5 Calls for #papers, presentations or/and proposals for #mlearning and #eLearning

If anyone is organizing a conference, workshop... feel free to send it to me @ignatia I will gladly add it to the next call for papers post.

EdMedia conference organized by the Association for Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
Where: Denver, Colorado, USA
When: 25 – 29 June 2012
Deadline for submission: 12 December 2011
More information: http://aace.org/conf/edmedia
Short description: This annual international conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education. EdMedia attracts more than 1,500 leaders in the field from over 70 countries. We invite you to attend EdMedia and submit proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, tutorials, workshops, posters/demonstrations, corporate showcases/demos, and discussions

eLearning Africa 2012
Where: Benin, Africa, at the Palais des Congès de Cotonou
When: 23 – 25 May 2012
Deadline for submission: 9 January 2012
More information: http://www.elearning-africa.com/programme_cfp.php
Short description: Meeting the networking needs of the pan-African eLearning and distance education sector, the annual eLearning Africa conference is the key networking venue for practitioners and professionals from Africa and all over the world. eLearning Africa is the premier gathering place for all experts and stakeholders engaged or interested in ICT-based education, training and development on the African continent. Everyone concerned with eLearning in Africa is welcome to share and learn.

Special Journal issue on Social Networking and Mobile Learning
Name of Journal: British Journal of Educational Technology
Editors: Guest editors: Norbert Pachler (Institute of Education, University of London), Maria Ranieri (Department of Education, University of Florence), John Cook (London Metropolitan University) and Stefania Manca (Institute for Educational Technology, National Research Council of Italy).
Deadline for submission: 9 January 2012 (published July 2012)
More information: http://tinyurl.com/6924r52
Short description:
The aim of this Special Issue is to explore educational and socio-cultural perspectives on the use of the increasing convergence of mobile devices and digital media for social networking in formal and informal contexts of learning.
We invite papers that address the following issues:
• Theoretical analysis of and perspectives on user agency and practices in mobile networked environments;
• Exploring individual practices and community spaces in mobile networked learning;
• New approaches to the design of and research into experiences that incorporate mobile media as personal and social learning tools;
• Methodological models and tools to assess learning in formal and informal contexts through mobile networked environments;
• Learning through a mobile networked environment at the interface of formal and informal contexts in K-12 education;
• Learner practices and perceptions of mobile social networks as contexts for learning in higher education;
• Effects of mobile networked communities on learning by adults in informal contexts and for professional development.


Conference on open education: ECER 2012
Subject: the need for educational research to champion Freedom, Education and Development for All
Just for all the gender enthusiasts in learning: Rosi Braidotti is one of the keynote speakers.
Where: Cádiz, Spain, Europe
When: 17 – 21 September 2012
Deadline for submission: 1 February 2012
More information: http://www.eera.de/ecer2012/programme/conference-theme/
Short description: EERA, European Educational Research Association and the University of Cadiz, Spain, invite Educational Researchers to participate in and to submit proposals for the European Conference on Educational Research 2012.
The conference theme "The Need for Educational Research to Champion Freedom, Education and Development for All" will provide a focus for the keynote addresses and for other invited events. It may also be taken as a reference within the conference sessions organised by the EERA networks. However, proposals for contributions are welcome from all fields of educational research. Participants are invited to hand in up to two abstracts for papers, posters, workshops, round tables and symposia. All proposals must be handed in electronically via the online submission form. PhD students and emerging researchers are especially invited to participate in the Emerging Researchers’ Conference by submitting proposals to the Emerging Researchers’ Group.
The ECER is the annual conference held by the European Educational Research Association (EERA). It welcomes close to 2.000 scholars each year, representing views and research traditions from all parts of Europe and also attracts researchers from other parts of the world

Global TIME 2012: Online conference on Technology, Innovation, Media and Education Where: … online
When: 7 – 9 February 2012
Deadline for submission: 5 December 2011
More information: http://www.aace/org/conf/gtime
Short description: (well, this is one of the shortest and vaguest descriptions I must say)
• gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world's educators.
• provide a platform for the world's best visionaries, thinkers, teachers, researchers, and developers.
• discuss, examine and disseminate the best ideas from and for the global community.
• worked together as a global force to change, improve, and create a better future for education.
• It's about TIME ... Global TIME (Technology, Innovation, Media and Education)

The picture shows the manuscript of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road', which he typed on one big scroll that he put through his typewriter. The picture was taken by Steve Rhodes.

