Educational Technology VUB

Teaching Adult Literacy: One Cell Phone at a Time

A simple widespread everyday, everywhere technology turned into a life changing teaching tool. Cell phones are being used as a platform for giving basic adult literacy classes and with the large number of people who can't read or write this service is desperately needed.

Here are a few facts taken from the Cell-ED website

Target Population:

17% or 796 million adults in the world today lack basic reading skills

122 million young adults ages 15-24 cannot read

75 million children, the next generation, remain out of school

Cell Phones are a Ubiquitous Technology:

There are 6 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide and growing.

75% of the world now has access to a cell phone.

The developing world is now more mobile then the developed world:“In 2000 the developing countries accounted for around one-quarter of the world’s 700 million or so mobile phones. By the beginning of 2009 their share had grown to three-quarters of a total which by then had risen to over 4 billion.” (Economist, 2009)

Despite illiteracy most people still have and easily operate cellphones. This is the conclusion that Cell-ED came to and decided to exploit it with their learning modules. The modules are easy to use on this new mlearning platform. The initiative starts with the student who makes a phone call to the Cell-ED number where they hear a mini lesson while receiving the written version on their phone. After the lesson they have to send a message with the same information, if it is correct they can move to the next module, if not they have to go through the module again until the have assimilated the material enough to get the answer right.

This can be a great solution to the problem of budget cuts in adult literacy programs around the world or a solution to the lack of access to teachers and schools. Cell-Ed has focussed their efforts on people in the low economic bracket in the states but other organizations have brought this idea to other parts of the world.

The first project of this kind was started in Pakistan by UNESCO in partnership with the NGO Bunyad and phone company Mobilink. However the difference with this project was that cell phones were distributed (free of charge) to women after they had completed a 3 month literacy course.

Why women? Rashid Khan, President and CEO of Mobilink explains, “The cell phone holds the key to social development by its very nature and we want to make sure that women are an integral part of this revolution.”

The women receive up to 5 sms' a day in Urdu, and have to write them down in their books and respond to them. The messages contain information in regards to health and hygiene, jokes and other lifestyle improvements. In this case an important issue that was raised in this program was the content of the sms' being sent. Cultural sensitivity was a concern in regards to the sms messages. In certain places the roles and cultural norms for men and women are very distinct, when women need to either receive permission to participate or are being closely supervised it is important that these norms be respected in the content. This can make or break such an important project.

A similar project jumping on the cell phone bandwagon is Hesperian a health organisation that uses mobiles to give access to health guides with detailed health information through a special application on your cell phone. However, more advanced cellphones are necessary to have access to this large body of data. It is extremely useful for healthcare providers in rural areas but also concentrates on the empowerment of individuals and communities.

Lastly, I think it is noteworthy to add this project, the ischool initative, which sees mobile learning as the future, where books, heavy laptops, calculators and periodic tables become obsolete. And all this from a 17yr old high school student.Watch the video for detailed information.

References

Allen, T. (2009). The iSchool initiative (Mobile Learning). Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68KgAcx_9jU&feature=endscreen

Cell-ED. (n. d). Retrieved December 8, 2012, from http://www.celled.org/

Hesperian. (n.d). Retrieved December 8, 2012, from http://hesperian.org/

Miller, D. (2012). Teaching Adult Literacy: One Cell Phone at a Time. Retrieved December 8, 2012, from http://www.changemakers.com/girltech/entries/teaching-adult-basic-education-one-cell-phone-time

Mobilink. (2010). UNESCO driving female literacy through connectivity. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.mobilinkgsm.com/about/PR/2010/UNESCO.php

Mobilink. (n.d). Sms literacy program. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from

http://www.mobilinkgsm.com/csr/sms_literacy.php

Sajidu1. (2010).Mobile Based Literacy Programme. Retreived December 12, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-Qugz2Oec

Trucano, M. (2010). Mobile Phones and Literacy in Rural Communities. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/mobile-phones-literacy

Unesco. (n.d). Mobile-based Literacy Programme. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://unesco.org.pk/education/mlp.html

Unesco. (n.d). Mobilink, UNESCO to use mobile phones to increase access to literacy. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://unesco.org.pk/education/documents/SMS%20Literacy%20Program.pdf

2 comments:

UnknownDecember 26, 2012 at 11:02 AM

Hi Beyondka, technological development is doing wonders and bringing solutions to problems one may never have thought there could be one. Your article on one cell phone at a time is quite fascinating and indicating that more people especially women could gain access to education.

However, some concerns are not answered in my opinion. Can all kinds of phones be used for this purpose or only phones with particular apps? If phones with particular apps, how many people in the target group can afford these phones? By every indication there will still be some people left out because they cannot afford a cell phone.

Whatever the case, it is a good initiative as it reduces the number of uneducated people loninging to have an education.
In Joy LearningDecember 27, 2012 at 10:58 PM
Hi Paul, Each literacy program has its own specifications in terms of the type of cell phones needed, but for most of the projects, especially in developing countries it is based on the fact that most people already have basic cell phones (text message) and thus very basic cell phones are needed. In the project in pakistan the cell phones are in fact provided. There was another project done in the united states and this program used text messages and voicemail as the main means to conduct the course. In none of the cases I studied was internet or any high tech phones needed. Except for the ischool initiative which is in a league of its own.

The aim is to include people and since most people have cell phones anywhere you go in the world (even if they don't have running water) it is a project that can be wide reaching and inclusive.

Thanks for your comment

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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