Supporting Teachers With Mobile Technology: Lessons Drawn From UNESCO Projects in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal

Supporting teachers with
mobile technology
Lessons drawn from UNESCO projects
in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal
Supporting teachers with
mobile technology
Lessons drawn from UNESCO projects
in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal
UNESCO Education Sector The Global Education 2030 Agenda
Education is UNESCO’s top priority because UNESCO, as the United Nations’ specialized
it is a basic human right and the foundation agency for education, is entrusted to lead
on which to build peace and drive sustainable and coordinate the Education 2030 Agenda,
development. UNESCO is the United Nations’ which is part of a global movement to eradicate
specialized agency for education and poverty through 17 Sustainable Development
the Education Sector provides global and Goals by 2030. Education, essential to achieve
regional leadership in education, strengthens all of these goals, has its own dedicated Goal 4,
national education systems and responds which aims to 'ensure inclusive and equitable
to contemporary global challenges through quality education and promote lifelong learning
education with a special focus on gender opportunities for all'. The Education 2030
equality and Africa. Framework for Action provides guidance for
the implementation of this ambitious goal
and commitments.
Published in 2017 by the United Nations status of any country, territory, city or area or of
Educational, Scientific and Cultural its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of
Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, its frontiers or boundaries.
75352 Paris 07 SP, France
The ideas and opinions expressed in this
© UNESCO 2017 publication are those of the authors; they are
not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not
ISBN: 978-92-3-100230-4
commit the Organization.
Authors: Fengchun Miao, Mark West,
Hyo-Jeong So and Yancy Toh
This publication is available in Open Access
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Cover design: Aurélia Mazoyer
The designations employed and the presentation
of material throughout this publication do not Printed by UNESCO
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on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
This publication reflects the contributions of The UNESCO mobile learning projects in
numerous individuals. Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal would
not have been possible without the generous
Fengchun Miao, the UNESCO ICT in Education
financial support of Nokia and the subsequent
Unit Chief and Programme Specialist, conceived
cooperation of Microsoft, following Microsoft’s
the mobile learning projects featured in this
purchase of Nokia’s mobile phone division in
report and oversaw their implementation.
late 2013. Sanna Eskelinen deserves particular
He co-authored the current publication and
recognition for her advocacy of UNESCO’s
served as its principal editor.
work in her original role with Nokia and, later,
Mark West, an Associate Project Officer at with Microsoft.
UNESCO with specialization in mobile learning,
Finally, UNESCO would like to thank the many
co-authored the publication with Mr Miao and
hardworking teachers who participated in the
supported the editing process.
field projects and kept an open mind about
Hyo-Jeong So, an Associate Professor in using mobile technology to strengthen their
Ewha Womans University of Korea, produced capacities. These individuals are in the front line
early drafting for the report, drawing of the global effort to implement the Education
on an independent evaluation of the 2030 Agenda. It is UNESCO’s hope that this
UNESCO projects. publication points to practices and strategies to
help these educators and supports the essential
Yancy Toh, a Research Scientist at the National
work they do with learners.
Institute of Education of Singapore, contributed
to the drafting of the county case studies.
David Atchoarena, the UNESCO Director for

Education Policies and Lifelong Learning
Systems, provided overall guidance
and direction.
UNESCO is grateful to Svetlana Knyazeva,