Sweeping away the #occupy movement, is like sweeping away #critical #education

The Occupy movement has gotten yet another blow yesterday as the campsite on Liberty Square (Zucotti Park in New York) was 'cleaned up', simply because they have a critical, minority opinion which is in favor of most of us. Peaceful occupation on ideological grounds is a worthy cause, so why is it that in many cases it is a risky business? I feel that crushing freedom of opinion is actually a very practical example of suffocating critical thinking and true education overall. Crushing freedom of opinion does not coincidentally happen at the same moment in which most countries decide to cut down on education or welfare to get them out of an economic crisis. Educated citizens will question regulations and policies, and powers that be do not like to be questioned no matter what era, what region.

Being critical is a human asset which lifts all of us
Being critical, demanding transparency of policy makers and the powers that be is a very democratic action. Strange enough, it is also mainstream corporate action, for transparency allows for improved business action. So why are demands for financial transparency that affects citizens then crushed by people in power positions? For it is simply a sound policy action. Unfortunately the action is undertaken by non-policy people (or mostly).

Being critical, engaging in discussion to enable mutual growth and free speech is at the basis of us human beings, it is also at the core of education. It demands looking into current situations, analyzing it for its strengths and weaknesses and coming to conclusions on which you or we want to act. To me it is the basis of any critical learning of any movement to strengthen our evolution towards becoming more human. Crushing down on a small group of people, simply because they use their voice to get their opinions out in the open, is a brutal yet very open act of censorship and of what some powerful people feel should be numbed. How can transparency and human, peaceful action ever be a bad thing? And what if even believers of economic power structures propose themselves to give back to the country in order to give back to the people (e.g. Warren Buffett asking for higher taxation of the rich)?

Where do we go? Where can I grow?
In ‘grapes of wrath’ the Oscar winning 1940’s movie directed by John Ford in which a Midwestern family seeks fortune in California amidst the depression there is still an illusion of the new frontier, the new world. But even then it was clear that it was only an illusion. 70 years onward, amidst another economic crisis that is affecting the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free … there is no longer a lamp beside the golden door.

Where do we go? Where can I go? There is no longer ‘the Western frontier’, no longer the land of the free no matter where we look, it is not in the America's, it is not in Europe... It feels as though when I really want to be free, the only frontier left, is my own inner voice, my inner space in which I can ask ourselves: who am I, what do I do in these changing times?

Enable, promote, follow open education to enhance critical thinking
To get an action plan going, there is only one option: to learn. And to be able (financially, socially) to engage in education that will allow ideas to emerge to better the world around us – all of us. For as an educated citizen, I will be able to engage, to put my two cents into causes that I belief in. Hence there is only one option: promoting, following, building critical education, education open to all. In order to lift us towards a more human world where citizens from all regions can live a happy life in their own country, region, part of the world.

Are #mLearning projects in Africa really successful? #ICT4D critique

Although a propagator of learning with mobile devices, in this seminar John Traxler takes a look at learning with mobile devices from another angle, a critical one while looking for answers from all of us. He moves away from the main trend of depicting mLearning as successful simply because it brings education to people that did not use technology for education before and of the main narrative that mLearning is a sure benefit.

This is a description of a seminar given by John Traxler at the London Knowledge Lab (London, UK): “Too many elephants in the room: learning with mobile devices in developing regions" on 8 November 2011. It is how my mind interpreted the talk, so I could have misinterpreted some ideas, or put the wrong emphasis on some points. Open for remarks.

John Traxler lives and breathes mobility. His expertise on learning with mobile devices is well known internationally and as he advizes, supports and plans mLearning projects, his air/land/water mileage must be well that of any average global citizen adding to his mobile persona. He is at the crossroads of different views/accounts (government, practitioners, researchers, users…) on learning with mobile devices which makes his critical views on the subject of interest for mLearning practitioner (well, from my point of view that is).

