The M in Learning

 

The Hindu Business Line , 5th October 2009, Monday, eWorld

 

The mobile phone can enable learning in a developing country such as India where its usage is growing by leaps and bounds..

 

M-learning supports learners in that access to learning content and instructors is not restricted by location.

G. Krishna Kumar
V. Sridhar

In today’s classrooms, mobile phones are seen as a nuisance, but they can be the key to a new, personal way of learning. Today’s learners – of all age groups – use their mobiles in nearly all their daily activities. Mobile media enable learners to access information and learning support whenever they need.

“The students of the future will demand learning support that is appropriate for their situation or context. Nothing more; nothing less. And they want it at the moment the need arises. Not sooner; not later. Mobiles will be a key technology to provide that learning support,” says Dr Marcus Specht, professor for Advanced Learning Technologies of the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies at the Open University, Netherlands. By enabling learning on the go, m-learning supports learners in that access to learning content and instructors is not restricted by location.

Nothing can be more apt for India which has witnessed colossal growth in mobile usage in the last five years. With close to 450 million mobile phones, India has the second largest mobile subscriber base in the world, next only to China. Mobile usage, restricted to urban India a few years ago, has started penetrating the rural hinterland at a good pace. The rural teledensity has grown from 1.9 per cent in 2005 to over 15 per cent now.

While the world recognises this phenomenal transformation in communication, India’s Human Development Index ranks an appalling 132 out of the 179 countries. With more than 40 per cent of our population being youth, literacy is of immense importance for a country that depends on this demographic dividend to spur growth and economic development. While Russia, China and Brazil have close to 100 per cent literacy, India, with about 80 per cent, needs to catch up.

Indian rural population has challenges in terms of low literacy, poor health care, low per capita income, and other infrastructure problems that inhibit development. If only the mobile phone and associated wireless technologies could be used to tackle one of the problems, namely, literacy, it might have a cascading effect on the economic development of the region.

Anytime, anywhere

While telecom service providers now concentrate on subscriber acquisition in the rural market, primarily for voice services, which has become commoditised due to intense competition, it is not the end. The dwindling average revenue per user (ARPU) can be offset by using mobile services not just for communication but for more basic aspects of life such as education and healthcare. In advanced countries such as the UK, although the rural population is smaller vis-À-vis the urban, rural subscribers have overtaken their urban counterparts on many of the wireless and broadband parameters. In countries such as the US and Australia, rural mobile health services have picked up momentum.

Examples abound on the use of mobile phones for learning. Mobile devices, which are truly personal, provide an opportunity to learn anytime, anywhere. Through an innovative university-businesses collaborative model, Stanford University’s International Outreach Program launched the Dunia Moja Project in Swahili in Africa to teach university courses to students using mobile phones. The Teachermates projects at Stanford University attempts to make education fun by using innovative mobile games.

A pan-European research and development programme on m-learning is aimed at improving literacy and numerical skills in the age group of 16-24, who were not doing well in the normal education system. Recently the European Community project called BLOOM (Bite-sized Learning Opportunities on Mobile Devices) carried out ‘M-learning in Taxi’, an interesting experiment whereby taxi drivers would utilise waiting time effectively by learning about subjects of interest and improving their knowledge about the city using smartphones. M-learning has certainly picked up momentum across the world and most of the projects are universal in nature and with regional adaptations that can be tailored to each country.

Active m-literacy programme

For m-learning to reach the masses, an active m-literacy programme is a must. Though children and youth have the innate ability to use gadgets with ease, as was demonstrated by the Hole-in-the-Wall project pioneered by NIIT, use of mobile devices for activities such as learning needs training. Many services, especially those that are targeted at the rural masses, such as Nokia Life Tools, provide market and educational information through mobile phones. Hence, it is important that the target audience is trained and adept at using these for successful adoption.

Imparting m-literacy will enable the users to understand and appreciate the value of these technology services and help increase the adoption rate. With 3G and broadband wireless access on the horizon, new opportunities abound to provide a rich m-learning experience. With the rapid fall in the cost of mobile hardware components, and the development of less expensive open source mobile software, the availability of economical feature-rich phones with high-end graphic support that makes m-learning conducive, the days of innovative m-learning solutions are not far off.

There certainly is a huge opportunity that can be tapped by addressing the learning needs of youth in urban and rural India using mobile services. Breaking into the Indian rural market requires a lot more creativity. One way is to embark on a mission of m-literacy and m-learning with an active collaboration amongst various stakeholders such as telecom companies, learning content providers, universities and schools, and local administration. What better way to make the life of our future hopefuls better than educating them through the ubiquitous mobile technologies?

Mr Krishna Kumar is Director and Head of Engineering, Teleca Software Solutions India, and Dr Sridhar is former professor of Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. The views expressed are personal.