Mobile Phones for Teaching and Learning Science

To learn about the diversity of leaves students have to pluck the leaves thus damaging the plants. A more interesting approach is where students collectively took photographs of leaves while observing them.

Currently mobile phones are banned in Sri Lankan schools. But recently a research study on effectiveness of mobile phone for teaching and learning science was carried out in central province of Sri Lanka by a PhD student together with Department of Education of the University of Peradeniya in collaboration with the University of Bristol, UK. Dialog Telekom (a telecommunication company in Sri Lanka) supported this initiative by means of providing technical expertise and other resources.

How will students use mobile phones if it is already banned in Sri Lankan Schools?

In this study it was emphasized that a mobile phone can be just used as another science laboratory equipment such as a test-tube or a microscope. That would minimize the disciplinary and other related problems which caused to ban the mobile phones in Sri Lankan schools.

Mobile phones are getting equipped with more advanced tools such as video cameras, audio/video players, etc. Also the handset prices are coming down day-by-day. So it is up to the users to use those for more productive purposes than destructive uses. I think teachers can educate pupils on how best they can use mobile technology even fulfilling basic human needs such as education rather than saying "no" to the new technology or trying to keep children away from the new technology.

Courtesy: Sakunthala Ekanayake

You can read more about the research study here.

-Sameera.

World’s First Wind Up Mobile Phone

This will not be exciting news for Sri Lanka as it is a country which has nearly 90% of the households with access to the main electricity grid. But this would be very good news for other countries with poor electricity penetration in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Currently the above phone which is called “Ventus”, is in the prototype stage of development.

As per the TCL (http://tclproducts.co.uk/index.html), the company behind the development of this product, after cranking the phone for a minute, one can get four times that in talk time and it’s powered by a specially developed ultra thin dynamo.

Another interesting feature is that it also has solar panels incorporated into it so if you leave it in the sun it can be left on standby for extended periods of time.

Company has not revealed how near they are going to release it as a commercial product. But hope that would be a great news for people who walks miles to get their phones charged.

[Courtesy: http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/]

-Sameera.

Stop Positioning Mobile Phone as a Mere Tool for Entertainment and KIT

A recent TV commercial in Sri Lanka shows a girl gets a SMS to her phone and says;
“My boyfriend is sending me SMSs too, even after being on phone with me for hours”
The message from boyfriend: “you are beautiful”
She replies: “you are smart”

Most of the mobile operators in Sri Lanka try to position the mobile phone as a mere tool for Entertainment and Keep In Touch (KIT). They mainly target youth for their marketing campaigns.
This has led to various confusions and disadvantages for both mobile subscribers as well as mobile companies. A negative sentiment has been developed among the people and most of the people, mainly the people at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) do not believe that mobile phone has a positive impact on their lives or livelihoods.


The impact of direct access to telecom on the ability to earn more using the phone or save a certain expense that would have been incurred without the phone (mean response) - LIRNEasia Survey

The wrong positioning of mobile phone in Sri Lanka has led to even worst policy decisions such as Government of Sri Lanka banning mobile phones in schools http://ict4d-in-srilanka.blogspot.com/2009/08/sri-lanka-bans-mobile-phones-at-schools.html
So, it is a need of the hour to understand the potential of the mobile phone in Development and position it at the right place. Also it is the time to introduce more and more Value Added Services which goes beyond the entertainment.

-Sameera.

Sri Lanka Bans Mobile Phones At Schools

There are around 11 million mobile subscribers in Sri Lanka and the mobile penetration seems to be very high. It is not a surprise if this number reaches 20 million in another few years time.

In this context mobile phone would be one of the best information delivery mechanism when compared with other electronic media. So it has immense potential of delivering contents on agriculture, health, education, etc.

But this tool has been banned at Schools, why?

This sophisticated tool can be a tool of distraction in the schools. That is why it is already banned in other countries such as South Korea, UK, Philippines and France. This is very similar to what happened in Ethiopia, their Ministry of Education kicked of the OLPC from schools.

Any technology can be used for good or bad purposes/ constructive or destructive purposes. It depend on who use it and what purpose it being used. Best example is the computer, can be used to kill people as well as it can be used to save thousands of lives.

