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Uploaded - 2008\10\16-1

2008-10-16T16:16:00.001+02:00

Somewhere in Telford

A great mobile applet for education and training

2007-06-17T21:58:00.000+02:00

Mobile vs PC – the South African scenario

Like most developing countries, South Africa has a severe technical skills shortage which is compounded by a lack of properly qualified mathematics and science educators. Obviously it needs to use every means available to address this. In an ideal world, learners would be “connected” but the country does not yet possess widespread fixed line bandwidth penetration and, in addition, the cost of personal computing is such that it remains out of reach of the majority of families. Broadcasting solutions or private tuition pose their own problems (see table). Contrast this to mobile penetration which is quite astounding with over 3 million teenagers currently in possession of a Java enabled cell phone. Furthermore, mobile coverage now only excludes the most remote areas of the country and, as 2010 approaches, this will improve even more with the level of coverage set to be upgraded to at least EDGE quality for many rural areas. The cost of mobile delivered data has also come down drastically over the past few months, so that it is now more affordable than ever before. The combination of these factors affords a unique opportunity to deliver mobile learning tools to learners at almost any place and any time. In essence, mobile learning is a narrowcast solution which combines cost and penetration in an extremely favourable manner.

Below follows a comparison of various options ranging from broadcast to private tutoring, evaluated against issues like: asynchronicity, language, ubiquity/penetration, local curriculum, interactivity/interaction, assessment, cost-effectiveness, bandwidth issues. What this summary makes clear is that a narrowcast solution, if developed and planned properly is one of the most flexible options available. On the back of this, MOBI was born – an edutainment application which strives to make affordable, anytime, anywhere tutoring available to everyone with a Java enabled handset. As an edutainment tool, MOBI allows learners to listen to internet Radio or chat using an Instant Messaging system (MOBI chat) with MOBI learn completing its functionality.

MOBI – a local tutor at your fingertips

This applet, which has been developed to run on most handsets, can be downloaded and installed for free. Once installed, it is able to connect to an online server via a mobile wireless protocol such as 3G or GPRS and provides access to almost any learning content. Say we are interested in mathematics: MOBI maths provides learners with various options to access content, the easiest of which is the Quick find option where learners submit a search term and are provided with the available content in one or more of the following modes: Basics, Theory, Examples and Exercises. For Grade 10-12 learners, the first stage of the application, Mobi Assessor runs the leaner through various mathematics questions in order to determine their proficiency in the subject and to establish their stage in the national curriculum. Once the learner has been assessed the Mobi application can automatically lead the learner to areas of maths where they are weakest – or run them through their whole curriculum for revision. Tutorials take the form of streamed videos and examples aimed at explaining precisely different maths concepts and tutorials for maths skills development. The Basic Skills section is aimed at filling gaps in a learner’s maths knowledge from previous years, and will also prove valuable to Grade 8-9 learners, whereas the Theory section focuses on grade-specific background knowledge, complimented by the Example section. The idea behind the Exercise section is that learners first try to solve the problems posted there for themselves, before accessing the solutions offered. The Exercise section is a preparation tool for tests and exams and allows learners to evaluate the depth of their knowledge. Of particular interest to school leavers will be the Previous Papers section, which contains complete solutions – with theoretical background – to the final exam papers of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Of course, it is obvious that no technology can replace a teacher and classroom. Rather, the idea is to enhance classroom learning by providing learners with affordable, anywhere, anytime access to (mathematics) instruction. It is ideally positioned to assist learners in a homework environment as a tutor to assist in the understanding of maths concepts and as a revision tool during test and exam seasons.

MOBI – a corporate tutor for ‘Just in time’ learning

Imagine a large mining company with thousands of workers, representing a number of language groups and different educational skill levels. How can such a company manage repeat training in a cost effective manner? Surely a mobile solution should be an obvious consideration, similar to the one described above. For example.. One of the headaches which corporates often have is that they are required to train their workers for a wide range of procedures and processes, not only as a legal requirement, but also to ensure proper safety procedures are followed in emergency situations. However, there is often a time lapse between the original training and the events that require a particular sequence of actions. It is in this instance that a mobile solution becomes viable. After initial and extensive training, companies can make use of mobile technology as a “Just in Time” (JIT) tool for reinforcing proper behaviour and procedures. If properly conceptualised these solutions can serve as the perfect JIT tool in a wide range of situations – with a minimum of infrastructure investment.

