UNESCO Policy Guidelines for Mobile Learning: Inviting input into draft v2.1

UNESCO Policy Guidelines for Mobile LearningInviting input into draft v2.1

Steve VoslooUNESCO Programme Specialist: Mobile Learning

Presented at the mEducation Alliance Symposium 2012Washington DC, 6 September 2012

UNESCO’s work in mobile learning

Online Support Resources

Guidelines for Mobile Learning

Policy

Issues Paper on Mobile Learning

Policy

Teacher Development: Four Country

Projects

Working Papers Series:

Global Reviews

Gender and Mobile

Learning Project

Issue Paper on the Future

of Mobile Learning

Turning on Mobile Learning in …

• Africa and the Middle East

• Asia• Europe• Latin America• North America• Global Themes

Mobile Learning for Teachers in…

• Africa and the Middle East

• Asia• Europe• Latin America• North America• Global Themes

“This series of papers is highly recommended reading, given its geographic diversity and the breadth (if not depth) of initiatives it considers.”

Aims of the Guidelines:• Raise awareness and put mobile learning onto

the ICT in Education agenda.• Promote value and practicability of mobile

learning.• Make high-level recommendations for

creating policies that enable mobile learning.

Primary Audience:

• Policy makers

Policy Guidelines Consultative Workshop,UNESCO, 2-3 July 2012

UNESCO Policy Guidelines on Mobile Learning (v2.1)

Two main sections

Unique Benefits of

Mobile Technologi

es for Learning

Policy Recommendations

1) Expand the reach and equity of education

2) Facilitate personalized learning

3) Power anytime, anywhere learning

4) Provide immediate feedback and assessment

5) Ensure the productive use of time spent in classrooms

6) Build new communities of students

7) Support situated learning

8) Enhance seamless learning

9) Bridge formal and informal learning

10) Improve communication and administration

11) Maximize cost efficiency

Expand the reach and equity of education

• Increased access to mobile technologies• Extending educational opportunities, e.g.

BridgeIT/Text2Teach, BBC Janala• New pathways for learning• Mobile learning replaces complements

existing education investments and approaches in ways that best utilize the attributes of mobile devices

Facilitate personalized learning

• Mobile devices are generally owned by their users, highly customizable, and carried throughout the day personalisation

• Individualise learning based on different learning styles

Power anytime, anywhere learning

• Long or quick learning experiences• UNECSCO Mobile Literacy Project

Provide immediate feedback and assessment

• Immediate indicators of success• Potential for highly targeted content• Make teachers more efficient by automating

the distribution, collection, evaluation, and documentation of assessments

Ensure the productive use of time spent in classrooms

• Mobiles can be used to access informational content outside of schools

• Use time in class to discuss ideas, share alternate interpretations, work collaboratively, and participate in laboratory activities

Build new communities of students

• Yoza Cellphone Stories• Pink Phone project in Cambodia• MOOCs• Peer-to-peer learning

Support situated learning

• EcoMOBILE environmental field trips• Augmented reality

Enhance seamless learning

• Enabled by cloud computing

Bridge formal and informal learning

• Example: language learning apps• Hear, “speak”, flag for later review, access

supplementary materials

Improve communication and administration

• Messages sent by mobile devices are generally faster, more reliable, more efficient, and less expensive than alternative channels of communication

• Disseminate and elicit information• Support peer-to-peer learning amongst

teachers, e.g. Teaching Biology Project• EMIS

Maximize cost efficiency

• Mobile learning initiatives can be cost-effective

• Can leverage the technology people already own

1) Create or update policies related to mobile learning

2) Train teachers to advance learning through mobile technologies

3) Provide support and training to teachers through mobile technologies

4) Optimize educational content for use on mobile devices

5) Ensure gender equality for mobile students

6) Expand and improve connectivity options while ensuring equity

7) Develop strategies to provide devices for students who cannot afford them

8) Use mobile technology to improve communication and education management

9) Promote the safe, responsible, and healthy use of mobile technologies

10) Raise awareness of mobile learning through advocacy, leadership, and dialogue

