiative’).

Though exploiting technology to aid education is not a new phenomenon, the

investigation of how ICT can best assist teachers and learners in the transmission, attainment and

retention of knowledge is. As new technologies are invented (computers, laptops, cell phones,

smart phones, tablets, etc.), educators strive to connect content to learners’ lives in new ways.

Whether or not these technologies enhance students’ learning experiences depends on many

factors. Evidence thus far is limited and mixed. One 2009 study in the United States found that

“students randomly assigned to a computer-assisted program obtained significantly higher math

scores, primarily due to more individualized instruction,” (Aker et al. 3). The investigation of

incorporating ICT into education is not limited to the developed world. A study in India in 2007

5 ICT is “an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satell ite systems…as well as the various services

and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning” (Rouse).

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found that computers increased students’ math scores, but also found that the gains “were short-

lived, with only limited persistence over time,” (Aker et al. 3).

ICT is not a panacea; it does not enhance learning in and of itself. “People ultimately

learn from other people,” William Garr, Assistant Director of Research and Development at

Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS),

explains: “To the extent to which a given technology can bridge the understandings on a topic

between some people, it can help them learn from each other.” Conversely, it is not difficult to

imagine scenarios in which ICT could serve as more of a distraction from learning rather than an

aid. However, “there is growing evidence that the ways that ICTs are utilized is also changing

the nature of learning processes themselves,” (Wagner 6). For instance, Project ABC6 in Niger

created opportunities outside of class time for adult learners to engage in active learning; they

“used mobile phones more frequently and used phones in more “active” ways, particularly by

making calls, writing SMS [Short Message Service] and “beeping”, all of which require more

advanced letter and number recognition,” (Aker et al. 22-23). By offering learners a way to

practice what they have learned outside of the classroom, mobile phones reinforce what is being

taught inside the classroom.

Mobile learning, or “the provision of learning on wireless and mobile devices,” (Keegan

43) is a subset of conventional e-learning and is increasingly popular as a distinct area of inquiry.

Mobile learning places more emphasis on “ownership, informality, mobility, and context”

6 Project ABC (which stands for Alphabétisation de Base par Cellulaire, or ‘Basic l iteracy through cell phones’), was a collaborative initiative between Catholic Relief Services/Niger, Tufts University, the University of Oxford and the

Système d’Information sur les Marchés Agricoles, (‘System of Information on Agricultural Markets’), a special service under the Ministère du Commerce et de la Promotion du Secteur Privé (‘Ministry of Trade and Private Sector Promotion’). The program provided eight months of l iteracy and numeracy instruction in the local languages Hausa and Zarma over the two-year period from February 2009 – June 2010 to approximately 6,700 adults across

134 vil lages, half of which learned how to use a simple cell phone.

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(Traxler 14) than does e-learning in general. While the discussion of mobile technologies

sometimes includes tablets and laptops, John Traxler draws a distinction between them and cell

phones, which learners are more likely to carry and use everywhere, all the time, “habitually and

unthinkingly” (15). As far as resource-poor education environments in Africa are concerned, cell

phones represent the “most prevalent and accessible ICT device…particularly amongst the

youth,” (Ford & Botha 2).

According to a 2014 McKinsey report, more than 720 million Africans have mobile

phones, (67 million of which are smartphones), and 167 million people already use the internet.

This may not sound like a lot on a continent of 1.1 billion people, but consider that “over the past

ten years, the number of mobile subscriptions in Africa has grown at an average of 30% per

year” (Isaacs 12). At 70 percent mobile penetration, Sub-Saharan Africa is closing in on the

global mobile penetration rate “which at the end of 2013 stood at around 92 percent,” (‘Sub-

Saharan’). The shares of Africans with cell phones and internet access are set to rise rapidly as

“mobile networks are built out and the cost of Internet-capable devices continues to fall,”

(Manyika et al.). Africa is well-situated to benefit from mobile learning initiatives and mobile

learning initiatives are well-suited to address Africa’s educational needs.

Mobile phones enable learners in developing countries to practice their literacy skills in a

way that is relevant to their daily lives. In 2009-2010, researchers Theresa Beltramo and David

Levine evaluated the impact of a Mobile Phone for Literacy and Development (MPLD) module

in the community empowerment curriculum of the non-governmental organization (NGO)

Tostan.7 They found that scores on a basic literacy and numeracy test went up, as did cell phone

7 Tostan is an NGO which was founded in Senegal in 1991 and now has operations in five other West African countries and Somalia. It is well known for its community empowerment program, “a three-year, nonformal education program that facil itates community-led development and social progress,” (‘Tostan’). In 2013 they

integrated a Mobile Phone for Literacy and Development (MPLD) module into their curriculum. Facilitators teach

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usage, text messaging frequency and cell phone ownership. A 2012 study of Project ABC, the

adult education program in Niger, concluded that “information technology leads to an

improvement in skills acquisition,” (Aker et al. 3). Adult students who learned how to use simple

mobile phones scored higher on writing and math tests than students whose classes did not

incorporate mobile phones into the curriculum, with a statistically significant effect.

