Re: Mobile Learning at Open University Malaysia

prinsp, September 21, 2011

At the University of South Africa (Unisa), we have more than 374 000 students (and counting) in a developing world context where the issue of the 'digital divide' is a constant (and contested) concern. With over 69% of our students accessing the LMS in 2011 (so far) the divide may be passing for many.

Up to recently, Unisa depended on postal delivery for delivery of learning materials and mass communication to students. But with the increase in mobile ownership, the possibility to communicate with our students have really opened up. In 2010 Unisa sent17 million SMSs to students of which 3 million of these dealth with administrative issues. 135 000 SMS were sent to the institution requesting examination results.

There is however a down-side to this seemingly 'rosy' picture. We have seen an immense proliferation of the sending of SMSs to students with one student receiving over 600 SMSs from various stakeholders in the institution. This is not only not sustainable, but I suspect that it does not necessarily support learning.

In closing, my sense is that mobile learning does offer unique opportunities for learning in a developing world context - but the optimisation of mobile technology should be carefully planned and intergrated into the total learning design and delivery. Because it is so easy to use, we may use it in ad hoc ways that may actually frustrate learning.

We have developed "Guidelines for the use of SMS and e-mails" for the institution and if you are interested, I can send you a copy? [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]