Enhancing Distance Learning through M-Learning approaches in the Southern African Context
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Enhancing Distance Learning through M- Learning approaches in the Southern African Context Jon Gregson and Paul Smith Imperial College London, Wye Campus Distance Learning Programme [email protected] [email protected]
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Enhancing Distance Learning through M-Learning approaches in the Southern African Context. Jon Gregson and Paul Smith Imperial College London, Wye Campus Distance Learning Programme [email protected] [email protected]. Africa Context: Internet bandwidth. Ref: IDRC Acacia - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Enhancing Distance Learning through M-Learning approaches in the Southern African Context
Enhancing Distance Learning through M-Learning approachesin the Southern African Context
Jon Gregson and Paul SmithImperial College London, Wye Campus
Distance Learning [email protected]
Africa Context: Internet bandwidth
Ref: IDRC AcaciaProject www.idrc.ca
Africa Context:GSM Coverage
Ref: IDRC AcaciaProject www.idrc.ca
Source for maps that follow (unless separately referenced): http://www.cellular-news.com/coverage/
Coverage trends noted:•Increasing rapidly•Mainly around major routes•And towns and cities•Competition exists in most countries
Learning Moments?
Opportunities for study ? A bad day for exams…
The relevance of context, access and the profile of the learners
Unpredictable contexts…how can mobile learning help our students ?
Mike Matsimbe (Malawi)
Project Manager within sugarcane
company
Rex Chapkota (Malawi)
Project officer with Care International / World Vision
Emmy Patroba (Tanzania)
ResearchScientist
Emmanuel Kitwala (Tanzania)
Project Officer withWorld Food Programme
Current Situation
• Face to face workshops Problematic• Computer access Good• Internet Availability Difficult… At work… At cybercafe• ICT Literacy Rated very good• Mobile phones: YES
Mobile Learners ? Well not yet…
Where do you do most of your studying ? 1 At home 2 In the office3 Whilst travelling, e.g during field visits
How much time annually do you spend out of the office, e.g. doing field work ?Never 2 1-4 weeks 9 1-3 months 18 More than 3 months 13
Technical OverviewNokia N70 Phone Selected and TrialledBy students in Malawi and Tanzania. Aim to avoid device proliferation
Communication via Bluetooth, and filesTransferred between DLP and studentVia the Internet
GPRS and 3G not yet widely available At affordable rates
Content being developed using XHTML MP, making use of Nokia Mobile Internet Toolkit and SDKs, and Dreamweaver. Video and audio format conversion using Nokia Software Suite, and basic X-OOM and Magix Products
Approaches
Year One: Working with a small team of students• Context, infrastructure, technology and ICT
literacyYear Two: Working with 20 students on 2 modules• Designing alternative content• Developing activity based learning• Exploring tutoring (including Regional Tutoring
and Support) making use of the mobile
General Resources
• Project Background• Introduction to tutors and project team• Interviews• Getting started with the Nokia N70
– Some activities to try out and submit to the tutor
• Further study resources: e.g. related to study skills
Subject Matter: Rural Development
• Nature of content– Tells a story and easier to
narrate– Quite a lot of basic facts to
grasp– Lends itself well to essay
writing
• Approaches being tested– Audio narrative– Quick quizzes– Activities– Videos
Defining Rural DevelopmentAudio
Subject Matter: ICT for Development
• Nature of content– Mix of Technical and Descriptive content
– Animations
– Difficult to narrate
• Approaches being tested– Introduction videos and conversations with author
– Alternative multi media content
– Redesigning TMA into a series of activities followed by submission of a portfolio
From TMA to Mobile Learning Activities
• Learning activities, and assignments, that encourage students to make use of their phone’s multimedia capabilities, and submit short videos, audio files and images back to the DLP
• Use of Mobile Blogs, Photos, Video, Audio (e.g. interviews) and designed to demonstrate a range of study skills
• First ‘Mobile Assignment’ based around tasks and activities that explore the main themes of the text
• Students can contribute learning resources and share these among themselves, which is especially valuable given that the DLP has approximately 1000 students in over 100 countries
Tutoring
• Current Approach– OLE– E-Digests– Online Q&A
• New Approaches– Improved interaction between tutor and student, for
example by making simple multimedia versions of e-digests
– Regional Tutor making use of phone and text messaging, and scope for question specific audio or video responses
Research Supervision
• One Student in Malawi
• Contact with supervisor – encouragement
• Scope for exchange of ideas via images, audio and video – Asynchronous since real time contact would be
very difficult and expensive
• Administrative coordination and monitoring
Summary of Lessons we hope to learn in relation to the developing
country context• Where best to focus development of course content for
mobile learning• How to enhance tutoring where students have mobile
phones • How an activity based approach can be used to support
learning• How research projects can be supported via mobile
technologies• What use a regional tutor can make of mobile technologies
that would supplement the regular tutoring