During his seminar, John raised two major questions:

• Are learning projects based on mobile devices really helping Africa forward?
• How can we move ahead getting all the major, willing stakeholders around an ethical educational project development table?

Are learning projects based on mobile devices really helping Africa forward?
John starts of the seminar with putting question marks on widely promoted mLearning projects like Nokia Maths project.

Potential of mobiles and learning specifically in Africa, is it really a fact and do these projects make a difference? Various stakeholders barking up the wrong trees. Looking back on the presentations of the past (both his own and those of other mLearners). He takes away the ‘magic’ on the combination of mobiles, learning and Africa.
It is a fact that at the moment there are no reasonable alternatives (no secure buildings for computes, no reliable connectivity/electricity…), so mobiles seem to be successful for education.
Why address this concept: the zeitgeist, as US funders start to move into mobiles in Africa, pushed on their school system, prices for projects (UNESCO and US, GSMA took onboard mobiles for learning, …) the idea behind it is that mLearning in Africa is a big market. So education might just be an excuse to dig into that market via a more human need, which is actually nothing more or less than a mask. But simply wanting to get into a market, does not assure that the projects to get into the market have a sound educational basis.

(reflection of myself: what makes up successful education initiatives? Is there some kind of 'ideal factors' template that can be derived of local and national projects that are set-up around the world or even just in small regions? The schools from the industrial age delivered for industrial needs, but which system or projects can deliver learners for the knowledge age? I would think knowledge driven schools and/or projects, but then where resides knowledge?)

So can we build scaled, durable mLearning projects?

Many African representatives are willing to move into mLearning. But what are they buying into? Is it real progress? Momentarily it seems a bit naïve belief. So it seems corporates sell mLearning as the only development way to go, but is it? Belief in technology, and thinking that the Western model will move Africa forward (as well) might not be the best basis to move ahead in a continent that has many challenges to tackle.
Globally education seems to be heading the same way, but that is mainly a Western way of thinking and does this model work across the globe, does this model work in the West? (reflection of myself: good point.).

Most projects in Africa were/are small scale, short term. If these projects get adopted on a bigger scale, problems might arise.
Trojan horse: technology brought into Africa can be importing Western ideology into the African setting. But these technologies are embodying alien pedagogies that might not link to African learning (e.g. VLE). So Northern technologies might embody morals, ideas from the North.
Every region has different pedagogies, but not all learning technologies have been adapted to these pedagogies.
Connecting small, vulnerable cultures to the global might be disastrous for their culture (UNESCO indicates that from the 400 African languages, 200 are under thread of extinction).
The onward march of American English and corporate thinking threaten many of the identities (Stephen Fry on language and identity – Inge check youtube options, should come from mid October).
(reflection of myself: looking at this question from a pragmatic viewpoint and thinking about the book Guns, Germs and Steel written by Diamond, one could wonder if small projects or ethical considerations need to be taken into account, for up until now it seems to be that only the big powers have prevailed throughout history, no matter where they were located. Not a comforting thought, but maybe it is romantic to think that the diversity of the small, local groups will add to the survival of humanity in the end? - having written this, I do feel that diversity is our only hope, but then why does it seem to be cast aside when looking at history?)


Common denominator of projects that have small scale, fixed term, run by enthusiasts but they have not sustained. In part that might have been the mindset around problem solving that pays a lot of attention to the artifact and not much attention to the environment and the host. There are a lot of reasons why this happens: what gets funded is the project, not the host. Additionally, the funders have funded what THEY thought was worthwhile, not what the grassroots target audience found useful. The mLearning projects have not worked enough with local populations (cultures, contexts…).

Is there a solution for this? And can that solution be found by getting stakeholders together but with some ethical ideas behind it?


How can we move ahead getting all the major, willing stakeholders around an ethical educational project development table?
(from here a search for connections between sometimes opposite views)
Many of us mLearner’s take our small pilots to bigger institutes/bodies, which they pick up for bigger projects, but this has those challenges in it.

