mLearning in the Western World and in the Developing World

Bengt Nykvist, Department of Computer and

Systems Sciences, Stockholm University

Presentation in Joensuu, 27:th October 2010

Outline

• Why mLearning, in poor countries and in rich countries?

• Functionalities for mLearning in “Simple mobiles”, “media mobiles” and “smart mobiles”

• Some limitations to mLearning using mobile phones: The "small keyboard and small screen problem", airtime cost.

• Presentation of a project in Tanzania (ICTBITES) where mobile phones where used as one channel for communication and distribution of learning material

• Some other examples…..

The Question with a big questionmark• There are more mobile phones in the world

then there are toothbrushes!

• The need for education/life long learning/information is huge… ( e. g. 3 billions need to learn English…)

• Why aren’t the phones used (more) for learning, where is the mLearning pedagogy, where is the “killer application”?????

Myself…

Civilingenjör M. Sc. Eng. 1972DEC (Digital Equipment Corp) 6 yearsMid Sweden University 20 yearsDSV Stockholm University

Master of IT-supported distance education mLearning:Project in Tanzania (OUT)Techer education in Sweden

What is Mobile Learning?

• ”Everyting” is mobile learning? (Using laptops, reading books etc. etc,)

• Or? ”Mobile learning should be restricted to learning on devices which a lady can carry in her handbag or a gentleman can carry in his pocket” (Mobile learning: a practical guide, Keegan)

– Electronic devices that always are ”on”, like mobile phones

Why Mobile Learning?

• Less time and place constraints, “Learning on the move”: flexible technology

• Introducing "authenticity“, learning on site

• Supports ”just-in-time” and “ad hoc” learning

• Enhanced collaboration, with other students, teachers and tutors.

Why Mobile Learning in School?• The phones are there, part of the youth culture

• Access to the ”real world”, outside school

Risks

• New sources of distraction

• Bullying

Mobile Phone categories:

1. Basic, only phone calls and SMS (”Dumb”):

Simple Mobiles

2. Simple, ”music phones”, ”camera phones” :Media Mobiles

3. Smartphones, ”PDA in a phone”: Internet, email, GPS

Smart Mobiles

Learning Applications:Simple Mobiles

• Reach all mobile phones, cheap and easy to operate!

• Group SMS for information to students and parents, like updates and reminders. (e.g. UK comp. txttools.co.uk)

• Question and answer systems. Example: MobileED, SMS + Wikipedia+ text-to-speach

• As a back-channel when watching educational TV-programs for polls and questions

• SMS to Twitter for blogging or real time communication

Learning Applications:Media Mobiles

• Media clips, video and voice (ex. “Khan academy”)

• Document field trips using camera and voice recording

• Quizzes (ex. java-based “mobilequiz” ,from www.mobilestudy.org))

• Example South Africa, Mxit, GPRS-based IMS-system, short stories, 400 words in each chapter, readers can interact (to improve literacy)

Learning Applications:Smart Mobiles

• Apps for learning (language, science, math etc)

• Games, ex ”Tresure Hunt”

• Location-based services to inspire the students to seek information outside the classroom.

Savannah (Benford 2005): New worlds

• Savannah is a strategy-based adventure game where a virtual space is mapped directly onto a real space.

• Engaging learning experiences don't actually need lots of fancy graphics or hardware like virtual reality headsets. Advanced mobile devices can transport people to a virtual world outside their normal experience.

Treasure Hunt (Spikol and Milrad 2007)Treasure Hunt is a mobile game designed

to encourage young people to get physical by solving a mystery surrounding a castle built on the university’s campus.

- Bridge the gap between learning in informal and formal settings.

- Learn new mobile services

mLearning in developing countries…

Same ?

Or different ?

The ICTBITES project:

2010-10-25 B. Nykvist

ICTBITES Project Idea, born at conference eLA 2007

Participants included a group from SPIDER (Swedish Program for ICT in dev. Regions) and Swedish Universities

Discussions with representatives from Tanzania MoEVT

Demand for in-service education of secondary teachers

E-learning suggested as a tool for supporting teachers with limited introductory training (“licensed teachers”) in order to give them more comprehensive, continuous vocational training

Problem Area and Motivation

Project background: The millennium goal to “achieve general primary school for all”

is about to be reached in Tanzania.

60 % attended primary school year 2005, 97% year 2007

But… short supply of secondary teachers with adequate capacity!