Tarek Chehidi and Enrique Hinostroza for peer
reviewing the publication; Garth Spencer-
Smith and Nicky Roberts of Kelello Consulting
for evaluating the UNESCO projects described
in this report; Steve Vosloo for management
of the UNESCO project in Nigeria; Sheila
Sofi Ali for research and editorial assistance;
Chrystelle de Coligny for logistical support;
and Julie Wickenden for polishing the text
and proofreading.
3
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements 3 Pakistan 42
1. Educational context
Contents 5 2. Project focus
3. Objectives
Introduction 7 4. Mobile learning ecosystem
5. Teacher training
Situating the UNESCO projects 14 6. Key results
1. A diverse portfolio 7. Lessons learned and recommendations
2. Context of the four participating countries
3. Overarching aims of the intervention Senegal 50
4. Overview of the four projects 1. Educational context
5. Evaluation 2. Project focus
6. Report structure 3. Objectives
4. Mobile learning ecosystem
Mexico 24 5. Teacher training
1. Educational context 6. Key results
2. Project focus 7. Lessons learned and recommendations
3. Objectives
4. Mobile learning ecosystem Conclusion 58
5. Teacher training 1. Findings about the perceived impact of the
6. Key results intervention
7. Lessons learned and recommendations 2. Lessons learned
3. Recommendations
Nigeria 32 4. The way forward
1. Educational context
2. Project focus Bibliography 69
3. Objectives
4. Mobile learning ecosystem Annexes 75
5. Teacher training Annex I: Mexico
6. Key results Annex II: Nigeria
7. Lessons learned and recommendations Annex III: Pakistan
Annex IV: Senegal
Annex V: Survey used to evaluate the project
5
Introduction
Introduction
Research over several decades has established a teachers, especially in less developed countries
strong link between teacher quality and student where teacher shortages are common. Overall,
achievement. Experts agree that teachers SDG 4 and the corresponding Education 2030
influence student achievement more than any Framework for Action reflect an awareness
other school-related factors, including class that student learning is determined first and
size, services, facilities or leadership, and this foremost by the quality of classroom instruction
holds true across education systems that vary and, by extension, the readiness of teachers to
enormously from country to country, state provide relevant and effective lessons.
to state and district to district. Many studies
Unfortunately, there are not enough teachers
indicate that the impact of teachers on student
to achieve international targets for education.
learning outcomes is 2-3 times that of other
New data from the UNESCO Institute for
school‑related factors.1
Statistics shows that the world would need to
The international consensus is that teachers recruit 24.4 million school teachers to provide
matter.2 If the world is to improve the quality every child with a primary education by 2030.
of education and make it more equitable and This total includes the creation of 3.4 million
inclusive, countries will need to accelerate new posts and the replacement of 21 million
efforts to ensure effective and well-qualified teachers expected to leave the profession.4
teachers for learners. The fastest track to better Tens of millions of additional teachers would
education is better teachers. be required to ensure universal education
beyond primary school, as is called for by the
This understanding has been codified in the
Sustainable Development Agenda.
United Nation’s new Sustainable Development
Agenda, a blueprint intended to steer the world Presently, the most acute teacher shortages
toward peace and prosperity through to 2030. are geographically concentrated: 2.4 million
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) additional teachers are needed immediately
adopted by UN Member States in 2015 seek in sub-Saharan Africa to guarantee all children
to end poverty, fight inequalities and mitigate access to primary education.5 Although the
climate change, while ensuring that no one is challenge of supply is most severe in poor
left behind. SDG 4 calls on countries to ‘ensure countries, teacher shortages are also a problem
inclusive and equitable quality education in rich countries where hard-to-fill vacancies
and promote lifelong learning opportunities in specific subjects, such as the sciences, often
for all’.3 This goal is underpinned by specific result in educators teaching subjects for which
targets and means of implementation, which they are not qualified.
include increasing the supply of highly qualified
1 RAND Education. 2012. Teachers matter: Understanding teachers’

