Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57875
Technology Tapping Mobile Phones As Tools for Learning Business schools have delivered content by laptop and PDA; but few, if any, have designed a distance learning program to be delivered completely by mobile phone. Even so, business educators may want to take note of a pilot program currently in progress at Stanford University in California. In April, Stanford's International Outreach Program (IOP), a part of its Freemon Spogli Institute of International Studies, launched the Dunia Moja Project to test the use of mobile phones to deliver educa- tional content. The Dunia Moja Project—"dunia moja" means "one world" in Swa- hili—focuses on the environmental sciences. It is being conducted in partnership with three universities: Makerere University in Uganda, Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania, and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Distance learning has a long his- tory, done first by mail and then over the Internet. But those models do not take into account the fact that Africa lags behind the rest of the world in traditional, computer- based Internet access, says Reinhold Steinbeck, the IOP's director. On the other hand, many citizens in Africa and other developing regions have better access to cell phones than to computers. That led the IOP to propose sending course materials via cell phones. "Mobile phones have great potential to support educational interactions, especially now that they allow not only text messaging, but also media-rich conversations," says Steinbeck. Ericsson and Sony 58 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007 Ericsson collaborated with Stanford to provide mobile smart phones equipped with video cameras, audio recorders, and Internet capability, as well as technical support for the pilot version of the course. Students at all four participating universities can use the phones to access the course Web site, send text messages, and post media to mobile blogs. In addition, students receive a memory card loaded with pre- recorded lectures—which include video and PowerPoint slides—cre- ated by all four universities. Content was created carefully, says Steinbeck, to account for the smaller screen size of the mobile phone. "We really had to think about how we were going to distrib- ute pre-recorded content over the network," he says. "We knew a 60- minute lecture wouldn't be feasible in this medium. Instead, we used shorter segments, or 'courselets.'" In one project, for example, stu- dents in different countries listened to pre-recorded lectures about soil Participants in the Dunia Moja pilot project at Mweka College, Tanzania. erosion, and then shared their find- ings on soil erosion in their own regions. Such projects, says Stein- beck, "sparked some higher level discussions about global climate change." The IOP chose to focus the Donia Moja Project on the envi- ronmental sciences for two reasons. First, the topic is well-suited to a globally distributed project. Sec- ond, Stanford University recently launched a universitywide, interdis- ciplinary initiative targeting the envi- ronment and sustainable practices. The mobile phone's potential to reach globally distributed groups of students—especially those in remote areas—has implications for all aca- demic disciplines, including business, says Steinbeck. "Eventually, most mobile phones will support down- loadable podcasts and even simula- tions," he says. "Mobile phones will allow a school to engage with learn- ers, wherever they are." For information about the Dunia Moja Project, visit www.duniamoja. stanford.edu. SARUNI OLODI, 2007