Conclusion

Mobile technology has come a long way since the advent of the first handsets. These devices have multimedia capabilities which allow them to be used in a variety of ways which can all contribute towards bridging the digital divide. While it is important to focus on the role that PC’s can play in doing this, it would be a mistake not to include mobile technology in these efforts as well. While mobile phones do have limitations, there certainly are ways in which to use them creatively in both a private and corporate environment – as is proven by an interactive instruction tool like MOBI.

MOBI can be accessed at: http://www.mymobi.co.za/ or download the mobile applet from your phone by browsing to: www.mymobi.co.za/download

Mobile Learning for Africa

2007-06-16T08:46:00.000+02:00

Some thoughts on current attempts to bridge the digital divide

Introduction

Just imagine yourself living in a rural community somewhere in Africa. Although you have basic services like water and electricity, your nearest fixed line telephone is 1km away. Your school, with 400 high school children is one of the chosen ones which will receive a computer laboratory within the next six months, which is great, but for now you and all your school friends are still disconnected from the WWW, with no hope of benefiting from Web 2.0 and all the exciting prospects that it offers….

Yet, despite all these problems, you are not disconnected, in fact you are part of the Internet community, you have bridged the digital divide, and you have access to resources undreamt of just a few months ago. Like many kids of your age all over the world, you struggle with mathematics, but you need it in order to enrol for an engineering qualification when you finish school in two years. And like many of them you also have your own personal tutor, except yours is different. Yours is available anytime, anywhere. Yours comes to your house, and most importantly, yours comes at a rate which is unheard of anywhere in the world – she is not called Ms Smith, like theirs, instead he is called MOBI. Yours is unfamiliar with foreign curricula, but quite familiar with the local mathematics curriculum. How did this happen?

It happened when you got hold of a mobile phone, not brand new, but Java enabled with a wap browser - and it changed your life forever…

Dismantling the digital divide

Much has been made in the past few years about the digital divide and how it impacts negatively on development and education in the third world and especially Africa. While the rest of the world is benefiting from Web 2.0 already, millions in Africa have yet to experience basic Internet connectivity. While the focus in organisations like NEPAD on personal computers as primary means of connection with the Internet will certainly improve matters, it is often overlooked that mobile technology has surpassed traditional standalone computers through the sheer variety and simplicity of what is offered in one device.

Given that the computing power, memory and multimedia capabilities of a fairly standard handset today is more powerful than was the case with personal computers only a few years ago, there is a case to be made for mobile technology as an important tool in bridging the digital divide. In addition, due to their mobility, handsets allow for a level of integration into learning programmes that cannot easily be met by standalone computers, or even laptops. Obviously, mobile devices cannot replace personal computers since they are not really suited for tasks such as word-processing and spreadsheet calculations, but that is not the point. What is often overlooked in current efforts and strategies to address the digital divide is that mobile phones offer different and exciting ways to do this by enabling, enhancing and integrating learning across a range of subjects – in ways that are both similar and different to conventional computers.

By their very nature, computer labs often foster a situation where the focus is on computing and computing skills, with the integration of learning from other subjects almost inevitably being an add on. Of course this is not always the case, and there are examples of personal computers being used in creative ways to contribute to learning for a number of subject areas. But in the majority of instances, the mere existence of a computer laboratory as a fixed entity leads to a situation where what happens there is to some extent divorced from the learning that takes place elsewhere in the school and in learners’ lives.

It seems then, that rather than focussing on a one-dimensional approach to the issue, stakeholders should consider a more balanced approach, one which do not focus on a scenario without mobile phones, and is therefore outdated already, but one in which mobile tools form an integrated part of the proposed solution.

However, this hardly seems to be the case as far as current attempts and policies go, rather, the opposite seems to be true – there is a fixation with personal computers as if it is the only and most affordable solution for bridging the digital divide. But this does not have to be the case. There definitely is another way of approaching this issue, and that is to actively involve mobile technology as part of this effort. In a next blog, I will focus on a case study where mobiles are being used to enable learning and tutoring in Africa in ways not imagined a few years ago.

Mobile vs PC – the South African scenario

Like most developing countries, South Africa has a severe technical skills shortage which is compounded by a lack of properly qualified mathematics and science educators. Obviously it needs to use every means available to address this. In an ideal world, learners would be “connected” but the country does not yet possess widespread fixed line bandwidth penetration and, in addition, the cost of personal computing is such that it remains out of reach of the majority of families. Broadcasting solutions or private tuition pose their own problems (see table).

