Mobile education projects haven't replaced face-to-face teaching, but they can be a valuable addition to lessons. The Mobile Learning Toolkit, written by Jenni Parker and developed for my.coop (an organization that teaches agricultural cooperative management techniques to people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America), is an adaptable work that outlines techniques for using mobile technology in educational training systems.
The Mobile Learning Toolkit is broken down into four sections, focusing on Delivering Content, Gathering Feedback, Assigning Tasks, and Providing Support. Although the toolkit was designed for agricultural training sessions, it is open source and can be adapted to other areas that would benefit from using mobile technology to connect with beneficiaries before, during, and after on-location training sessions.
An important point reiterated throughout the toolkit is the importance of face-to-face trainings, and how mobile technology is not a replacement for face-to-face education, but rather an enhancement to it. Many of the SMS, voice, and photo-based modules ask participants to report on and gather data from their daily experiences before attending face-to-face sessions, and the trainings are built around content that comes directly from participants. Making the m-learning sessions more about learning and less about mobile helps training leaders understand what participants want and need, and shifts the focus back to locally relevant education.
