Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) – The ubiquity of mobile phones is providing a new low cost tool for teaching in some of the poorest communities, according to a news update published Thursday by global telecoms industry monitor Pyramid Research.
Compiled by community-focused Guardian Professional Networks, the report observes that “access to good quality learning is still denied to millions around the world, particularly in developing countries where teaching standards and education facilities are often poor”.
Asserting that the ubiquity of mobile phones is presenting educators with a new, low-cost tool for teaching, the study looks at four mobile-based solutions delivering real results for low-income learners.
Its first focus on home literacy training shows that “professional teachers aren’t the only ones that affect a child’s learning journey; parents can be instrumental too”, particularly where teachers are often over-stretched and, thus, making active parental input at home critical.
The report cited MobiLiteracy Uganda, a pilot programme that kicked off last year with a grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and uses SMS and audio technology to promote literacy learning outside the classroom in the East African country.
MobiLiteracy offers the chief education provider at home daily reading lessons in the local language via their mobile phone.
“Because the lessons are available through both SMS and audio, even illiterate parents are able to participate,” said the report, noting that the scheme differs from most ‘m-learning’ initiatives by targeting the parent first rather than children.
Developed by US mobile media company Urban Planet Mobile, it’s due to be rolled out at scale in the Ugandan capital of Kampala soon.
The service, which is also available via email, Whatsapp, Twitter and other social messenger services, is being introduced in eight African nations this year. The list includes French-speaking Rwanda, where primary education recently shifted into English.
The second area using mobile-based tools is interactive tutoring in Math. Likened to a text-based call centre, Dr Math kicked off in 2007 and has had over 25,000 registered users to date, the report said.
“Sitting down to do maths homework is already an uphill challenge, especially when the questions are flummoxing,” it argued.
“Using MXit, a hugely popular social messaging platform in South Africa, Dr. Math enables primary and secondary school pupils to request real-time support from volunteer tutors – a large number of whom are engineering students at the University of Pretoria.
“The South Africa Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, which manages the scheme, recently released a ‘how to’ set of tools that enable education providers elsewhere to replicate the service,” the report pointed out, adding: “Whether riding the bus or at their desks at home, students can post their problems and online tutors will message back with guidance (the rules prevent them giving the final answer).”
The third mobile-based service is Worldreader which is available across the developing world, with uptake especially strong in sub-Saharan Africa and India.
“For most young people in the developing world, the likelihood is that the phone in their pocket (if they own one at all) is a traditional feature or mass market type – not a smartphone,” the study found and pointed out that the limited processing power of early generation mobiles still limits the scope for e-learning applications.
“Worldreader, an educational non-profit, has successfully got around the problem by teaming up with biNu, a Sydney-based app developer which boasts technology that compresses mobile data, to deliver smartphone-like speed for basic cell phones reliant on low-bandwidth 2G networks.
“The partnership has spawned an e-book service that is attracting over 335,000 active readers per month,” the report said.
Worldreader Mobile, which works on e-readers as well as traditional mobiles, has around 4,000 titles that can be accessed for free. Its costs, which amount to about US$0.50 per e-book delivery, are kept low thanks to preferential deals with hundreds of publishers around the world.
Most of the available books, ranging from textbooks and short stories to international classics, are in English, but Worldreader has also digitised books in a number of native languages, including Kiswahili, Twi and Yoruba.
Lastly, the study mentioned on MoMaths — one of a growing crop of m-learning solutions that is tapping this trend to supplement classroom education.
The South African initiative, which is run by Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia, sets inventive maths problems that pupils can access via all types of mobile phone.
After five years of piloting the service across the country, Nokia launched MoMaths nationwide last year in association with South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology.
Courtesy of a partnership with South African mobile operators Cell C and MTN, students can access the material on these networks at zero cost, said the report, adding that research has shown that “the maths competency of ‘MoMathematicians’ improves 14 percent faster than that of pupils not using the service.”
“What really sets MoMaths apart is the ability of web-based phone users to compare their scores and usage time with their peers, integrating an element of competition into their learning,” the report said.
Photo: Urban Planet Mobile