Additionally, mobile technologies are enabling people to connect to each other in new

ways, “transforming notions of space, community and discourse” (Traxler 12), indeed facilitating

Grewal’s conception of globalization as the “compression of space, a change in geographic

distance as it is lived and conceived,” (18). Since practice “both shapes and supports learning”

(Brown & Duguid 129), not only will using mobile technologies assist learners in their grasp of

subject matter, it will also enable learners to become more fluent and comfortable on digital

platforms that are becoming increasingly important in the twenty-first century economy. In

preparing learners to be mobile citizens, mobile learning is therefore “not about ‘mobile’ as

previously understood, or about ‘learning’ as previously understood, but part of a new mobile

conception of society” (Traxler 14).

By incorporating ICT into formal and informal learning, the distinction between the

communication and the practice becomes blurred: “creating, learning, sharing, and using

knowledge appear almost inseparable,” (Brown & Duguid 126). ICT affords educators and

learners the opportunity to participate in a designated network, whether it consists of “a logged-

in community of app users, the whole Web, [or] just one person at one moment” (Garr). These

networks, defined as “an interconnected group of people linked to one another in a way that

community members to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and use other features of

the phones in order to reinforce literacy and numeracy skil ls taught in earlier modules.

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makes them capable of beneficial cooperation,” (Grewal 20), enhance learning and productivity

by connecting learners to sources of information and other people.

An example of this is the MoMaths8 initiative in South Africa, which “provides learners

and teachers access to interactive mathematics learning materials combined with a social media

application for peer-to-peer support” (Wagner 89). MoMaths enables students and teachers to

access over 10,000 problems of content that is “aligned with the country’s national math

curriculum and is approved by the Department of Education,” (Isaacs 16). Users connect to the

content and to each other via an application called MXit, “a mobile instant messaging platform

that enables real time text-based chatting between users at a fraction of the price of an SMS,”

(Ford & Botha 1). In this way, MoMaths accommodates different learning styles, allowing

students to explore concepts when and where they wish, and gives them the opportunity to

engage in deep learning outside of the classroom by interacting with teachers and each other.

Mobile learning initiatives personalize and enrich the learner’s experience by delivering learning

“just-in-time, just enough, and just-for-me” (Traxler 14).

As the spread of mobile phones and the infrastructure to support them continues across

Africa, now is the moment for policy-makers and educators to prioritize mobile learning and

“leverage the ubiquity of mobile phones in addressing the systemic crisis in education in the

region” (Isaacs 6). African entrepreneurs and educators have the needs and constraints to inspire

the creation of innovative technologies for the future, rather than simply import technologies of

the present. Michael Trucano, an ICT expert from the World Bank, articulated as much at the

8 MoMaths (derived from ‘Mobile Mathematics’), is a collaboration between the South African government and Nokia to support the learning of Grade 10 mathematics in South African schools by providing affordable 24/7 access to math instruction. A pilot project was launched in 2009 and by the end of 2011 “the project had reached 25,000 learners, 500 teachers and 172 schools in 4 provinces,” (Isaacs 17).

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Mobile World Congress in February 2014: “I suspect that some of the most ‘innovative’

applications of technologies for learning won’t emerge from the ‘developed’ countries of the

OECD, but rather from the local ‘hacking’ of technologies originally designed for one context,

so as to do something in different circumstances characterized by scarcity and constraint,”

(Trucano). Conditions are perfect for African policy-makers and educators to prioritize and

facilitate the design and implementation of mobile learning initiatives. What are the criteria for

their success?

Development Criteria

At one time development was defined and understood strictly in terms of economic

growth, “a rise in national or per capita income” (Perkins et al. 13). Today, however,

development has taken on a more holistic definition, and now includes “improvements in health,

education, and other aspects of human welfare” in addition to economic growth (Perkins et al.

14). This aligns nicely with the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled by the United

Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which supplements economic indicators with health

and education indices in order to rank countries on their comparative levels of human

development. The HDI “was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the

ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone”

(‘Human’).

The field of international development has also seen an increased emphasis on process

over the years. While in the past it was sufficient to report on the amount of money spent, donors

today want to ensure that their dollars are being spent responsibly and are having the intended

impact (which means measurable and significant). Reflecting on the learning I have done over

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the past year and a half as a student of the Global Human Development program in the

Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service, I propose the following five criteria as

basic principles of successful development policies, programs and projects, representing current

best practices.