impact on student achievement.
2 OECD. 2016. Supporting teacher professionalism: Insights from TALIS
2013. 4 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2016. Fact Sheet: The world needs
3 United Nations. ND. Sustainable Development Goals: 17 goals to almost 69 million new teachers to reach the 2030 education goals.
transform our world. 5 Ibid.
7
Supporting teachers with mobile technology
Schooling is valuable when there are When considering different ‘outside the box’
professional teachers to help learners. A central strategies to bring teacher development
lesson drawn from the 2000-2015 Education to scale at minimal cost, especially in poor
for All movement, a global effort that strongly countries, UNESCO kept returning to a simple
encouraged countries to get more students but increasingly prevalent technology:
to attend schools, is that education access mobile phones.
cannot be decoupled from education quality.
Why mobile phones?
As countries hastened to put children into
classrooms, less attention was paid to preparing 1 Many teachers in developing countries
the adults tasked with making these classrooms already have them. Cisco estimates that
productive. Since 2000, school enrolments have nearly 5 billion people (67% of the global
indeed surged, but often at a cost of lowering population) currently use a mobile device7
standards for teachers and expanding class and that smartphones already account for
sizes, a situation which makes teaching—a close to half of these devices, a share that is
demanding profession in any setting—even expected to increase dramatically over the
more challenging. The results have been dire: next five years.8 The growing ubiquity of
millions of young people are not reaching mobile phones means that this technology
minimum learning standards despite being could potentially be leveraged to support
enrolled in formal education. UNESCO estimates and build the capacities of millions of
that 1 in 5 of the world’s approximately 650 educators, far more than are currently
million primary school students cannot read reached by traditional forms of face-to-face
basic sentences or solve simple arithmetic development.
problems after 4 years of classes.6 Education
2 A mobile device offers an interface and
without skilled teachers is, as the world has
functionality that is understandable to
learned, a largely futile endeavour. Learning
most teachers and other non-technical
in schools must be guided by trained and
users. Touch-screen phones have made
knowledgeable educators capable of furthering
operating systems and applications more
student understanding in particular domains.
intuitive, user-friendly and easier to learn
This means that countries must consider how than earlier digital technologies. While
they can improve both the quantity and quality teachers may still need assistance to utilize
of their teacher workforce, including in contexts mobile technology for educational purposes,
where infrastructure is limited, poverty is the challenge is often one of repurposing
widespread and crisis and conflict are realities. a familiar device, rather than starting from
scratch with a new technology.
Solving the twin challenges of teacher supply
and teacher quality will require time and 3 Mobile networks now cover large areas
investment. It will also require innovation of the world, providing connectivity to
and a willingness to experiment and confront communities that were never served—and,
problems with new tools and approaches. in many instances, are still not served—
by fixed-line internet connections. These
7 CISCO. 2017. Visual networking index infographic.

6 UNESCO. 2014. EFA global monitoring report 2013/14. 8 CISCO. 2017. Global mobile data traffic forecast update.
8
Introduction
networks provide a financially feasible vehicle teachers who are not often reached by standard
for reaching educators spread across wide capacity development initiatives. While the
geographic areas. By 2020, it is estimated that UNESCO projects did not target pre-service
more people will have an internet-connected teachers, they shine light on practices that
mobile phone than will have electricity.9 would benefit teachers preparing to enter
While gaps still exist, mobile networks classrooms as well as those who are already
continue to expand and are now treated by working. The projects were coordinated by
many countries as a basic utility. UNESCO from 2012 to 2014 and then handed off
to local partners after approximately two years.
4 Mobile phones are dynamic
communication devices. They allow The chapters to come detail what was
teachers to connect with other educators, attempted where, why and to what result.
elicit feedback, access services, and forge UNESCO’s aim was to both test an overarching
and join online communities. Professional concept—can mobile technolgy support
development delivered through a mobile professional development?—and understand,
phone, while constrained in many respects, at a local level, what elements contribute to
empowers teachers by enabling them to the success and failure of individual projects
respond and react to content in ways that implemented in unique contexts. To do this,
other, earlier technologies did not allow. pilot projects were carried out in four different
5 Mobile phones can facilitate ‘anytime and countries, using four different designs and
anywhere’ learning. Teachers have busy targeting four different beneficiary groups.
schedules and, in many developing countries, This diverse project portfolio helped UNESCO
more than one job. Mobile devices provide a probe the strengths and limitations of different
portal to training and other services at times solutions deployed in real-world settings. What
and places that are convenient. follows is an account of lessons learned and a
description of how UNESCO’s approaches might
UNESCO felt that mobile technology might be employed elsewhere.
offer a means to support teachers working or
preparing to work in challenging environments. The challenges encountered over the course
It further believed that services developed of the projects were considerable. Even some
specifically for mobile devices could be brought of the perceived advantages of mobile phones
to scale quickly and at reasonable cost, as proved to be frustratingly elusive in practice:
exemplified by the broad uptake of existing not all teachers knew how to use mobile
mobile banking and mobile health services. Yet technology; mobile networks were less reliable
despite this considerable potential, there was than initially assumed; getting teachers to
very little evidence that teacher development actively engage with new services was often a
via mobile phones was possible, desirable struggle; paying for teachers to access specific
or effective. mobile content was logistically and technically
complex; operating systems and other technical
This publication concerns UNESCO’s attempt to
specifications varied enormously; and mobile
fill this gap and pilot projects to help in-service
technology changed so quickly that educational
services developed for hardware that was
9 CISCO. 2016. Mobile forecast projects 70 percent of global
population will be mobile users. relevant when a project began were not as
9
relevant when the project ended. But these