How can researchers influence big scale projects supported by government that work top-down (in contrast to small scale projects which are grassroots)? So how can we get our voices (as researchers) heard and with what type of evidence? And does this allow regional learners’ voices to be heard as well?

Interesting view: the causal relationships of mLearning projects is viewed according to that persons own frame: a technologist will view positive/negative results of a mLearning project as due to technology; a policymaker will find it was/is due to policy. How can we make sure all of these views match the ultimate goal: educational benefit for learners?

As you are your own group/culture, you make and live by your own rules. These rules come from cultural motivation, culture group narratives… so who are the others to judge on it?

There is never a narrative of a failed mLearning project. Looking at the amount of projects, that is impossible. There is a momentum of mLearning successes, but are they truthful? Do they deliver complete pictures? And if the evaluation is not transparent, then how do we know if the results that we derive from them are the correct interpretations?

So how do we connect the dots if the complete picture is not (well) documented?

Additionally, a uniform hardware platform is delivered to mLearning projects in many cases. But we will never be in a position to give everyone those same devices (let alone while keeping in touch with the evolution of devices by the time we can reach big groups).

There have been successful projects in non-educational fields: phone banking for example. But these projects are not perse transmutable to educational projects. So why do we fail to deliver educational mLearning successes.

John asks us how can we bring together a combination of corporate, government, grassroots to deliver education in sub-Saharan Africa? To come to a sustainable mobile learning ecology? Without delivering globalized content? So how can we keep it indigenous and local although we bring big groups together. What is the role of local people/citizens that would allow sustainability: community teachers, free schools…

What does it take to make mLearning projects/educational projects economically sustainable? Social entrepreneurs (remarked that Bill Gates asked the audience what was meant by social entrepreneurs in 2009, Doha – ict4d), they might make a difference. How to make it a way forward on many levels: education and economy.

M4D has an impoverished idea of education: ‘pushing stuff down tubes’.
Misses out on education to be transformative (remark Inge: but then how many projects in the North have given rise to transformative education?)
Mobiles have the potential to gives all of us more insight in how we learn: potential for transient knowledge for example, we should use this new meta-analysis tool to develop future educational projects (remark myself: transformation of education has impact on the whole of society and its production logic, should make a post series from this, then link it to future of education and society as a whole).

Some examples he gives along his talk:
Digital doorway (cfr Mitra’s whole on the wall, but African example)
Meraka supports livinglabs in South-Africa: they come from science and technology way of doing things, but they (from government) need to build social useful programs/applications.

Read the #mobile education report and join @gsma for #mlearning projects

The GSMA's Mobile Education project (launched in early 2011 with the objective of addressing market barriers and accelerating the adoption of Mobile Education solutions around the world) has recently published a paper "The Mobile Proposition for Education" and other interesting papers downloadable from http://www.gsmaembeddedmobile.com/mobile-education/ describing some key educational scenarios where the use of mobile-enabled handheld technologies can deliver significant benefits. It also describes the assets and expertise the mobile ecosystem (i.e. mobile network operators, handset manufacturers, systems and solutions providers) can offer to support education.

The scenarios are:

• Vocational education and training,
  
• Consistent connectivity for children,
  
• Out of classroom education and collaboration,
  
• Professional learning and development,
  
• Literacy skills,
  
• Supporting students with learning difficulties and disabilities
  

These scenarios are illustrated with real world examples of how mobile technologies are transforming teaching and learning in many contexts and countries.

For those interested, there is also a report on the mLearning landscape, focusing on mLearning in Japan, France, Spain and UK, with examples from these areas. That report can be viewed here.

GSMA is still looking for mobile education case studies and educational institutions which would be interested in working with mobile network operators on pilot projects. So get your bid in!

To find out more about the project and to share your mobile education experiences, good practice and ideas please contact / email mobileeducation@gsm.org.

