Linking Mobile Learning to the Student-Centered Approach
Pretoria (ZA), May 2010 - Dr Mpine Makoe is Senior Lecturer in Open & Distance Learning at the University of South Africa (UNISA). At eLearning Africa 2010, she will deliver a talk entitled "Identifying Competencies Needed for Using Cell Phones for Facilitating Teaching and Learning in Distance Education". She has kindly shared her profound experience in an interview with CHECK.point eLearning.
What do you include among the competencies needed for using cell phones?
Dr Mpine Makoe: The biggest challenge of Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions is to come up with ways in which teachers can be empowered with the necessary skills in order to fully utilize the affordances of mobile technology to engage students in the learning processes. The use of cell phones for teaching and learning cannot be sustained if teachers are not qualified and competent to use the tool in their work.
Teaching using new technologies requires specific competencies that are different from those most ODL academics possess. Competencies are descriptive tools that identify skills, knowledge, and behavior needed to effectively perform a role. So far, there is very little information on the competencies that may be needed to effectively facilitate teaching and learning using cell phones.
The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to identify the knowledge and skills required to perform the role of a facilitator with the aim of developing a professional-development programme that is responsive to the competencies required. The training should give distance-education practitioners opportunities to become critical thinkers, problem solvers, information literate, technologically literate, and skilled in using mobile technologies.
Could you please describe the experiences collected so far and how they have been used?
Dr Mpine Makoe: The nature of this new technology is such that the role of the lecturers shifts from their being primarily content experts to roles as facilitators of learning. Mobile learning by nature ascribes to the student-centered approach, which focuses on the individual student's experiences, interests, and needs. As the name implies, the pedagogical approach places the student at the center of the learning process.
When this approach is supported by mobile learning, it offers more interactive education and encourages critical thinking, communications skills, and flexibility for both students and teachers. The challenge is that most ODL academics are not equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to facilitate teaching for technologically savvy students. That is why it is necessary to develop appropriate competencies needed to support and facilitate learning in an ODL environment.
However, it is important to note that these competencies should be built on the knowledge-and-skills base of other competencies that academics already have. The implications are that these competencies (both old and new) will provide guidance and structure for formal and informal training for distance-education practitioners who will be using mobile learning.
The ubiquitous nature of mobile learning promotes active and collaborative learning. Cell phones hold such a promise for distance education as a cognitive delivery tool to enhance collaborative learning. In fact, they have the potential to help mitigate the age-old challenge of student isolation in distance education through both synchronous and asynchronous support for learning. The former can be used by the teacher to stimulate discussion among students by sending a question via SMS, while the latter can be utilized to facilitate discussion.
In which way will it improve or change the traditional African learning forms?
Dr Mpine Makoe: Distance education providers should take full advantage of the power of mobile technologies to enhance the learning experiences of their students. Using mobile devices to facilitate and encourage collaborative learning is even more appropriate in this context because in most black South African cultures, group interaction is a strong factor determining values and social interaction. Each member of the community has a responsibility to recognize his or her obligation to the needs of the others.
Therefore, learning is a social process in which a student feels the need to interact with fellow learners. That is why most students at UNISA tend to belong to informal study groups, even though the University neither encourages nor discourages this. This shows that the provision of student support aimed at facilitating collaborative learning will be much more beneficial for most distance-education students in an African context.
It is therefore important that ODL institutions recognize some of the structures that are valued in African cultures and incorporate them in the support system program. The challenge is to optimize how ODL academics integrate these informal learning styles into formal education in order to enhance the learning experience for students. It is clear that students need enabling environments that will allow them to have conversations with their teachers and their peers.
The mediating role of mobile technologies can enable conversation between a student and a teacher, a student and her or his peers, and the student and the institution. Students can only develop their potential if they are given assistance that is appropriate and addresses their needs in their context.
The use of cell phones for education is much more potent in Africa because it has the ability to connect less-privileged people to information. The lack of infrastructure for electricity, computers, and telephones in Africa has led to the rapid growth of wireless infrastructure. The number of subscribers of cell phone use in Africa has increased over a thousand percent in five years! More than ninety percent of UNISA's students own a cell phone that has software features allowing them access to pictures, video, music, games, instant messaging, and the internet.
Today, even the low-cost cell phones have at least some of these features, which enable their use in education for collaboration, tutoring, research, reading, and writing purposes. The use of cell phones for teaching and learning is much more appropriate in distance education because they increase the possibility of formal learning that is not tied to a particular physical location. The mobility allows students to learn anywhere, everywhere, and any time.
What's the vision of the learning future in Africa?
Dr Mpine Makoe: The effects of mobile technologies on the way we communicate, the way we write, and the way we relate to each other can never be underestimated. The use of cell phones for teaching and learning is most suitable in African countries because they are available, affordable, and accessible. My vision is to see academics skilled and empowered to use these devices to improve teaching and learning.