Successful Development is:

1. Context-specific

2. Participatory

3. Sustainable (capacity-building)

4. Effective & Efficient

5. Scalable

1. Context-specific

In development, one size does not fit all. What works to affect change in one context may

very well (and has) failed to do so in a different place and time. “A single experiment does not

provide a final answer on whether a program would universally ‘work,’” (Banerjee & Duflo, 14).

In order for policies, projects and programs to eliminate poverty in any given place, the

contextual characteristics of that place must be considered in the design and implementation

stages. The more a concerted effort is made to understand the culture, history, politics,

demographics, and social dynamics of a place, the “local as a geographic and social space that

forms some type of community” (Pritchett Rebirth 220), the more likely success, however

defined, will be achieved.

Aid is often granted to national governments, and development data is most often

collected and analyzed at the country level. However, decentralization of governments and

systems has become common, and as economic growth enables more countries to graduate to

middle-income status, the future of development work will see a shift of focus to particular

regions and at-risk populations within countries. This hearkens back to Jane Jacobs’ argument

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that cities, not nations, are the most viable economic units. Jacobs famously questions the

“mercantilist tautology that nations are the salient entities for understanding the structure of

economic life” (30), arguing instead that economists should study cities, which are “unique in

their abilities to shape and reshape the economies of other settlements” (32). Sub-Saharan

Africa’s high urban growth rate (3.6 percent, double the world average) means that while about

40 percent of Africans live in cities now, “by 2030 the number will exceed 50 percent as Africa

ceases to be a predominantly rural continent” (Phillips). Of the 200 million people living in

African slums, “175 million do not have access to acceptable sanitation,” (Phillips). The needs

and priorities of the urban poor are therefore markedly different from the needs of the rural poor,

and projects and programs will need to be designed accordingly.

2. Participatory

In 1985 Jane Jacobs wrote: “development cannot be given. It has to be done. It is a

process, not a collection of capital goods,” (119). One way in which Jacobs was proven right was

the necessity in the 1990’s for the creation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)

Initiative from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Loans proved to be insufficient to

promote sustained domestic production and economic growth, and poor countries were crippled

under impossibly high debt loads that were given. Under the HIPC initiative, packages of debt

relief and low interest loans are offered to qualifying countries in order to reduce their

unsustainable levels of debt to something more manageable, putting them in a position to do

more.

Realizing that participation was essential, the World Bank created the Participatory

Poverty Assessment (PPA) in 1992 in order to include poor people’s views in the policy

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formation process to reduce poverty. “If a government or institution is to develop a strategy for

reducing poverty, it makes sense to include the views of poor people in the process of developing

and implementing that strategy,” (Norton). This reflects the common wisdom today, which holds

that in order for any project or program to be successful, beneficiaries and other stakeholders

(e.g. government officials at national, regional and local levels, implementers, etc.) need to be

involved throughout the entire process, from design to implementation to evaluation and

eventually replication, to ensure a greater probability of success.

3. Sustainable (capacity-building)

‘Sustainability’ is a word that means many things to many people. Broadly, it is the idea

that something is sustained over time. In development, sustainability of a project or program is

often discussed in terms of its life beyond direct donor involvement. Even though at some point

funding streams from donors will end, ideally the implementation responsibilities will be turned

over to local community members and the project or program will continue. This evokes the

feedback loop of self-organization that Mark Buchanan describes: “some thing or process A

leads to another, B, which in turn leads to more of A, triggering more B, more A and so on in an

increasing spiral of feedback” (Buchanan Social Atom 14). It is hoped that development will lead

to increased local ownership, and that ownership (which implies local participation and therefore

context-specificity) will lead to further development.

In order to be sustainable, development must be earned, not given. Jacobs explains that

“the spending of the loans, grants and subsidies is the whole improvement to be expected” (122)

unless they are fortified by a city’s own work. Unless a city or country produces its own goods

(either by replacing imports and producing for own consumption or by producing goods for

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export), outside assistance “can play no part in economic life other than temporarily alleviating

poverty” and “can do nothing to overcome the causes of poverty” (Jacobs 122). Since the work

of development must be done by local actors (at least in part, or eventually), it follows that a lack

of capacity on the part of local actors is a source of unsustainability and therefore persistent

poverty. Development must therefore incorporate capacity-building, (training and skills-

building) in order to be sustainable and effective. Tostan’s mobile phone module serves as an

example: “with the joint impact of reinforcing literacy and numeracy skills gained during the

Community Empowerment Program as well as facilitating community development, the MPLD

module takes capacity building to a new level,” (Fritz).