Stephen @Downes at Flemish parliament talking about free learning

Stephen Downes is one of the key knowledge persons in my learning network. He has a wonderful information harvester (gRSShopper, which I am going to integrate as soon as I get it running - almost there and I will gladly share it once it is up and running). Stephen sticks to the principle of open / free learning and ... he builds his own path in life (a very tough path to walk on). To me Stephen Downes is to learning what Henry Rollins is to music, they simply to their thing and if you don't like... so what. Great spirit.

Although I have been reading what Stephen shared for years, this was the first time I could hear him in real life. And it was enlightening. I do not know why, but sometimes I need a synchronous physical location to come to the next level of understanding. I sometimes think the physical presence of a brain connects to other brains in the room. Let's say a synapse dynamic that surpasses the neurons in the personal brain but can jump in between other brains ... well, strange beliefs make good dreamers.

In his presentation he focused on the difference between what he saw as free learning, and where Open Educational Resources (OER) and its propagators stand. That topic is of interest as I got involved in some conversations three months ago with the people of OERu. Stephen made some very interesting points in that the people of OERu still work with a model that is based on the industrial educational model: assessments (multiple choice, etc. but assessments seldom indicate the state of knowledge within the learner), they allow accreditation, but only from institutes within the federation around OERu ... What Stephen suggested was that free learning assessment should be by engagement, assessment by community impact so to speak. Great idea.
He proceeded to say that learning is a matter of growth, not accumulation (agreeing with that, each day a learner will proof that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. And that our knowledge is distributed across neurons, it is not fixed. This is a statement he made years ago, but I am only starting to feel the implications of this sentence as I relive it day by day. At times I really think the universe can be brought back to a simple set of interchangeable rules and one is ... growth, which is essential to learning.

This is his presentation and you can also view it on his website with audio, here :

Public Support for Free Learning: A Policy Framework

View more presentations from Stephen Downes

Steven Verjans shows a structured #PLE at #studiedagVlhora

Personal Learning Environments (PLE) have been hot news for a couple of years now. And with the proliferation of all things social media, they have become a highly personalized and very functional application for any knowledge worker. A PLE will enable you to work more focused, keep an overview of all the information that comprises your knowledge and be able to share with others whenever needed.

My PLE is not very well structured to say the least, in fact chaos is my middle name when it comes to PLE. But I can no longer postpone the (re)structuring of my PLE for the simple reason that I am increasingly engaged in various projects that demand slightly different foci. So with increased research efforts coming along, presentations lining up and a major course that needs to take shape, I want to get my PLE straightened out.

Luckily, I met Steven Verjans earlier this week during the Vlhora studiedag. And as fate sometimes wants it, his topic of the day was PLE. Not the dry stuff of PLE, no a personal narrative showing his PLE and what a wonderfully structured knowledge universe he has created! Steven is a rock in my eLearning ocean. We do not meet at regular intervals, but I know he is one of the knowing. He simply keeps on moving forward with eLearning, he is always balanced and he really has his PLE in order. He combines lists in twitter (and uses twitter a lot as backchannel), diigo bookmarks in network forms (he switched from delicious), netvibes overview pages and a nicely linked set of flickr, summify.com (and paper.li), researchgate.net (and academia.net).

Steven calls twitter a stream of information, in which you can dip your tow whenever necessary and after you have found what you want, you simply move on again.

If you want to structure your own PLE, have a look at the slideshare of Steven (presentation notes in Dutch, but media in English), he has wonderful ideas or simply have a look at his netvibes page.

Persoonlijke leeromgeving

View more presentations from Steven Verjans

Read #MobiMOOC team's best #paper award for #mLearning research

What a thrill it has been. At the beginning of 2011 I got the idea of organizing a mLearning course, simply because there was no open and free course available. Taking up the Massive Open Online Course format to design the couse felt logical. The course was entitled MobiMOOC and ... off it went. After the six weeks course there was a certain inspiring dynamic, so I wondered if anyone would be willing to co-author a paper and six other people immediately stepped to the plate, and of course these are all fabulous people.

So we are now seven members in the MobiMOOC research them (alphabetical order): Sean C. Abajian, Michael Sean Gallagher, Rebecca Hogue, Nilgün Özdamar Keskin, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Osvaldo Rodriguez and myself Inge de Waard.

