Abstract
Mobile technologies are promising features that point to the future of instruction and learning. This paper reviews literature on mobile technology in order to identify areas of focus for researchers with interest in Africa towards contextualizing the use of mobile technology for mobile learning (m-learning) within the African experience. It examined the uses of mobile technologies as explored by researchers and pointed out the benefits and drawbacks. This paper extracted the recommendations of researchers on how to overcome or correct the setbacks to the implementation of mobile technology into the learning environment. It recommended offline access to learning materials on mobile devices to be seriously contemplated for m-learning in Africa. There is need for further research in the developing world of Africa to measure the outcome of offline mobile learning and its effects on cost reduction, and to develop theoretical frameworks that will evaluate programs, learners and instructors for building effective instructional design using the mobile technologies. This paper draws a roadmap and sets the ball rolling for designers of mobile learning modules, instructors and researchers in the field of education to work in situating learning with mobile technology as a method of choice in the learning environment. It also demonstrates to learners the much functionality their mobile devices offer them in attaining their educational goals.
Highlights
The use of mobile technologies for instruction and learning is still in its developmental phase, but the growth of these technologies has reached a level that we cannot ignore
The results showed that using Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) for learning facilitates immediate feedback
This study suggests Short Message Service (SMS) is a vital tool of the mobile technology and has potential impact in the mobile learning process
Summary
The use of mobile technologies for instruction and learning is still in its developmental phase, but the growth of these technologies has reached a level that we cannot ignore. About 96% of the world’s population (6.8 billion people) was mobile subscribers by the end of 2012 This is in terms of phone SIM cards in use (Global Mobile Statistics, 2014). The growth in the use of mobile devices, such as the mobile phone, is astronomical; an estimated 63.5% of Africans are mobile subscribers in 2013. This is up from 12.4% in 2005 (ITU, 2013), and increasing number of people in Africa than in other regions of the world view web pages on mobile devices by May 2014 (Meeker, 2014)
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