4. Effective & Efficient

In recent years development practitioners have faced the pressure to prove that their

methods of eliminating poverty actually result in poverty being eliminated. Measuring (or

monitoring) and evaluating impact has been integrated into project lifecycles as an essential

component of the work. Methodologies have also become more rigorous. It is no longer enough

to do something, anything; the pressure is on to prove that an intervention has a positive and

significant impact. “Do we know of effective ways to help the poor?” is the seemingly simple

question Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee ask with their book Poor Economics and try to

answer with J-PAL, the research center they founded at the Massachusetts Institute for

Technology (MIT). Together with their cadre of ‘randomistas’, Duflo and Banerjee believe that

poverty solutions can be found and proven effective using Randomized Control Trials (RCTs). In

an RCT, a methodology borrowed from the field of medicine, subjects are randomly assigned to

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a treatment or control group in order that the effect of the ‘treatment’ (in this case bed nets,

deworming pills, textbooks, text message reminders, etc.) can be isolated and measured.

Along with the pressure to prove effectiveness is the pressure faced by development

practitioners and governments of low-income countries (LICs) to be cost-effective, or efficient.

NGOs are pressured by donors to operate with low overhead costs, and LIC governments operate

with limited budgets. The most effective alternative may not always be the most feasible in terms

of cost. Development economists and donors are therefore always on the search for the

alternative that offers the largest impact at lowest cost, or the biggest bang for their buck.

5. Scalable

When an intervention is proven effective, development practitioners and policy-makers

naturally want to know if and how it can work for others elsewhere. The Brookings Institution

defines scalability as “the expansion, replication and transfer of successful development policies,

programs or projects in order to reach more beneficiaries” (Hartmann, 5). This may seem to go

against the criterion for context-specificity, but it is consistent with the scope of the colossal

problem of ending poverty; as of 2008 there are 1.3 billion people, or 22 percent of the

developing world, who live on less than $1.25 per day (Alexander). RCTs are limited in their

applicability; the tradeoff for rigor means that RCT results are conclusive for only the particular

place and time in which the experiment was carried out. The ‘randomistas’ know that rigorous

experiments in a handful of villages can have implications for national policy, and they hope that

many little experiments will add up to one large body of knowledge and evidence that will

ultimately end poverty.

For every policy, project or program, the following questions must be asked: is a given

intervention robust enough to be broadly implemented? Is it politically viable, with support from

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multiple stakeholders? Does it work? Is the price justifiable? Should this intervention be made

available to everyone who needs it? For mobile learning initiatives, simple mobile phones, as

opposed to more sophisticated (and expensive) smart and mobile phones, represent the more

scalable option. Researchers concluded that the use of simple mobile phones that did not “require

a specific program or software” suggested that Project ABC in Niger as “easily scalable and

replicable in other contexts,” (Aker et al. 25).

Mobile Learning in a Developing Country Context

John Traxler makes the case for mobile education on the theoretical pedagogic grounds

that “mobile learning is uniquely placed to support learning that is personalized, authentic and

situated,” (17). As we will see, these mobile learning principles align with the above criteria.

Personalized

Traxler defines personalized learning as that which “recognizes diversity, difference, and

individuality in the ways that learning is developed, delivered, and supported,” (17). This clearly

parallels the first criterion that successful development is context-specific, but personalized

learning also relates to the second and third criteria of participation and sustainability.

Interventions must be personalized to beneficiaries in order for them to participate and

subsequently take ownership and continue the work.

Mobile learning is personal, as “learning that used to be delivered ‘just-in-case’ can now

be delivered ‘just-in-time, just enough, and just-for-me’,” (Traxler 14). With mobile learning

initiatives such as MoMaths in South Africa, the learner has more control over when, where, and

what is learned than he or she does in traditional classroom settings.

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Authentic

Authentic learning “involves real-world problems and projects that are relevant and

interesting to the learner,” (Traxler 18). Authentic learning is context-specific and participatory,

and when done correctly, will result in capacity-building for effective development. This hits

four of the five criteria set out above. Authentic learning involves connecting what is being

learned to learners’ real lives, by using methods such as TALULAR (‘Teaching And Learning

Using Locally Available Resources). Project ABC in Niger “was designed around the context of

women farmers, linking learning to livelihood and leveraging their interest to sell their products

on the market to engage women in literacy training in their local languages,” (Isaacs, 22).

