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The rapid growth in mobile phone penetration and use of Short Message Service (SMS) has been seen as a potential solution to improve medical and public health practice in Africa. Several studies have shown effectiveness of SMS interventions to improve health workers’ practices, patients’ adherence to medications and availability of health facility commodities. To inform… Read more
Technology enthusiasts have long heralded the power of technology—from the printing press, to blackboards, to the laptop—to transform education. With the rapid expansion of information communication technologies around the globe, there is a high level of interest in harnessing modern technology to help advance the education status of some of the world’s poorest people. However,… Read more
This paper presents an analysis of the Nigerian National Policy for Information Technology. The analysis reveals that the policy is inadequate to impact positively on the Nigerian education system, and that the philosophical frame of reference is market driven. The policy places little emphasis on the integration and infusion of ICT in the country’s education… Read more
Worldreader’s iREAD 2 project, funded by an All Children Reading grant from USAID, World Vision and AusAid, aims to improve early grade reading skills for students in selected P1 – P3 classrooms in Ghana. The project’s midterm evaluation, carried out in July 2013, uncovered preliminary progress towards meeting those goals. After 5 months of program… Read more
Books change everything. Literacy and education are critical drivers of prosperity and societal well-being. Strong and demonstrable linkages show the tangible effect that literacy has to improve livelihoods and income, stop inter-generational poverty, improve social mobility and gender equality, enhance nutrition, reduce child mortality, aid in the suppression of infectious diseases, improve sanitation and create… Read more
NOKIA Education Delivery (NED) is a mobile phone video content platform. EZ Vidya broadcast educational videos over the 3G network, which teachers showed to students in class by connecting the phone to a TV or LCD projector. This report highlights the objectives and outcomes of the NED platform. Evaluation of a similar programme in the… Read more
Examples of mobile phones being used with teachers to provide continuing professional development (CPD) in emerging economies at scale are largely absent from the research literature. We outline English in Action’s (EIA) model for providing 80,000 teachers with CPD to improve their communicative language teaching in Bangladesh over nine years. EIA’s CPD program is delivered… Read more
Despite improvements in educational indicators, such as enrolment, significant challenges remain with regard to the delivery of quality education in developing countries, particularly in rural and remote regions. In the attempt to find viable solutions to these challenges, much hope has been placed in new information and communication technologies (ICTs), mobile phones being one example…. Read more
There is a gulf between the rhetoric of those advocating the use of ICT in education in Africa and the reality of classroom practice. This paper explores some of the reasons for this, and outlines a possible framework for the successful implementation of teacher training programmes that make advantageous use of appropriate ICTs. It argues… Read more
This paper is part of the UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning. The Series seeks to better understand how mobile technologies can be used to improve educational access, equity and quality around the world. It comprises fourteen individual papers that will be published throughout 2012. This paper, which will inform the forthcoming guidelines, raises… Read more
Findings show variances in the priority areas and development levels of ICT in Education among the countries, mainly due to their unique national contexts. The study showcases a combination of (a) well-established models that are oriented towards ICT-pedagogy integration and (b) entry-level endeavours that prioritize access to education via ICT infrastructure and connectivity – with… Read more