Writing the paper was a very dynamic process. After various iterations, where all of our combined ideas were put into the paper, we came to a consensus and ... the work and friendly, inspiring collaboration payed off. The team got 'Best Paper Award at the academically prestigious mLearn conference in Beijing. We all feel this is a true honor, as the paper came out of a thorough peer review process. I have uploaded the conference paper to academia, you can also download the conference paper here.

The wonderful thing about the MobiMOOC research team is that it is an informally build group. We just got together and started collaborating on a joint interest: MOOCs and mobile learning. It was uncharted territory. The international dimension of the group adds to the diverse perspectives and - at least for me - it has been enlightening.

The great thing is, the mLearn conference full papers also get published in a peer reviewed mLearning journal iJIM, so ... we are all excited!

Michael Sean Gallagher, Rebecca Hogue and Nilgün Özdamar Keskin were at mLearn2001 and they gave the presentation accompanying the paper. I gladly share their presentation here.

MobiMOOC: where MOOC meets mLearning as a new pedagogical format

View more presentations from Inge Ignatia de Waard

Get money for your #educational idea #HASTAC #MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition 4 accepts stage one applications

If you are part of an educational organization (institute, ngo...) the HASTAC/MacArthur foundation offers a nice way to get your educational idea based on lifelong learning scaled up thanks to their support. So get your stage one application in order and send it out. You do not need to be based in US to take part in this competition.


---Timeline extended, Stage One deadline is November 14th at 5pm PST--

Full information at: http://www.dmlcompetition.net

The Fourth HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition is now accepting Stage One applications from institutions/organizations with compelling learning content for which a badge or set of badges would be useful for recognizing and making visible learning that takes place in a particular area or topic.  Stage One applications are now due November 14th, see information below. 

This year’s Competition, held in collaboration with the Mozilla Foundation, focuses on badges for lifelong learning and explores digital badges as a means to inspire learning, confirm accomplishment, and/or validate the acquisition of knowledge or skills.

Awards will be made in two separate, but related competitions: 

Badges Competition (three stages)
Awards: $10,000 to $200,000
The Badges Competition is designed to encourage the creation of digital badges and badge systems that support, identify, recognize, measure, and account for new skills, competencies, knowledge, and achievements for 21st century learners wherever and whenever learning takes place. It is comprised of three stages, with finalists being chosen in Stages One and Two, and ultimately forming a collaborative team in Stage Three. It is this collaborative Stage Three proposal that is subject to award. Institutional/organizational applicants from outside of the United States are welcome to apply in any stage.

Stage One: Identify Badge Learning Content and Programs

Deadline: November 14, 2011

Who should apply: Institutions/organizations/legal entities from any sector and of any size--from a small non-profit to a large corporation--with compelling learning content, activities, or programs for which a badge or set of badges would be useful for recognizing and making visible learning that takes place in a particular area or topic. 

Stage Two: Badge Design and Technical Proposals

Deadline:  January 12, 2012

Who should apply: Organizations, teams, or individuals skilled in the design of badge systems and implementation of badge technology. These applicants will focus their designs on the content and programs proposed by either Stage One applicants or Digital Media and Learning Competition collaborators.

Stage Three: Match-making and Finals

Stage 3 Meeting: February 28, 2012
No application needed--finalists from Stages One and Two will be selected to advance.

Stage Three pairs Stage Two finalists with Stage One finalists and/or collaborators, to form comprehensive teams who will work together to finalize collaborative badge proposals.

Research Competition

5 awards, $5,000-80,000
The Research Competition focuses on online networks, digital resources, and gaming environments that provide rich opportunities for demand-driven, learner-centered learning. These include networked knowledge communities, online tutorials, and other digital resources for wide-ranging learning needs.

• Research Grant: $60,000; Workshop/Working Group funding, in addition: $20,000
• Doctoral Student Grants (2): $20,000
• Student Prize:  $5,000
• Faculty Prize: $5,000

Informational Webinars
We invite you to learn more about open badges and this Competition during a series of interactive webinars hosted by the Mozilla Foundation and the HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media & Learning Competition. 

