schoolnet south africa/nokia momaths presentation

Mobile Learning for Mathematics

Education for All | Sustainability | Scalability | Accessibility | Affordability

in formal /informal education in South Africa/Finland

© 2011 Nokia Corporate Social Investment

Omashani NaidooNokia Mobile Maths

• M-learning service

• Implementation methodologies

• Benefits for a learner

• Benefits for a teacher

• What makes this project successful

• Evidence of results and impact

Operations Manager, SchoolNet SA


The m-learning service

South Africa

• Project started by the request of South Africa Vice President in Oct 2008

• 2009- 300 learners from 6 schools

• 2010- 4000 learners from 30 schools

• 2011- 15 500 learners from more than 150 schools

Finland

• 2010-2011 piloting in 4 schools



• Learners and teachers can access to interactive mathematics learning materials provided through a mobile delivery support platform combined with a social media application and a learning management system.

• Support both formal and informal learning in secondary schools

• Support teachers in their teaching and develops new skills for teachers



• Aligned to the current South African curriculum for Grade 10 mathematics.

• Theory and questions from a database of approximately 10,000 questions categorized by topic and degree of difficulty.

• Topic tests

• Immediate feedback

• Compare results with their classmates in their school, in other provinces, and nationally.

• Peer to peer support via Mxit/Ovi chatting

• Moodle LMS


Implementation methodologiesActive learning environment

• Theory• Exercises• Digital support for learning processes (e.g.

Dynamic topic-specific hints)• Peer-to-peer support• Competitions• Add-hoc tests• Self-testing (activity score, competence

score)• Multi-dimensional messaging and

collaboration


Implementation methodologies• Approaching and engaging

children with their own tools

• Learning is part of children’s life

• Learner is focused

• Positive competition

• For formal and for informal learning

• Combining learning and social networking

• For learners and for teachers

• Free service for learners

• For all phones

• Scalable

• Affordable

• Replicable

• Sustainable

Co-operation with global and local experts

PartnersNokia , NSN., South African operators (MTN, CellC), Finnish operators (Telia Sonera, Elisa, DNA), Content provider (MML/Pearson Foundation), Provincial DOE, Mxit, DOE, SAFIPA, DST, DOC, Presidency, Local experts, MERAKA, NBA, SchoolNet SA


Implementation methodologies• In class or independently

• Mobile access:o Own mobileo Shared mobileo Mobi-kit

• 2011 access content via Internet


Benefits for a learner

• 24/7 access to high quality learning materials - 10 000 additional exercises

• short theory for each topic

• immediate feedback

• hints to guide learners to solve the problems

• better awareness of own skills

• internal competition

• external competition (national/global activity score, competence score, ranking list)


Benefits for a learner

• Additional exercise bank for teaching

• Better understanding of the skills in class

• Better communication possibility with learners

• Diagnostic tool for problem areas

• Homework administration (setting, marking and recording)

• Improved digital literacy skills

• Improved use of learning and teaching time


What makes this project successful

• Sustainable, affordable, scalability and replicable considerations have driven the concept design

• Research results have played important role in further development of the service

• Zero rating of the IP address

• Service for all phones

• Focus on learner

• Real 24/7 service

• Lowers the cost of technology required to use such a service

• Brings mathematics into the social networking space already used by youth

• Does not put additional pressure on computer infrastructure in schools

• Minimal teacher training


Achievements to date

• Core group of 1,297 learners emerged as regular users over 2010 (52% of active learners)

• Very positive feedback from learners and teachers

• 28 % of regular users made use of either shared phone / mobi-kit phone

• 82% of use was outside of school time

• Continued use during holidays and strike

• Continued use over one full year (often, despite non-use by teachers)

• Preliminary analysis (Feb – June 2010) shows impact on learner results – 14 % better maths results fro those who were using the service

(2010 academic year)

Operators zero rating the service IP address (MTN, Cellc)


Achievements to date Grade 10 in 2010 and 2011

Academic Years

2010Jan to Dec

2010% of

registered learners

2011Jan to

October

2011 % of registered

learnersNumber of registered learners : 3,916 15754Views and posts activity by learners Total views and posts: 184,916 926461Learners with >0 views or posts: 2,528 64% 63%

Average views and posts: 75

58


Achievements ... some examples in 2011

• In EC in School A average number of started attempts 107,9

• In NW in School B average number of started attempts 83 and in school C 209

• In WC in school D average number of started attempts 58


What next

New content

Fine-tuned modern back end system for mobile learning

Additional functionalities for Nokia phones

New countries

New partners: Col, WorldBank, Pearson Foundation, Eskom


Learner Comments

• ‘I like it 100%. In class people were more active.’

• ‘I never used to like maths. I used to hate it but now I like it.’

• ‘It made learning of mathematics easy. It gives you answers whereas on textbooks you have to find answers yourself.’

• ‘The project has helped me in factorization. It showed different ways of factorizing which when practised enabled one to understand better’.

• ‘It taught me many things because it showed clearly how answers were arrived at.’


Main menu in Mxit


Curriculum


Theory


Examples


Questions


Step by Step

approach


Investigative question


Score card

Many thanks to the Department of Education for their ongoing support of the MoMaths project

www.momaths.org

schoolnet south africa/nokia momaths presentation

Education

learning service learners

use of learning

informal learning

active learners

learning processes

tools learning

learners total views

learning management