An investigation of the use of mobile mathematics applications: An African perspective

Abstract

A report published in 2014 by the World Economic Forum ranked the quality of South Africa's mathematics and science education in the last place out of 148 countries. Educational experts believe that learners can benefit from educational mathematical applications. Senior post-graduate students at the Central University of Technology in South Africa, therefore, embarked on a socio-constructivist project to develop appropriate educational mathematics applications for primary school learners in their community. This paper focuses on the first stage of this project where the aim was to investigate the use of mobile mathematics applications by primary school learners within the South African context. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected by using a survey targeting mathematics teachers and parents of children in grade 1 to 3 in the Free State province of South Africa. The results indicate that 64% of grade 1 to 3 learners have access to mobile devices and that both teachers and parents have a very positive perception towards the use of mathematics applications by their learners and children. In addition 30% of parents have downloaded mobile mathematics applications for learners to use at home. The most important reason why parents are not downloading mobile mathematics applications is because they do not know where to find them, or they do not have time to search for appropriate applications. High costs associated with Internet connectivity and the fact that not all learners have access to mobile devices were two key obstacles mentioned by teachers involved with the use of mobile mathematics applications in primary school education.