Researchers found that one way Project ABC increased learners’ performance on assessments

was by increasing their interest and effort. The results of the study suggest that “mobile phones

enabled students to practice the skills acquired outside of class by using the mobile phone in

more active (and less expensive) ways, especially for communications with members of their

social network,” (Aker et al. 23). Project ABC students saw the benefits of the curriculum on

their immediate lives, and were motivated to learn how to use mobile phones which enabled

them to stay connected to their social and business networks. The incorporation of mobile

technologies into education can make learning more authentic and keep learners engaged.

Situated

Learning that is situated “takes place in the course of activity, in appropriate and

meaningful contexts,” (Traxler 18). By extending learning beyond the classroom onto mobile

learning platforms, all three mobile learning initiatives discussed in this paper (Tostan’s mobile

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phone module, Project ABC and MoMaths), represent viable mechanisms for situated learning

that is context-specific, participatory and capacity-building for the learner.

Traxler’s rationale lays the groundwork for the efficacy of mobile learning, and why it

should be pursued as a strategy for enhanced learning and development. The value proposition

laid out in the report published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO) report connects the why to the how, explaining that mobile learning

stimulates development because it “opens up new opportunities for improving access, quality

and equity in education and for restructuring educational management and administrative

efficiencies” (Isaacs, 20). The five development criteria laid out above are static, representing a

checklist that can be documented at any particular point in time to determine the viability of a

given development policy, program or project. However, the fulfillment of these criteria alone

does not guarantee that development will or has occurred.

Development is a dynamic process of change. All the checkboxes can be checked for a

well-designed, perfectly contextual, participatory, sustainable, effective, efficient and scalable

intervention, but if no positive change occurs as a result, the intervention cannot be said to have

been a success. What is needed, therefore, are criteria that measure an intervention over a period

of time to determine whether conditions have improved, worsened or stayed the same.

In the next section, I will lay out the theoretical framework for the social and institutional

transformation that is both a means and an end of development. Echoing Mark Buchanan’s

feedback loop as discussed above under the sustainability criterion, development interventions

that result in improved social and institutional conditions will enable further development to

occur. Mobile learning can contribute to positive social transformation by increasing access to

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knowledge and promoting equity. By increasing educational quality and administrative

efficiency, mobile learning initiatives can also contribute to positive institutional transformation.

Social Transformation – Increased Access & Equity

A current trend in the field of international development is an increased focus on

inequality. The World Bank uses the Gini coefficient to measure and compare inequality in

different countries, as it is now generally understood that greater equality is good for economic

growth and human development. An IMF report from earlier this year “found that greater

equality is associated with faster subsequent medium-term growth, both across and within

countries,” (Rodrik). Before, economists believed there was a tradeoff between economic

efficiency and equality, but Rodrik points to depressed growth in poor countries and the

sustained economic prosperity in concert with egalitarian policies in Scandinavian countries to

show that the tradeoff is no longer an “iron law.” There is an economic and moral case for

initiatives that promote equality, but how exactly can cell phones and mobile learning contribute

to increased access and enhanced equity? Current literature on the structure of social networks

provides further insight.

Mark Buchanan emphasizes that it is “not the properties of the parts that matter most, but

their organization, their pattern and form” in his “patterns not people” approach to the study of

network structure (Social Atom 10). For instance, networks are united by standards, the agreed-

upon norms and practices exercised by all members of a network. “The larger the network, the

more powerful the standard underlying it will be—and the more pressure non-users will feel to

adopt that standard,” (Grewal 10). Non-users, those outside the network (in the case of mobile

technologies, those who are literally outside of cellular network range, as well as those who do

21

not own cell phones), will be excluded from the benefits of being inside the network, one of

which is access to social capital.

Social capital refers to “features of social organization, such as trust, norms, and

networks that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions,” (Putnam

167). Putnam finds that the more social capital a society possesses, the easier it is for citizens to

civically engage, and “the more civic a region, the more effective its government,” (98). The

World Bank also finds that social capital, or social cohesion “is critical for societies to prosper

economically and for development to be sustainable” (‘Social Capital’).

Deepa Narayan-Parker draws a distinction between bonding social capital, the social

cohesion within a group, and bridging social capital, the connections members of that group have

to other groups. She emphasizes the importance of these cross-cutting ties between groups,

which “open up economic opportunities to those belonging to less powerful or excluded groups”

(Narayan-Parker 1). These cross-cutting ties are also called weak ties, as they represent

relationships between people who are loosely or distantly connected to one another. Mark

Granovetter observed that weak ties actually have the strength to keep networks of people tied to

each other. Buchanan explains Granovetter’s insight of “the crucial importance in the social

fabric of bridging links between weak acquaintances. Without weak ties, a community would be

fragmented into a number of isolated cliques,” (Nexus 46). People living in isolation can be

easily excluded from resources as those in power and possession of resources have little

incentive to include others, if by their exclusion more benefits are afforded to a smaller group of

people. This is consistent with Narayan-Parker’s concept of primary groups without cross-cutting

ties, which “reinforce pre-existing social stratification, prevent mobility of excluded groups,

22

minorities or poor people, and become the bases of corruption and co-option of power by the

dominant social groups,” (13).

