Changing the role of teachers by integrating mobile technology in a rural school in Zimbabwe. A reflection in the light of UNESCO policy guidelines

Changing the role of teachers by integrating mobile technology in a rural school in Zimbabwe. A reflection in the light of UNESCO policy guidelines.

Urs Gröhbiel and Christoph Pimmer, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland

09.04.2023University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland 2

A secondary school in rural Zimbabwe – teaching & learning as a challenge

Challenge: Very low pass rates

Explanation of headmaster: Lack of:

teaching materials

qualified teachers

Offer of greenfield project partner

• Test the potential of iPads

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The global challenge: the quality of education

Big achievements: «The efforts to achieve the MDGs in the past 13 years have yielded

unprecedented progress: […] more children in school than ever before»

But: «The education-related MDGs are perceived as having narrowed the focus on

access and completion, at the expense of what children actually learn in school.»

UNICEF / UNESCO report. (2013). Envisioning Education in the post-2015development agenda

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Pilot with multi-stakeholder approach

Mpumelelo

Mpumelelo School

1. “Ice-breaker” multi-stakeholder workshop:

2. Workshops with selected teachers

3. Pilot teaching

4. Dissemination/reflection at teacher level

5. Dissemination (teachers, students, parent representatives, local inspectors, Ministry of Education on district level)

University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland

Teacher Training: Rolling out Responsibility

Next steps

Accompanying further activities

Define the scope and design of further development within greenfield project together wiith the stakeholders

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Reflection on the basis of policy principles: Attention and percieved impact

(3: high attention/impact / 0: no attention/impact)

Further Research and Development

Scaling up tablet use in Zimbabwean schools (district, national)

Mobile & social media for … teacher development (India) Vocational training of apprentices

(Zimbabwe) Social mobile media & Moocs for training

engineers in low resource settings (Nepal)

Mobile monitoring and support for nomads in Chad (human and animal health)

Christoph Pimmer

Educational Researcher

Lecturer

W: www.christoph.pimmer.info

E [email protected]

Contact

Urs Gröhbiel

Professor

Research & development

E [email protected]

Some publications on mobile learning in marginalized settings

Pimmer, C., Linxen, S., & Gröhbiel, U. (2012). Facebook as a learning tool? A case study on the appropriation of social network sites along with mobile phones in developing countries. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(5), 726-738

Pimmer, C., Linxen, S., Gröhbiel, U., Jha, A., & Burg, G. (2012). Mobile learning in resource-constrained environments. A case study of medical education. DOI:10.3109/0142159X.2012.733454. Medical Teacher.

Pimmer, C., Brysiewicz, P., Linxen, S., Walters, F., Chipps, J., & Gröhbiel, U. (in revision). Informal mobile learning in nurse education and practice in marginalized areas. A case study from rural South Africa. Journal of Nurse Education Today

Brysiewicz, P., Pimmer, C., Gröhbiel, U., Walters, F., Linxen, S., & Chipps, J. (2013). The neglected grass root adoption of mobile phones as learning tools in resource-limited settings. A study from advanced midwifery education in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Paper presented at the South African Association of Health Educationalists, Durban, South Africa.