setbacks, although serious, did not cause the
projects to fail, nor did they fully overshadow
the remarkable potential of mobile phones to
reach and support large numbers of teachers.
Taken holistically, this publication is important

because teacher development is important.
Examining data from the United States of
America, Linda Darling-Hammond, a leading
educational scholar, found that teacher
preparation is ‘by far the strongest correlate
of student achievement in reading and
mathematics, both before and after controlling
for student poverty and language status’.10 Good
teachers can, in effect, reconcile social inequities
outside the immediate control of the education
sector; they can make education a springboard
for opportunity.11 Research in other countries
has drawn similar conclusions. This report
examines how mobile technology can help
train new teachers and improve the practice of
existing teachers to ensure education opens
doors of opportunity for all students.
10 Darling-Hammond, L. 2000. Teacher quality and student achieve-

ment: A review of state policy evidence.
11 Burns, D. and Darling-Hammond, L. 2017. Empowering educators:
How high-performing systems shape teaching quality around the
world.
10
Mexico
12
Situating
the UNESCO projects
Pakistan
Senegal
Nigeria
Situating the UNESCO projects
1. A diverse portfolio the year in which the projects were conceived

and planned. The indicators are organized
In order to advance international understanding according to the six Education for All (EFA) goals,
about how mobile technology might be priorities which guided UNESCO’s education
leveraged to build teacher capacity, UNESCO work from 2000 to 2015.
designed unique projects in four countries:
Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal. Each All countries participating in the UNESCO
project employed a different approach to projects have yet to achieve universal basic
support the work of classroom teachers and education, and Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal
expand their capacities. UNESCO intentionally face the most severe deficits. According to data
adopted cost-effective models that could from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS),
be replicated in other developing and approximately 25% of school-aged children in
middle‑income countries. these countries are not in primary school. Across
the three countries, nearly 15 million children
All four pilot projects aimed to facilitate teacher are out of school: 8.7 million in Nigeria,12
learning and knowledge exchange through 5.6 million in Pakistan,13 and 0.65 million in
mobile networks and hardware. The solutions Senegal.14
were designed to be accessible to teachers with
limited technical knowledge and easily scalable Of the four project countries, Nigeria faces the
within a given country. most acute teacher shortages. In this country,
the most populous in Africa, UNESCO estimates
that 400,000 primary school teachers are
2. Context of the four needed to achieve universal primary education
through to 2030 and the skills of existing
participating countries
teachers need to be improved.15 Pakistan also
The four countries that hosted the UNESCO needs large numbers of new teachers, due,
projects were selected because of their as in Nigeria, to a booming youth population.
educational needs and geographic diversity, Upgrading the training of working teachers
with Mexico in Latin America, Pakistan in South is also a high priority, especially for female
Asia, and Nigeria and Senegal in Africa. Nigeria, teachers who are well placed to help promote
Pakistan and Senegal are home to many of gender equality in schools.16 In some Nigerian
the world’s poorest people and have urgent schools, there are more than 200 students per
educational needs. Mexico is more developed, trained teacher.17 Senegal’s teacher recruitment
but progress has been uneven and the provision
