A Conceptual Framework for Theorising Learning with Mobiles in the Global South – big question Home : Annual Conference 2014

Public Group Active 8 years, 7 months ago

Wed, Sep 3 2014, 1:35pm – 2:45pm

Description

This presentation will outline a conceptual environment for theorising learning with mobiles in the global South. The conceptual environment of such theorising must comprise a critical appraisal of

the theorising around mobile learning in the global North, (Ally, 2009; Herrington et al 2009; Pachler et al, 2010; Sharples et al, 2009; Traxler 2009; Vavoula et al, 2009)
the theorising of development studies, (Manzo 1991; Pieterse, 2010; Robeyns, 2005)
the growth of the ICTD and m4d research communities (Gomez et al, 2012; Toyama & Dias 2008; Chepken et al 2012; Donner 2010) alongside
a changing policy and commercial environment, reflected in the activities, for example, of USAID (http://www.meducationalliance.org/), UNESCO (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/ ) and GSMA (http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/), and
the complex and fluid relations between language, literacy and mobile technology in the global South.(Traxler & Vosloo 2014; Traxler 2013)

Since the start of the century, in the developed countries of the global North, learning with mobiles, both as research and as deployment, has grown out of earlier forms of institutional e-learning. It has comparable theoretical discourses to other parts and sometimes earlier parts of e-learning. On the other hand, in the developing countries of the global South, the challenges of fixed infrastructure and environment, the near universality of mobile hardware, software and network technologies and the rhetoric of the global knowledge economy have diverted, distracted, slowed or impoverished the development of comparable but appropriate theoretical discourses.

The presentation attempts to achieve a more robust and abstract understanding of how to use for mobiles for learning in the global.

References

Ally, M. (Ed.). (2009). Mobile learning: Transforming the delivery of education and training. Athabasca University Press.

Chepken, C., Mugwanya, R., Blake, E., & Marsden, G. (2012, March). ICTD interventions: Trends over the last decade. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (pp. 241-248). ACM.

Donner, J. (2010). Framing M4D: The Utility of Continuity and the Dual Heritage of” Mobiles and Development”. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 44.

Gomez, R., Baron, L. F., & Fiore-Silfvast, B. (2012, March). The changing field of ICTD: content analysis of research published in selected journals and conferences, 2000–2010. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (pp. 65-74). ACM

Herrington, J., Herrington, A., Mantei, J., Olney, I., & Ferry, B.(2009). New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education. University of Wollongong.

Manzo, K. (1991). Modernist discourse and the crisis of development theory. Studies in comparative international development, 26(2), 3-36.

Pachler, N., Bachmair, B., Cook, J., & Kress, G. (2010). Mobile learning. Boston, MA: Springer.

Pieterse, J. N. (2010). Development Theory. Sage.

Robeyns, I. (2005). The capability approach: a theoretical survey. Journal of human development, 6(1), 93-117.

Sharples, M., Arnedillo-Sánchez, I., Milrad, M., & Vavoula, G. (2009). Mobile learning (pp. 233-249). Springer Netherlands.

Toyama, K., & Dias, M. B. (2008). Information and Communication Technologies for Development. IEEE Computer, 41(6), 22-25.

Traxler, J. (2009). Learning in a mobile age. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL), 1(1), 1-12.

Traxler, J., & Vosloo, S. (2014). Introduction: The prospects for mobile learning. Prospects, 44(1), 13-28.

Traxler, J. (2013) Mobile Learning for Languages – Can The Past Speak to the Future? TIRF Mobile Language Learning (MLL) Papers. TIRF — The International Research Foundation for English Language Education, http://www.tirfonline.org/english-in-the-workforce/mobile-assisted-language-learning/mobile-learning-for-languages-can-the-past-speak-to-the-future/

Vavoula, G., Pachler, N., & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (Eds.). (2009). Researching mobile learning: frameworks, tools, and research designs. Peter Lang.