Contrast this to mobile penetration which is quite astounding with over 3 million teenagers currently in possession of a Java enabled cell phone. Furthermore, mobile coverage now only excludes the most remote areas of the country and, as 2010 approaches, this will improve even more with the level of coverage set to be upgraded to at least EDGE quality for many rural areas. The cost of mobile delivered data has also come down drastically over the past few months, so that it is now more affordable than ever before. The combination of these factors affords a unique opportunity to deliver mobile learning tools to learners at almost any place and any time.

In essence, mobile learning is a narrowcast solution which combines cost and penetration in an extremely favourable manner. Below follows a comparison of various options ranging from broadcast to private tutoring, evaluated against issues like: asynchronicity, language, ubiquity/penetration, local curriculum, interactivity/interaction, assessment, cost-effectiveness, bandwidth issues.

What this summary makes clear is that a narrowcast solution, if developed and planned properly is one of the most flexible options available. On the back of this, MOBI was born – an edutainment application which strives to make affordable, anytime, anywhere tutoring available to everyone with a Java enabled handset. As an edutainment tool, MOBI allows learners to listen to internet Radio or chat using an Instant Messaging system (MOBI chat) with MOBI learn completing its functionality.

MOBI – a local tutor at your fingertips

This applet, which has been developed to run on most handsets, can be downloaded and installed for free. Once installed, it is able to connect to an online server via a mobile wireless protocol such as 3G or GPRS and provides access to almost any learning content. Say we are interested in mathematics:

MOBI maths provides learners with various options to access content, the easiest of which is the Quick find option where learners submit a search term and are provided with the available content in one or more of the following modes: Basics, Theory, Examples and Exercises.

For Grade 10-12 learners, the first stage of the application, Mobi Assessor runs the leaner through various mathematics questions in order to determine their proficiency in the subject and to establish their stage in the national curriculum. Once the learner has been assessed the Mobi application can automatically lead the learner to areas of maths where they are weakest – or run them through their whole curriculum for revision. Tutorials take the form of streamed videos and examples aimed at explaining precisely different maths concepts and tutorials for maths skills development.

The Basic Skills section is aimed at filling gaps in a learner’s maths knowledge from previous years, and will also prove valuable to Grade 8-9 learners, whereas the Theory section focuses on grade-specific background knowledge, complimented by the Example section.

The idea behind the Exercise section is that learners first try to solve the problems posted there for themselves, before accessing the solutions offered. The Exercise section is a preparation tool for tests and exams and allows learners to evaluate the depth of their knowledge.

Of particular interest to school leavers will be the Previous Papers section, which contains complete solutions – with theoretical background – to the final exam papers of 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Of course, it is obvious that no technology can replace a teacher and classroom. Rather, the idea is to enhance classroom learning by providing learners with affordable, anywhere, anytime access to (mathematics) instruction. It is ideally positioned to assist learners in a homework environment as a tutor to assist in the understanding of maths concepts and as a revision tool during test and exam seasons.

MOBI – a corporate tutor for ‘Just in time’ learning

Imagine a large mining company with thousands of workers, representing a number of language groups and different educational skill levels. How can such a company manage repeat training in a cost effective manner? Surely a mobile solution should be an obvious consideration, similar to the one described above. For example..

One of the headaches which corporates often have is that they are required to train their workers for a wide range of procedures and processes, not only as a legal requirement, but also to ensure proper safety procedures are followed in emergency situations. However, there is often a time lapse between the original training and the events that require a particular sequence of actions. It is in this instance that a mobile solution becomes viable. After initial and extensive training, companies can make use of mobile technology as a “Just in Time” (JIT) tool for reinforcing proper behaviour and procedures. If properly conceptualised these solutions can serve as the perfect JIT tool in a wide range of situations – with a minimum of infrastructure investment.

Conclusion

Mobile technology has come a long way since the advent of the first handsets. These devices have multimedia capabilities which allow them to be used in a variety of ways which can all contribute towards bridging the digital divide. While it is important to focus on the role that PC’s can play in doing this, it would be a mistake not to include mobile technology in these efforts as well. While mobile phones do have limitations, there certainly are ways in which to use them creatively in both a private and corporate environment – as is proven by an interactive instruction tool like MOBI.

MOBI can be accessed at: http://www.mymobi.co.za/ or download the mobile applet from your phone by browsing to: www.mymobi.co.za/download