Project name: ICT-Based In-Service Teacher Education for Secondary School Teacher in Tanzania" (ICT BITES)

Some problems with e-learning, using PC’s, in the developing world

Accessibility problems Power problemsBand width / Internet infrastructure problemsAffordability problems

Low availability of PC’sLimited knowledge how to operate PC’s and computer

networks

Some of these problems can be addressed by m-learning and usage of mobile phones

Mobile phone networks have high coverage in e.g. Africa

Cheaper equipment

Equipment that can operate without daily access to electricity

Equipment familiar to student and teachers

Project partners

Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) of Tanzania

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT)

University of Dar es Salaam

Mid Sweden University

Support of learning, access to learning material

On the memory cards in the mobile phones: overviews, slideshows for each

learning module study guide in text study guide interpreted as voiceadditional materials such as filmsdiagnostic quizzes

Access to Internet (3G or GPRS) for additional learning material

Learning activities and communication with fellow students and teachers / tutors

Students do quizzes on their mobile phones

Students report development of their assignments (in short form) via SMS

Teachers respond using mobile phones or PC’s sending SMS through the Moodle system

Phone specifications

3G/GPRS

Java

SMS

QVGA display, 320*240 pixels, display not smaller than 2 inches

Ability to play MP3 audio and MPEG4 / 3GP video

Memory card option, card size e.g. 4 GB Micro SD

Technical solution

Study guides in text (with Tequila Cat, Java based book reader)

Texts in study guides interpreted as voice

Narrated slideshows (overviews of learning modules, produced with MS-PPT and Camtasia )

Auto corrected quizzes (Mobile Quiz from Mobilestudy.org, results sent by SMS to teacher mobile phone or to Moodle using Moodletxt from Txttools)

Movie clips with related material (Open Educational Recourses downloaded from the Internet, saved as mpeg4 on mobile phone memory cards)

The pilot test, mobile phones to support learning and communication in three courses

17/3/10

The ICT BITES project: Introduction of pilot group, January 2009

The 18 students (participating in in-service teacher education) quickly learnt the operation of the phones, how to access the learning material and how to communicate using mobile phones.

Evaluation meeting in December 2009, summary of results

The students had communicated using voice and SMSThe media on the phones was used and appreciated, especially the voice interpreted texts of the study guides. (the whole material for three courses is available on the phones as text and voice (on the memory cards)

Evaluation meeting in December 2009, summary of results, cont

The students had used the phones to look for information on the Internet, accessing e-mail etc. This was much appreciated and a new experience even though they had been using mobile phones for several years.

Evaluation meeting in December 2009, summary of results, cont

But…the project management was not successful in fully establishing acceptance for the project model among the lecturers at OUT.

Discussion

There are several possible reasons for the low participation from the lecturers:They were not compensated for the time required for

participation in the project;

The extra time involved in communicating with students was seen as an additional task involving more work and commitment.

The project underestimated the complexity of introducing collaborative models in the academic culture of the target institutions

In a scaled up project….

More effort should be put into working with the lecturers to increase their involvement in the project

Alternative ways to organize mentoring and tutoring could be triedUse of previous students as “e-mentors” or “peer mentors”, these

could assist in setting up study groups (using Yahoo-groups, IM-systems, Facebook or whatever system the students find attractive)

Teachers at educational colleges could be used as additional tutoring support.

In a scaled up project…. cont

The students at the evaluation meeting suggested that more material should be added to the memory cards in the mobile phones:Encyclopedias and wordbooks

More quizzes/ questions

Previous exams

More courses.

Some final remarks

Even when structural support is limited, supplying students with electronic access to learning material and tools for communication is of great value for the students, the students are empowered as learners.

Supplying learning material on memory cards for mobile phones showed to be an attractive way of distribution of learning material.

Back to the Question with a big Q

• There are more mobile phones in the world then there are toothbrushes.

• The need for education/life long learning/information is huge… ( e. g. 3 billions need to learn English…)

• Why aren’t the phones used (more) for learning, where is the mLearning pedagogy, where is the “killer application”?????

“Problems” to handle

• The small keyboard: Interaction using voice instead of text ?(voice mailbox?)

• In developing countries airtime cost might be a problem, some approaches:• Preloaded material on memory cards• Load additional material in

telecenters/internetcafes?• Learning Communication using free Facebook

(available in several countries in developing world) 0.facebook.com, only text)

2010-10-25 B. Nykvist

Is there a m-learning pedagogy?

• Use the special aspect that the mobile phone is integrated to daily life, always on…• Ad hoc / informal learning / “microlearning”

• Cognitive load (Miller, 1956 7+-2) problem• Multitasking is difficult with small screen

• How mLearning is connected to the “real word”• Question and answer• Simulations • Or…disconnect the user from the real world, engage

and absorb.

2010-10-25 B. Nykvist