So what should we do? Say “NO” to the technology or teach the younger generation how to use it effectively.

-Sameera.

Nenasa TV – 1000 Schools to be Connected to Sri Lanka’s first Satellite Television Education Bridge

H.E. the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, launched ’Nenasa’ - a Digital Satellite Television based Distance Education Bridge, managed and operated by the MoE and the National Institute of Education (NIE). ’Nenasa’ will connect 1,000 rural schools in Sri Lanka to high-quality rendition of the national curriculum, developed by the NIE over a digital satellite television broadcast medium.

This is another joint initiative of Dialog Telekom under the theme of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). This would deliver rural children the quality education and would minimize the Digital Divide in Sri Lanka.

NenasaTV is a gift to the Ministry of Education and Sri Lanka’s student population from Dialog Telekom PLC. The project has been funded by Dialog Telekom as a part of its Corporate Responsibility programme under the theme of ICT4D.

Addressing the gathering, H. E. the President, said: “Our Government is making every effort to harness the potential of rural Sri Lanka, with special emphasis on enhancing educational facilities in remote regions including the newly-liberated areas in the North and East".

The NIE will develop contents for ‘Nenasa’, which in turn will be broadcast by Dialog to all 1,000 schools. ‘Nenasa’ will be dedicated towards broadcasting educational content and cater to the Ordinary Level and Advanced Level syllabus in Sinhala and Tamil. In addition, teacher-training and skills development would also be included in the programme line-up. These lessons will be supplemented by a Learning Management System (LMS) http://www.nenasa.lk/.

-Sameera.

ICT for Agriculture in Sri Lanka

The agriculture sector in Sri Lanka employs 31.3% of the total labor force of the country, but its contribution to the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) is just 11.9% (Central Bank of Sri Lanka). So, basically one third of the labor force is utilized to produce the just over ten percent of the GDP.

This is just one side of the issue, but when we consider other issues related to this, such as large amount of government’s money spent on agriculture as subsidies (fertilizer subsidies, etc.) which can be invested on some other sector for better results, continuous poverty of rural people who are engaged in agriculture, etc. - it is clear that we have a issue of productivity within the agriculture sector and we need to address it immediately.

There are many factors (policy, legal framework, technology, knowledge, markets, research, etc.) to be considered while trying to improve the productivity of agriculture, but in all of them the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can definitely play a role of a catalyst.

Fortunately this has been understood, by the various stakeholders in the agriculture sector and as a result we can see many initiatives under the theme of ICT4 Agriculture today in Sri Lanka. As an attempt to bring all those different initiatives to one platform, Prof. Mangala De Zoysa (University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka) and some other likeminded people have organized the Sri Lanka’s first ever ICT4 Agriculture Conference (http://www.itfac.mrt.ac.lk/conference/), which is really a need of the hour.

-Sameera.

How Corporate America Really Views Africa

The Conversation Behind Closed Doors

It is always good to know the attitude of U.S. investors on Asia and Africa, where most of the poor people live in the world.

Africa is the world’s second largest and second most populous continent after Asia, with a population nearing 1 billion. It accounts for 14% of the world’s population. More than 1000 languages are spoken across its 53 countries. In addition, Africa covers 20% of the world’s total land area and contains about 30% of its mineral reserves.

A qualitative survey was conducted by Baird’s CMC in partnership with U.S. Chamber of commerce with a group of 30 leading U.S. multinational corporations from which majority were among the U.S. Fortune 100 corporations. Following are some of the industries represented in the survey;

Agribusiness, Information and Communication Technology (ICT)Infrastructure, Media

The survey could reveal five main factors that influence the decision of U.S. corporations to invest in Africa;

Rule of law - rule of law does not prevail
Attraction - no sufficiently large middle class
Risk versus rewards - risk adjusted ROI
Supportive business framework - infrastructure ?
A welcoming environment - education and health of workforce

Going forward, how can Africa attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI)? Can they follow Asia?

You may access the Executive Summary of the Complete Survey Report at http://www.usafricainvestment.com/summary.html

Courtesy: Baird’s CMC & U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Sameera.