Create or update policies related to mobile learning• Most policies are “pre-mobile”• Need to review existing ICT in education policies• Examine the unique educational potentials and

challenges offered by mobile technology and, when appropriate, incorporate these into broader ICT in education policies

• Avoid blanket prohibitions of particular devices• Provide guidance on how new investments in

technology can work in conjunction with existing educational investments and initiatives

Train teachers to advance learning through mobile technologies

• Prioritise the professional development of teachers

• Encourage teacher training institutes to incorporate mobile learning into their programs and curriculum

• Provide opportunities for teachers to share strategies for effectively integrating technology in schools with similar needs and student populations

Provide support and training to teachers through mobile technologies

• Ensure that, where possible, curriculum, educational resources, and lesson plans are available to teachers via mobile devices

• Support projects that explore the practicability of providing professional development via mobile technology

Optimize educational content for use on mobile devices• Ensure that, where possible, content, including online

repositories of educational resources, is as widely accessible as possible from mobile devices

• OER: Support the open licensing of mobile content to ensure its widest possible use and adaptation

• Encourage the development of platforms or software that allow classroom teachers to create or tailor mobile content

• Promote the creation of local educational content in local languages for mobile access

• Advocate for standards that make mobile hardware, software, and content accessible to diverse student populations, including students with disabilities

Ensure gender equality for mobile students

• Ameliorate existing gender gaps by encouraging women and girls to use mobile phones for learning. Specifically, government officials should identify obstacles preventing women and girls from using mobile devices and propose solutions to overcome these obstacles

• Promote mobile technology as a tool that creates educational opportunities for women and girls as well as men and boys

• Identify culturally relevant and acceptable ways of normalizing mobile phone ownership for women and girls

• Be responsive to the particular needs of all people – women and men, girls and boys

Expand and improve connectivity options while ensuring equity

• Support the provision of robust and affordable mobile networks within and across communities, especially in educational institutions such as schools, universities, and libraries

• Consider providing full or partial subsidies for access to mobile data and broadband services (“m-rate”)

Develop strategies to provide devices for students who cannot afford them• 3 common approaches 1) governments or other

institutions provide devices directly; 2) BYOD; or 3) governments and institutions share provisioning responsibilities with students

• Ensure equal access for all students and teachers to mobile technology and participation in mobile learning

• When possible, allow students to “own” their mobile devices

• Encourage government departments and educational institutions to negotiate with vendors and leverage the purchasing power of large numbers of students

Use mobile technology to improve communication and education management

• Promote the “system strengthening” uses of mobile technologies

• Encourage schools and individual educators to communicate with students and parents via mobile devices

• Extend the reach and effectiveness of EMIS by integrating support for mobile access/technologies

Promote the safe, responsible, and healthy use of mobile technologies• Promote responsible use of mobile devices by

teaching digital citizenship • When possible, adopt RUPs instead of AUPs• When practical and within reason, take obvious steps

to safeguard online behaviour by blocking access to inappropriate material and communication

• Articulate strategies to balance online interaction with offline interaction (to avoid too much “screen time”)

• Stay abreast of research surrounding potential health risks associated with mobile technology

Raise awareness of mobile learning through advocacy, leadership, and dialogue

• Negative social attitudes major barrier• Highlight and model how mobile technology can

improve teaching, learning, and administration• Share research findings and evaluations of mobile

learning programs• Encourage dialogue among key stakeholders – including

principals, teachers, learners, parents and community-based organisations – about mobile learning

• Provide a coherent vision of how technology, including mobile technologies, will further learning goals

Seeking Your Feedback and Input on v2.1.

Draft Guidelines:www.tinyurl.com/unescopolicyguidelines

Please send ideas and suggestions before 15 September 2012 to Steven Vosloo: se.vosloo@unesco.org

UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2013

UNESCO HeadquartersParis, France

18-22 February 2013www.tinyurl.com/mlw2013