A recent report dubbed “The Africa Learning barometer” shows that there is a learning crisis & teacher absenteeism that needs to be addressed to improve learning outcomes in the continent and mobile technology could solve part of the problem. There’s also a staffing crisis in our seven public universities; for the 160,000 + students there were only 5,186 lecturers a ration of 1:70 students against the internationally recommended ration of 1:25 for sciences and 1:30 for humanities.
The Julisha 2013 ICT report shows 36% of Kenya’s population has access to internet with around 17.38M users in 2013. The report also shows that the main purposes of using the internet in Kenya are communicating with colleagues, (77%), searching for information 68% and education & learning activities at 40%.
In 2012 social media has gone beyond just being Facebook friends and sharing funny videos you found on YouTube. Today, social media has become a platform with the ability to change the world. As learning practices and technology tools change, mobile learning itself will continue to evolve. For 2013, the focus is on a variety of challenges, from how learners access content to how the idea of a “curriculum” is defined to become more responsive to trends and match the needs of the industry/marketplace.
Mobile learning is about self-actuated personalization; Learning though on one extreme is the magic of presence – with peers and teachers and another is the almost infinite access to peers and experts in the virtual world thus universities need to pay more attention to both.
Technology like tablets PCs, apps, and access to broadband internet are lubricating the shift to mobile learning, but a truly immersive mobile learning environment goes beyond the tools for learning to the lives and communities valued by each individual learner. Here’s the reasons why I strongly feel and urge the education stakeholders to embrace mobile & social learning as part of addressing the deeper learning crisis in Africa.
1. Access
A mobile learning environment is about access to content, peers, experts, credible sources, and previous thinking on relevant topics virtually. It can be actuated via a smart-phone, laptop or in-person, but access is constant–which in turn shifts a unique burden to learn on the shoulders of the student. Educational institutions in the continent thus need to digitize more content into various multimedia formats to optimize it for consumption across various screens key being mobile.
2. Cloud and Curation
The cloud is the enabler of “smart” mobility. With access to the cloud, all data sources and project materials are constantly available, allowing for previously inaccessible levels and styles of revision and collaboration. Apps and mobile devices can not only support curation, but can do so better than teachers might hope to as it enhances aggregation of content from various sources, people and platforms. By design, these technologies adapt to learners, store files, publish thinking, and connect learners, making curation a matter of process rather than ability. Hard copy content gets worn out, isn’t transferable and is bulky; worse still our institutions really do not have well stocked libraries that provide resources for all students especially during revision thus mobile learning provides digital content that is accessible to everyone, everywhere, anytime especially for lecturers teaching similar courses in various campuses/satellite campuses may save on duplication of lecturers by recording videos/audio lecturers and upload them for other students in other campuses! <—-very cool!
3. Transparent & Authentic
Transparency is the natural byproduct of connectivity, mobility, and collaboration. As planning, thinking, performance, and reflection are both mobile and digital, they gain an immediate audience with both local and global communities through social media platforms from Twitter to Facebook, YouTube to blogs. Virtual & Mobile education yields an element of authenticity to learning that is impossible to reproduce in a classroom. Here shy students can engage one another; ask questions online, start discussions, share good content they come across to a community of peers which ultimately converges to enable experiences that are truly personalized. Helps learners pursue their deepest interests and crowd source solutions to their weak areas.
4. Play and Blending
Play is one of the primary characteristics of authentic, progressive learning, both a cause and effect of an engaged mind. In a mobile learning environment learners are encountering a dynamic and often unplanned set of data, domains, and collaborators, changing the tone of learning from academic and compliant to personal and playful making the process of learning full of fun & likeable unlike what it is today in Kenya.
A mobile learning environment will always represent a blending of sorts–physical movement, personal communication, and digital interaction. Mobile learning for universities too shouldn’t be aimed at replacing the in-person interactions offered by institutions but offer students the opportunity to expand knowledge & pursue their interests without dedicating fixed periods of time to fit a college or university schedule. Mobile accelerates learning by taking the best of both worlds (traditional person to person) to virtual (mobile & social) remains an untapped area in Kenya could help with blending of learning!
5. Flexible
Among the most powerful principles of mobile learning is asynchronous access. This unbolts an educational environment from a school floor and allows it to move anywhere, anytime in pursuit of learning allowing it to take place beyond the walls of an institution. It also enables a learning experience that is increasingly personalized: just in time, just enough, just for me. Flexibility to some may mean complete missing of classes if in campus but that’s not cool (either way people miss classes for genuine & bogus reasons) and to others it allows them to read, revise anytime they have time in the day. Professionals looking for ongoing learning and career development without necessarily incurring the costs of a traditional education. This flexibility gives students a chance to access class content while stuck in traffic, in bed, at home or anywhere so all isn’t lost if they miss classes!
6. Self-Actuated & Always On.
With asynchronous access to content, peers, and experts comes the potential for self-actuation. Here, learners plan topic, sequence, audience, and application via facilitation of teachers who now act as experts of resource and assessment. Always-on learning is self-actuated, spontaneous, personalized, self scheduled and pursuable on one’s pace. There is a persistent need for information access, cognitive reflection, and interdependent function through mobile devices. It is also embedded in communities capable of intimate and natural interaction with students/learners. This helps students to shift their focus from going to school to pass get good grades to one where they pursue a deeper understanding of subjects & units; gain knowledge and finally pass exams and score enviable grades.
7. Diverse
With mobility comes diversity. As learning environments change constantly, that fluidity becomes a norm that provides a stream of new ideas, unexpected challenges, and constant opportunities for revision and application of thinking. Audiences are diverse, as are the environments data is being gleaned from and delivered to.
Mobile learning allows students/learners from diverse backgrounds to connect, network and share knowledge virtually and seamlessly hence enhancing collaboration between peers and institutions globally.
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