Abstract

Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous in the world today. With the power of portable computing in the hands of everyone and anyone, the time has come to consider using mobile devices for education. While ICT in education has been trialled, results have been mixed. Mobile devices are also ICT devices, so why should we still consider using mobile devices in education and what is its potential impact on the stakeholders. This paper provides an overview of what is out there and explores the opportunities and issues in regards to using mobile devices in education. Next we look at how the stakeholders in the education system, namely the education providers, the teachers, the students, their parents, and the ministry of education can benefit by successfully deploying classroom curriculum via mobile devices. Many stakeholders in the education system are already struggling to deliver basic education–what is required of them and how they should be supported if we are to convince them to use mobile devices in delivering education. Mobile devices are already being used by educational institutions in many countries. What type of technology, content, and mobile devices are currently being experimented with? What are the results in terms of student learning outcomes? What do the teachers think? Are the other stakeholders in education satisfied? We look at reports and reflections from several implementations of using mobile devices in education to learn from and move forward. Regardless of many brilliant anecdotes about using mobile devices in education, mobile devices after all are ICT devices that contain fragile electronic components , need power to operate and connectivity for access. A lot has been learnt from ICT deployment in education and improved upon. However, it is to be noted that fully realized potential of any mobile device and its use in education is entirely dependent upon electrical power, network connectivity and user competency.

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