Narayan-Parker concludes that a more connected society is better for all members:

“cross-cutting networks, associations and related norms based in everyday social interactions

lead to the collective good of citizens” because they “help connect people with access to

different information, resources and opportunities,” (13). Accessible cell phone services clearly

facilitate this kind of connection, and in so doing have the potential to turn the tables on the

balance of power. To return to Grewal’s idea of network power, or “the power that a successful

standard possesses when it enables cooperation among members of a network,” (10), it is

conceivable that newcomers to a network could alter the power dynamics and change which

standards dominate. By giving people a forum in which to speak and a way in which to be heard,

mobile platforms (here including the texting and calling capabilities of cell phones, as well as

internet access and online social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter), help alter the

landscape of power. Mo Ibrahim, Sudanese-born founder of Celtel and billionaire, explains the

power of cell phones:

“It is not just a phone…it is a camera. E-mail. Videos. It changes life everywhere. In repressive societies, control over communications channels were held by government.

Mobile phones are a fantastic tool to break that monopoly. It is not just for when people go out on the street. They are swapping stories and sharing what is going on, who is

corrupt, and that builds up a level of consciousness among people. It helps them fight back” (Auletta).

A society that is more connected and engaged is more equitable, and increased equity will

facilitate healthy growth and development. Perhaps this is one reason why “mobile phones are

now being recognized as the pre-eminent vehicle…for wider social change,” (Traxler 17). The

NGO Tostan supports this claim, asserting that its mobile literacy module enables positive social

change, as “the ability to use a cell phone also aids communities in organizing social

23

mobilization activities,” (Fritz). By calling friends and neighbors in nearby and intermarrying

villages on a cell phone rather than traveling in person, community members can more

efficiently organize meetings and campaigns to affect social and institutional change.

Institutional Transformation – Increased Quality and Administrative Efficiency

Just as social dynamics need to be altered to be more inclusive of poor and marginalized

people and subsequently accomplish real, significant and equitable development, the structure of

a given society’s institutional framework may itself be hindering growth and development, and

thus may need to be altered as well. Institutions are “the humanly devised constraints that shape

human interaction” (North 3). Depending on the particular context, therefore, institutions can

reward good or bad behavior. Unfortunately, the institutional frameworks of developing

countries, especially in Africa, “overwhelmingly favor activities that promote redistributive

rather than productive activity, that create monopolies rather than competitive conditions, and

that restrict opportunities rather than expand them,” (North 9). Weak institutional frameworks

hinder economic growth and by extension, development. “The institutional framework plays a

major role in the performance of an economy,” (North 69). A recent episode in Malawi

illustrates North’s conclusion.

In October 2013, it came to light that just such a framework of warped incentives had

enabled several government officials in Malawi to engage in rampant theft and misappropriation

in a scandal that has since been dubbed ‘Cashgate.’ A report by British forensic audit firm Baker

Tilly published in February 2014 found that more than $30 million of government funds were

stolen between April and September 2013 alone (‘Report’). Paul Collier could have been

discussing this incident when he wrote six years earlier: “it is very difficult for [reform-minded

24

ministers and presidents] to implement change because they inherit a civil service that is an

obstacle rather than an instrument. It is hostile to change because individual civil servants profit

from the tangled mess of regulations and expenditures over which they preside” (Collier 111).

These activities which are individually remunerative but socially wasteful represent the first of

three mechanisms which Lant Pritchett posits prevent an association between increases in human

capital and growth rates to be observed in cross-national data.9

Corruption in government, bureaucratic inefficiency, and low growth rates sadly seem to

be typical of institutional frameworks across much of Africa. North counsels a study of history to

understand how past decisions have resulted in present circumstances (a concept known as path

dependence), as a first step towards institutional change. Grewal echoes this: “understanding at a

deeper level of specificity what kinds of standards gain network power may enable us to change

the institutional context in which that power arises” (Grewal 13). How did the overriding

standards of today come to be, and how can that inform the process of change?

