Mobile learning on a global scale
18 May 2010
We have been providing online coaching and access to our software to schools in South Africa via US-based learning charity, Learning Academy Worldwide.
Jess Wakelin and Geoff Stead were initially invited to deliver new mobile phones, partly funded by the Tribal Foundation, to schools in South Africa and carry out some training to support this work.
Their visit was so successful that Learning Academy Worldwide raised funds to send Jess back out there for more training in other schools and last week invited her, along with four 12-year old South African students, to speak to White House representatives in the US. Jess even got to meet the chief technical officer at the White House!
The project
Learning Academy Worldwide has established a platform for distance learning in two regions in South Africa.
Since September 2007 they have provided teacher development opportunities aimed at supporting and providing creative strategies for improving reading skills among young learners.
The M-Ubuntu project is the direct result of dialogue with Duke University on the viability of using mobile phones as a pedagogical tool alongside existing teacher development programs.
Our team has been working on M-Ubuntu for about a year, using mobile learning to deliver more project-based, reflexive learning in hard-to-reach schools.
Their first visit to South Africa was in February where they travelled to Grabouw, just outside Cape Town. During their stay they worked with De Rust Futura Acadamy teachers and students to help introduce mobile learning into lessons.
Jess recently returned from a week at Spectrum Primary School in Ennerdale looking at how mobile devices can be used to help students improve their literacy skills.
M-Ubuntu was one of three projects selected to showcase mobile learning to White House officials who spearhead technology-assisted learning initiatives in the US.
You can read more about Tribal’s mobile learning on the m-learning website or the moblearn blog, and read a day-to-day diary of Jess’s contacts with the schools.
Background
Tribal uses m-learning to help teachers find creative ways to use technology to solve learning challenges.
These new technologies have come full circle, with underprivileged developing world schools now coaching teachers and academics in the west.
Tribal is joining forces with Learning Academy Worldwide to explore the possibility of extending our reach into US schools and we are currently connecting with schools in the Washington DC area to explore partnership possibilities.
Our insight into how things are working on the ground in South Africa could prove vital to people’s understanding about the difference this technology is making.