For full webinar schedule visit http://www.dmlcompetition.net/Blog/2011/10/webinarinformational-sessions-schedule/

#ICT4d Using #mHealth to improve access to family planning and child health services in #Malawi by Limbanazo Kapindula

Limbanazo Kapindula (Twitter: @Limkapin) has come to ITM to help us out in setting up a mobile diabetic project (will report on this later) in Cambodia, the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He comes all the way from Malawi where he was involved in three 5 year projects with Management Sciences for Health, they all came to an end in September 2011 (5 year projects). This is a short synopsis of his presentation.

Limbanazo is an IT expert, and he gave the mobile phone training to people who had never used mobile phones before.

Challenges in Malawi

Challenging infant mortality rates (69/1000 children die in the first year) and only 40% of women in Malawi had access to family planning services.

So how can the access to care be increased? How can community workers be helped?

Targeted people:

Health surveillance agents,

Community based distribution agents providing oral contraceptives HIV/AIDS.

13 of the 28 Malawi districts were targeted.

Innovation: community health care using mobile technology

Use of simple mobile phones for electronic reporting and other important communication

To help 2000 CHW (Community Health Workers) what was needed was:

Report in timely way

Get support during emergencies

Request and receive remote technical support

Refer clients/patients for secondary care

Key issues to make it successful

Training to all the users

Technical support to all

Involve the stakeholders (telecom, ministry of health…)

Planning the backup (data backup for future support).

How this mHealth project was set-up

A network between central computers that are connected via USB modems for data transfer, connected with Frontline Medic sms (enables bulk message interactions between a central location and people across any region, setting up forms, connect to patient database).

It was a simple application, so simple that it could be learned from a manual. It took three months to fit the project to the scientific demands of the researchers (java reader, specified forms), but the actual use was really easy thanks to this pre-project input, nevertheless there were some people who simply were not able to cope with the technology and they dropped out due to the pressure to keep reporting (those were mainly part of the community based distribution agents, which are volunteers).

Over 12000 text messages captured using the system within 8 months (WAW!!!).

50% of the messages was on technical information, 35% on patient reports (this division was connected to the startup of the project, dialogues between health care workers). These distinctions in the mobile communication could be recorded because they used keywords for specific communications.

Cost was a main concern for the government, after taking into account all the data, the project showed that with only 10 cents a child’s life could be saved.

If you are interested in setting up a mobile project in any region that is based on simple phones, contact Limbanazo who has all this expertise. Or take a look at the program that was used and check it out yourself.

Help the world in #education and #ICT4D by winning prizes and let the community decide

A consortium involving Nokia, the Pearson Foundation and UNESCO have launched an “Education for All” crowdsouring challenge: “an eight-month initiative to elicit suggestions on how mobile communication can help achieve EFA goals.”.  The aim is to develop suggestions emerging from an interaction between education experts, teachers, parents, students and software developers. Each month will feature a separate EFA goal. The first month is devoted to finding solutions on how mobile communication can help achieve literacy. Prizes will be awarded monthly to the best ideas, chosen by a panel of judges.Monthly smart phone prizes will be awarded to the best ideas recognized by the panel of judges. The best ideas will be published and celebrated also in the UNESCO websites to explain their proposal in further detail and to encourage the development of the ideas into concrete projects.

How to participate?

Participating is extremely easy. Just visit the EFA Crowdsourcing Challenge website, select the appropriate EFA goal, and then click on the ‘Create an Idea’ link. (You will need to register first)

What are the upcoming challenges (European date format):

10/10/2011 - Start of EFA Crowdsourcing Challenge and launch of Literacy goal
10/11/2011 - Launch of Access to Universal Primary Education goal
09/12/2011 - Launch of Life Skills & Lifelong Learning goal
10/02/2011 - Launch of Quality of Education goal
09/03/2011 - Launch of Gender Equality in Education goal
10/04/2011 - Launch of Early Childhood Care and Development
31/05/2011 - End of EFA Crowdsourcing Challenge.