Additionally, the increased number of cross-cutting ties enabled by increased Internet and

cellular network access can induce institutional change from the ground up by allowing citizens

to become educated about alternative institutional frameworks. “Global standards often come (or

appear to come) from the outside,” (Grewal 8). By engaging with people from other countries,

citizens will learn that not all governments are corrupt and inefficient, and will therefore demand

government reform. UNESCO’s report on mobile learning in Africa corroborates this: “the

region’s mobile learning projects and social movements, and the independent, individualized

ways in which users are appropriating mobile technologies, suggest that mobile learning is

9 The other two mechanisms that Pritchett proposes are A) that demand for educated labor is not keeping up with the supply, and B) that educational quality is “so low that years of schooling created no huma n capital” (Pritchett,

‘Where’).

25

disrupting and transforming traditional paradigms of learning, teaching and education delivery

and, more broadly, the organization of the economy and society as a whole” (Isaacs 20). Mobile

technologies will equip citizens to directly transform overriding standards and institutions, as

well as aid them in coordinating social movements to pressure governments to initiate

institutional change.

A second mechanism for institutional transformation is to take a systems approach to

development. Governments need to acknowledge that national education systems are failing to

provide students with a viable, quality education for the twenty-first century economy. North

discusses organizations within weak institutional frameworks, noting that they “will become

more efficient – but more efficient at making the society even more unproductive and the basic

institutional structure even less conducive to productive activity,” (9). In tandem with pressures

for widespread institutional reform, educators, administrators, policy-makers, teachers, parents

and community members must commit to making system-wide educational reform a priority.

In order to accomplish the educational goals set forth by international institutions and

LIC governments, Lant Pritchett calls for education systems to transform from spider systems,

(centralized, top-down bureaucracies) to starfish systems, which are decentralized, loosely-

coordinated and adaptive. Pritchett outlines six essential traits for starfish systems to be effective

at producing a quality education. First, education systems must be open, meaning that low-

performing schools are not allowed to persist and new schools are allowed to enter. There are

opportunities for mobile learning initiatives to increase the non-formal educational offerings for

their populations. Open and distance learning for those who live in rural areas, adults who have

little to no schooling, and other marginalized groups can help education systems be more open

(and therefore more accessible and equitable).

26

Secondly, “starfish systems must be locally implemented; administrators, teachers, and

parents must have some autonomy over how their school is operated,” (McFarland). This is

consistent with the criterion of context-specificity. Third, educators and students in starfish

systems must be performance-pressured. One way that mobile technology can assist is with the

publishing of student scores via SMS to parents and students, such as the National Examination

Board in Uganda began to do in 2010. “This project has enabled more efficient access to

information about student performance,” (Isaacs 25). Pritchett’s fourth requirement of a

successful starfish system is that it be professionally networked, meaning that teachers “feel a

common professional ethos and linkages among themselves as professional educators,” (Pritchett

Rebirth 195). It is easy to imagine how the use of cell phones could bolster professional teacher

networks by supporting teacher training, facilitating the sharing of resources among teachers, and

aiding in the creation of communities of practice.

Successful starfish systems are also technically supported, which ties in nicely with the

fourth point of UNESCO’s value proposition for mobile learning: “mobile phones can improve

the administration, management and governance of local, national and regional education

systems,” (Isaacs 30). Cell phones can be leveraged not only as modes of informa tion delivery,

but also as a means to deliver salaries, for example with a service similar to M-Pesa. By

delivering teacher and school administrator salaries directly to their phones, the transactions will

be sped up and funds will be accessible much sooner than under traditional salary delivery

systems. Additionally, a mobile-phone based salary transfer service will be more efficient as

teachers and administrators will incur fewer personal costs; they will no longer have to pay for

transport to get to the nearest bank branch in a regional capital in order to withdraw funds. This

is an example of how mobile phones can provide innovative answers to “the questions of who

27

does what and why,” (Pritchett Rebirth 203). Incorporating mobile technologies into system

design automatically promotes appropriate scaling up across national education systems.

System-wide improvements to educational organizations are a necessary mechanism for

and a result of institutional reform, in order to maximize educational attainment and its

subsequent impact on human development. Educational systems which are more efficient will

deliver higher quality education, and a more equitable distribution of knowledge and skills will

expand opportunities for all, resulting in more productive activity and growth. Incorporating

mobile technologies into education systems will subsequently promote digital literacy and better

serve governments and citizens alike.

Recommendations

How can African governments promote positive social and institutional change through

mobile learning initiatives that are context-specific, participatory, sustainable, effective, efficient

and scalable? African governments must partner with researchers, educational institutions, (both

in Africa and developed countries), international NGOs, multinational and bilateral donors, and

ICT industry leaders to conceive, fund, test, evaluate, adjust, and scale up successful mobile

learning initiatives. An African- led and African-specific community of practice for mobile

learning initiatives must be developed. Such a community of practice might be modeled on the

Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance launched in 2011 by USAID, which was

“designed to support a robust community of practice surrounding the use of mobile technologies

for quality educational outcomes” (‘Goals’). The mEducation Alliance has a steering committee

with representatives from U.S. government agencies, multinational donors, NGOs, public- and

28

private-sector associations, but notably no representation from developing country governments

or firms.

