Mobile Learning
November 23, 2010
The use of mobile phones has greatly increased in recent years. Within just a few decades, mobile phone subscriptions expanded from 12.4 million in 1990 to an expected 4.6 billion by 2009. As more an more people switch to multimedia phones, individuals across the world will increasingly be able to access information through their mobile phone. Along with this, they may have access to augmented reality applications such as Google Goggles which provides the user with additional data about anything they are seeing with their phone, as well as many other augmented reality applications (link below). The possibilities for M-learning will likely improve as the processing power of mobile phones increases. Apart from learning, programs such as the Grameen Phone program have helped to increase connectivity and raise household income in Bangladesh. More and more universities in the United States are adding mobile apps to their range of educational output. Mobile phones also allow users to access the Internet and, therefore, free informal learning content. A mobile learning case study of South Africa is described below.
“Being cheaper and easier to access than traditional Internet connections, mobile phones tend to be turned into learning tools in many contexts in Africa. By 2009, 28% of the Continent’s population had a mobile phone subscription. In South Africa, where literacy rates are low, the Shuttleworth Foundation has started a major m-learning campaign to encourage reading and writing amongst school children and young adults. The logic behind the approach is obvious: While South African teenagers don’t have access to books, they do have cell phones – about ninety percent of those living in urban areas are connected. In the Shuttleworth Foundation’s effort, called the m4Lit project, a teen mystery story was published in English and in isiXhosa on a mobisite (www.kontax.mobi), as well as on South Africa’s most popular mobile instant messaging platform, MXit. Steve Vosloo from Shuttleworth Foundation explains, “In the first three months of publication, over 12,000 teens read the whole story on their phones. A total of 30,000 people have read the full story.” – excerpt from
http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.551.html
M-learning Africa – http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/category_mobile.php
Augmented Reality I-Phone Apps – http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmented-reality-iphone-applications/
TED Talk – Iqbal Quadir sayd mobiles fight povery – http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/iqbal_quadir_says_mobiles_fight_poverty.html
M-Learning.org – http://www.m-learning.org/
