MobileEdu promotes computer science education in Nigeria
Mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, personal digital assistants, laptops, game consoles, and electronic readers, have gradually become indispensable in our lives – including our classrooms, homes and workplaces. The affordability and availability of mobile devices have reduced the digital divide, creating opportunities for technologies to have a transformative influence on learning. However, students in infrastructure-constrained societies have not felt the impact of mobile technologies, especially in the support of education.
Learning can take place anywhere, and mobile devices and technologies can be used to support learning regardless of time and place. However, it is important to design and develop mobile learning tools in such a way that environmental, cultural, and contextual factors are taken into consideration.
Solomon Sunday Oyelere, MSc, designed a mobile learning application, MobileEdu, for computer science education in the Nigerian higher education context as part of this PhD thesis at the University of Eastern Finland. The overall aim of the study was to find meaningful and relevant ways to use mobile devices as learning tools in computing education and to provide strategies to effectively incorporate mobile devices into mainstream education.
“The idea behind MobileEdu is to leverage on the penetration of mobile phones in Nigeria to support the delivery of education to the grassroots,” Oyelere says.
The study developed two versions of MobileEdu learning application. The first version of the application focused on supporting various class activities by providing educational contents and resources online such as notes, quizzes, library, messaging, and video and audio content. The application allowed learners to collaborate, write blogs about their learning experiences, and access relevant learning content using their mobile devices.
The second version of the application, MobileEdu-Puzzle, integrated drag and drop programming education puzzles into a game environment, in order to improve students’ interaction, motivation, and engagement during programming education. Several examples to show how the application is aiding the learning of programming and algorithms topics were introduced.
The first version of the application was tested in real-world settings within the Nigerian higher education sector, and the application received very good scores in terms of aiding the improvement in learning achievement, pedagogical experience, and students’ attitude towards computer science education. Overall, the effectiveness and usability of the MobileEdu application to support programming education in infrastructure-constrained settings was justified. The MobileEdu application is freely available as open source to the scientific community.
The doctoral dissertation of Solomon Sunday Oyelere, MSc, entitled Design and Development of a Mobile Learning System for Computer Science Education in Nigerian Higher Education Context, is available for download at http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2705-7/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2705-7.pdf
A print-quality photo of Solomon Sunday Oyelere is available at: https://kuvapankki.uef.fi/A/UEF+kuvahakemisto/12667?encoding=UTF-8
For further information, please contact:
Early Stage Researcher Solomon Sunday Oyelere, solomon.oyelere@uef.fi,
tel. +358414788518
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