Africa needs its own mobile learning community of practice through which stakeholders

can fund pilot studies of mobile learning initiatives in both formal and informal educational

settings. A regional community of practice could host conferences and symposiums where

stakeholders could share and collaborate on Africa-focused projects, similar to the mEducation

Alliance International Symposium held in Washington D.C., the Groupe Speciale Mobile

Association (GSMA) Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and the UNESCO Mobile Learning

Week in Paris.

While NGOs and donors will continue to be important partners in the expansion of

mobile connectivity across the continent, public-private partnerships (PPPs) between African

governments and ICT industry leaders in Africa are essential for an environment conducive to

mobile learning. This includes making the necessary investments in infrastructure to expand

cellular network and internet access across the continent, as well as deregulating the

telecommunications sector. “It is no coincidence that Ethiopia, one of the few countries that has

not deregulated its telecommunications sector, has one of the lowest rates of mobile phone use in

Africa” (Isaacs 26). PPPs can be designed to include innovative schemes to lower prices for

cellphone handsets and airtime tariffs, as cost remains a constraint for many potential African

users. For the MoMaths project in South Africa, “exploring equitable access to a mobile learning

service was a key consideration…as a result, the project team negotiated with mobile operators

to ensure that there was no charge for the service to end users,” (Roberts and Vanska 246).

Mobile operators can view such cooperation as an opportunity to expand business

operations. In 2008 the cell phone penetration rate in rural Senegal was 44.6 percent. In their

29

study, Beltramo and Levine found a baseline cell phone usage rate of 58 percent. After

completing Tostan’s MPLD module, they found participants’ “cell phone use rose to be nearly

universal (98 percent),” (Beltramo & Levine 8). They also found that cell phone ownership

increased from16 percent to 29 percent. This means that mobile learning initiatives which

promote both traditional and technical literacy help grow the market for cell phones and airtime.

Beltramo and Levine also conducted a pilot study of the addition of a free SMS

Community Forum to Tostan’s curriculum. The forum allowed the user to “send messages to

multiple users within her network through a server” (Beltramo & Levine 3). The researchers

found that participants in the SMS Community Forum had statistically significant higher average

scores on literacy and numeracy tests than participants in control villages. They concluded,

however, that it may not be cost effective for Tostan to continue to administer the forum.

Tostan’s total cost for running the SMS Community Forum was $2,870 for 570 messages. The

researchers estimated that costs could easily exceed $2 million per year if the project was scaled

up nationwide. This cost is unsustainable. A better option would be for Tostan to negotiate with

network providers for better bulk message rates, which would increase the demand for cell

phones and airtime and therefore justify investment from ICT industry leaders in Africa.

African governments are encouraged to formally incorporate ICT, specifically mobile

learning strategies, into their official education policy, one way to use a systems approach to

address educational deficiencies. “One of the inhibiting factors seems to be a lack of awareness

among government decision-makers about the potential of mobile phones to support the effective

and efficient delivery of quality education” (Isaacs 27). Policy-makers must educate themselves

about successful existing mobile learning initiatives, such as MoMaths, which is “systematically

working toward scalability and sustainability” (Isaacs 16). Projects that prove feasible (context-

30

specific, participatory, sustainable, effective and efficient, and scalable) can easily be scaled up,

similar to MoMaths.

An important element of incorporating ICT strategies into official education policy is the

creation of acceptable use policies. African ministries of education must formulate and adopt

policies regarding the fair and acceptable use of mobile phones in schools so “students can be

taught the importance of making informed choices about their behavior online and in mobile

environments” (Isaacs 28). Well-advised policies will help ensure that cell phone use does not

detract more than it contributes to learning in the classroom.

Mobile learning initiatives will also drive governments to bolster strategies for informal

education. Mobile learning provides new opportunities to reach isolated and marginalized groups

which have been underserved by formal education systems, including adult learners, out-of-

school youth, and people in conflict-affected areas. Governments can provide guidelines to

encourage the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative methods of delivering

education to these groups. Whether in-person or conducted remotely, new open and distance-

learning modalities must be created, tested and incorporated into official education policies.

Mobile technologies are catalyzing “a paradigm shift toward ‘twenty-first century

learning,’” (Isaacs 12). Africa is the perfect setting for emerging mobile learning initiatives to be

developed, proven, and scaled up in order to enhance human development.

31

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