Attitudes, practices and use of Mobile phones for teaching and learning in Uganda Secondary schools..

Henry Busulwa SMakerere University

Background• Much is talked about the potential of Mobile phones

on teaching and learning • Their use is not allowed in Secondary schools• Might be an attitudinal issue / ignorance• Smart phones can be used as computers to access

internet• Developed the idea, and developed it further since

June 2014 • Document changes and coping changes in one

Private Secondary School in Uganda• Prepared open education resources (TESSA science

secondary• Needed to scaled up their use using mobile phones

Methods

• Developed the idea with selected stakeholders (lecturers and teachers). who advised on introducing specific guidelines

• Seminars with stakeholders: Parents, Teachers and Students.

• Some parents could not believe that there would be a secondary school which can allow use of phones.

• Worked with ICT teacher. The school seconded a teacher to manage the project at school level.

• The Head teacher was not very keen

Methods

• Convinced the school board to Acquire WIFI wireless for the school. • Development and discussion of

guidelines for use of mobile phones in school • Testing the use of the phones and

monitoring their use is continuing.• Documentation of change since June

2014

Challenges• Silent Resistance by the school administration and

parents to accept that the Mobile Phones are an important tool to use for teaching and learning.

• Smart mobile phones expensive than the ordinary phone (cannot access WIFI) These are the ones parents wanted to provide the students.

• Very few students brought smart mobile phones. • Internet Connection expensive and limited. With

four hours a day it costs about 20 dollars.• Some pupils did not use the phones for the

purposes agreed, i.e teaching and learning. They go straight into social media much of the time they accessed internet.

Results• Slow positive change amongst teachers (18%) and• Parents (9%) in accepting that phones are useful in

learning. • High Students’ enthusiasm, and eagerness (95%) to

access education resources could be promoted• Teachers’ low attitude, coupled with inadequate

capacity and skills (73%), to use ICT pedagogies and tools is hindering proper students guidance on the specific sites which enhance interactive learning.

• In addition excuses of poor internet connectivity (76%) continues to disadvantage the few teachers (27%) who are aware of existence of Open Education Resources (OERs) and specifically those who have used (15%) TESSA OERs.

Results – Teachers At begining• We would use phones if we learnt about them during our training• We do not know how phones can be used to handle teaching, we

were not taught like during our training. Even accessing internet is not easy

• What is OERs, how can one access materials from internet• The use of mobile phones is a good idea during the teaching of

computer lessons. However the current standing order from the ministry is against that.

• The school administration is worried about discipline of the students and the phones are likely to affect academic performance since it will be difficult to control their use especially on social media.

• The nature of our students might abuse the guidelines.• Use of phones will attract criticism from communities, school

inspectors, politicians• Let’s wait for the official ministry policy

Results from Parents at the start• Let my child study the way we used to study. Our

children will only get spoiled• The type of phone we are being asked is very

expensive• Why change the way of teaching• Phones likely to compromise the child- teacher

contact time

Parents - change• There is improved communication between our children and

us- this implies that whenever, the students have the phones they communicate to their relatives even if it is a short stay with the phones.

• Students can learn about science, using phones? This is great. During holidays I observed my child was on phone much of the time but was not receiving or making calls but was interacting with colleagues using social media.

• If worked out we shall be able to contribute to internet costs, so that our children interact with international world.

• Our children can obtain reading instructions using internet

Change - teachers• Teachers have begun being creative in preparing

lessons using their phones to record and making lessons interesting.

• Accessibility to internet is becoming a reality. They are ready to move on using the positive response from the few parents.

• We now spend some more time reading about what we are going to teach on line because

• some students have already learnt about it.• I would like to go and learn about a course on

using internet for teaching

Representative of Teachers nationwide

Question % (N = 50)

Have you ever used Tessa materials or any other OERs in teaching

20

Are you aware that there are OERs on internet

30

Need to learn basic skills of integrating ICT in education

80

Learnt about existence of OER through a friend

90

Do you use computers in teaching 30Have you ever used internet 30Interacting with each other will be the best way to improve our skills on use of internet

95

Challenged with internet connectivity 95Challenged with examination pressures 95

Conclusion and recommendations• The study recommends retooling of teachers and

teacher educators in using ICT pedagogies, • Scaling up of smart phones to improve internet

accessibility especially in schools with no computers to embrace use of OERs and internet.

• Teachers /teacher educators must develop positive attitude to use of phones as learning tools, and be facilitators or mentors of pre-service teachers in order to match with the modern world of teaching and learning.

• There is need for a policy to promote use of phones as they provide easy access to information and bring internet nearer to teachers.

THANK YOU