Trends in Distance Education and Open Learning: Policy ... - ADEA

The first objective set for Part III was “documenting case studies of how mobile learning isbeing used to teach and train in different places worldwide. The case studies and projectscompiled and reported in Part III are very meaningful and reveal the complexity ofmLearning projects. Since 2001 , there have been a series of initiatives and projects atinstitutional, entreprise and few at governmental levels. The majority of them for a shortduration of 4 to 8 months and most of the time training is informal. We have noticed aregression of mLearning projects in higher education and a focus on content development.Technology is no more a barrier in the developing world as well as in the developed one.Case studies from China and Bangladesh have shown that teachers continuous training inrural areas are very much possible with mLearning. What really differs from one project toanother is the educational scenario, and sometimes with unknown or unmentionedtheoretical perspective. Some projects can be emulated to other parts of the world. Morecase studies and projects are compiled in Appendix 4.The second objective set for Part III was “discuss the future of use of mobile learning ineducation, training and informal settings”. Several future scenarios have been reported.Attention was drawn on how large carriers together with other stakeholders are proposingmLearning on a subscription basis and new products such IT certification content is alreadyon the market. One could be future project relevant the African context was identified, it’sabout the use of mLearning to leverage the pass rate for students in foundation courseswith insufficient entry requirements for mainstream tertiary undergraduate programmes.Another one could be the improvement in Maths for secondary students throughmLearning.The new framework proposed is a generic one that can be applied on a case to case basisas each mobile learning project seems to be unique by itself. The framework presents 2blocks of critical factors, one conceptual and the other at runtime. The 2 new projectsidentified above can be conceived with the help of this framework.Mobile learning and training implementations require de facto project management skillsbefore any consideration. With advent of new technologies new opportunities, challengesand paradigms will appear, by how much these technologies will drive the educationalgoals need to be further investigated. There has been interesting mobile projects in Africaprincipally relevant to its development, very few indeed in the educational sector, mostsignificant one happening in South Africa. There are interesting success stories acrossworld that can be adapted, emulated and translated to the African context, but alsoindigenous specificities that must be addressed.96