RIDE 2010 presentation - Mobile Phones for Development (MOB4DEV): Supporting Veterinary Training of Distance Learners in Tanzania

Mobile phones for development: Supporting veterinary training of

distance learners in Tanzania

Niall WintersCDE Conference 2010London, October 27 2010

Funded by the Centre for Distance Education

Science education

• Importance of learning in “out-of-school” contexts (Braund & Reiss, 2006)– Improved development and integration of

concepts– Authentic practical work

• Applied distance education (ADE)– 80% in-field / 20% in the classroom

• Role of mobile phones in support ADE

Mobile learning

• Traditional view of mobile as content repositories

• Learners use mobiles to – Actively create content– Be in constant communication with friends and their

wider peer group

• Technology is always with them (unlike desktop)• Can we build on this “deep usage” and if so how?

3

Situation in Africa

• Distribution of educational content– Short videos to raise awareness of HIV

• Drill-and-practice pedagogies – SMS quizzes – Within social networks (e.g., MXit)

• More powerful devices– 1100 to C63

Pedagogical Implications

• We are not disseminating content• Mobile used by distance learners as a tool for

– Content creation– Data collection– Communication

• Leveraging the affordances of the device

Example of this approach

Niall WintersYishay MorKim Whittlestone

Benefits• Tutor perspective on students’ learning

• Tutors used the website as a “window on where the students attention was”

• Recording the process of clinical reasoning skills development for each student

• Types of representation provided by the devices– Interrelating cases (e.g. personal collections)

RVC students: Fieldwork in Zanzibar on ECF

RVC Undergraduate Research Team

RVC has sent teams out for last 45 years

Research projects aimed at helping farmers in developing countries by researching animal health problems

Current team 9 students

Project on East Coast Fever in cattle to help design vaccine protocol

Research problem: How is mobile phone integrated into in-situ everyday veterinary practice?

What we did

Collecting physical exam data in field using Google’s Open Data Kit (ODK)

Recording sampling locations using Twitter

Communicating with team members and RVC faculty via Twitter, email, and Google Chat

Updating team blog

Parameters recorded• Gender• Breed • Age• Diarrhoea• Temperature• Respiratory Rate

• Mucous membrane colour

• Lymphadenopathy• Number of ticks• Nasal Discharge• Body Condition

Score

Training setting: Small teams in the field

Mobile fitting into a groupwork setting – VIDEO 0387

Recording videos of cases

Rotating roles

Limited/no experience of using smartphones

Student use

• “Twitter has been very important to us”– GPS tagging -> development of a map

• “I haven't use it for reflection or microblogging but as a means to communicate with many people at the same time. Didn't have to micromanage the team - More subtle updating from a management perspective”

• Logistical use – management / when things went wrong

Example tweets• “Wondering the best way to convert xml to excel without doing it

manually1:22 PM Aug 17th from twidroid”• “yes there is good coverage, we are just on a remote bit. Hopefully it will

get better. Phones worked a treat though12:52 PM Aug 17th from twidroid in reply to [removed]”

• “Third day of sampling complete, took LN aspirate from our first suspected case of ECF in a calf, we hope to see something under the microscope9:50 AM Aug 18th from twidroid”

• “Would like to combine 3 or 4 questions from farmer survey into core exam to make 1 quick all purpose form. Think [name] is willing?12:39 PM Aug 18th from twidroid”

• “Having trouble with geimsa stain of lymph node aspirates. Have moved etoh to 1st step7:15 PM Aug 20th from twidroid”

Student use

• In-field – RVC communication• “Working on 1st Geimsa stain [removed link to picture]”• “Pls chase those EDTA tubes up (about 150 we need)…” • Limited

– “If there was a stronger base of staff checking it regular. A pool of 3-4 people with expertise.”

– “If there had been a pathologist on there… Found the email address and sent an email. It was a lot more of a process.”

• Number of faculty on twitter and sending a tweet to see what feedback occurs. [Not everyone thought this]

Student use• Are the students open to asking questions?

– “… based on lectures, I am 100% more confident of asking questions. Different learning style, growing up in the US.”

– “nice to have back-up, run it by someone given you are only here for a short time”

• Making arrangements for phonecalls• Divided opinion

– Using the phone = not part of the team

• Students worked pretty autonomously

Findings: summary

Able to communicate with whole team at once via Twitter. Not all the team used it. Primarily logistical

College-field links: Able to receive input from experts remotely. Provide Geo-located data. Ask questions

Social aspects of learning: Could keep in contact with

family, fellow students, and donors while in field

Interface and network issues

Building capacity/awareness

LIDC's Development Matters podcast featuring Ezra Saitoti, Paul Chacha, Musiany Kisipan & Bev Panto: http://www.lidc.org.uk/pages.php?page=36.

On-going use in Tanzania

Online discussions around the data collected

Current Work

• Building a peer learning community for further training of vet assistants

• Build on local expertise and cases• Collaborate, share and discuss cases via

mobile phones• Lecturers as designers of learning activities

Collaboration

Niall Winters, LKLAndrew Hagner, RVCGuy Collender, LIDCNick Short, RVCDavid Aanensen, ICYishay Mor, LKL

NovodaGoogle Vodafone / VodacomVetAidSACIDSCentre for Distance Education

Thank you!• [email protected]• http://www.lkl.ac.uk/niall • @nwin

• http://www.ml4d.org• http://androidsinafrica.blogspot.com