of good-quality, universal education remains a 12 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2017. Nigeria country data.
challenge. 13 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2017. Pakistan country data.
14 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2017. Senegal country data.
15 UNESCO. 2015. The challenge of teacher shortage and quality.
Table 1 on the opposite page gives an overview 16 Pakistan Ministry of Education. 2015. Education for All: National
review report.
of the countries’ educational indicators in 2011, 17 UNESCO. 2014. EFA global monitoring report 2013/14.
14
rate is largely on track, but many untrained of trainee teachers expressed any confidence
teachers are placed in classrooms resulting in about teaching reading in local languages.18
the need for sustained in-service development.
The challenges encountered in the four
Across the four countries, teachers’ self-efficacy countries reflect, in many ways, the educational
is quite low. In Senegal for example, only 8% challenges facing other developing and middle-
income countries.
Table 1: Overview of country performance according to EFA goals at the outset of the UNESCO
projects in 2011
Attributes Mexico Nigeria Pakistan Senegal
Total public expenditure on education as % of GDP 5.15 No data 2.22 6.04
EFA Goal 1: Expand and improve early childhood care and education
Gross enrolment ratio in pre-primary education (total %) 98.97 20.87 83.55 13.04
EFA Goal 2: All children to have access to free and compulsory primary education
Primary education enrolment (total %) 95.44 63.84 71.74 70.03
EFA Goal 3: Meet the learning needs of all youth and adults
Youth literacy rate (total %) 98.46 66.38 70.77 66.03
F = Female, M = Male (F/M: 1.00) (F/M: 0.77) (F/M: 0.80) (F/M: 0.79)
EFA Goal 4: Improve adult literacy
Adult literacy rate (total %) 93.52 51.08 54.74 52.05
(F/M: 0.97) (F/M: 0.68) (F/M: 0.63) (F/M: 0.61)
EFA Goal 5: Gender parity in education
Gender parity index (GPI) for primary education F/M: 0.99 F/M: 0.94 F/M: 0.86 F/M: 1.06
GPI is expressed as a ratio of females to males in school
GPI for secondary education F/M: 1.08 F/M: 0.87 F/M: 0.75 F/M: 0.91
EFA Goal 6: Improve all aspects of the quality of education
Trained teacher % 95.6 66 83 48
Pupil to teacher ratio at primary school 28.11 28.38 39.83 32.94
Pupil to trained teacher ratio 29 57 48 70
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
3. Overarching aims of the In particular, the project targeted EFA Goal 618

which called on UNESCO and its Member States
intervention to ‘improve all aspects of the quality of education,
The four-country UNESCO intervention was and ensure excellence of all so that recognized
created through a partnership between UNESCO and measurable learning outcomes are achieved
and Nokia (now part of Microsoft) and aimed to by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and
advance EFA goals by harnessing mobile learning essential life skills’.19 At the most basic level, the
technologies for teacher development. UNESCO project sought to improve teacher
18 UNESCO. 2014. Children need to be taught in a language they

understand.
19 UNESCO. 2015. EFA global monitoring report 2015.
15
quality by integrating mobile technologies in professional development in each of the four

national teacher professional development host countries. The country projects, while
systems in ways that supported teachers’ unique in many regards, shared important
pedagogical practices. underlying characteristics: each employed
mobile devices and mobile content to support
Prior to this endeavour, very few projects had
teacher professional development.
been conducted to build teacher capacity in
developing countries by leveraging mobile The project outputs were also broadly similar
technologies. Previous attempts included a and included:
text messaging service for teachers in Kenya
●● Mobile phone utilities;
which showed reasonable success in improving
teachers’ classroom management skills and ●● Short training courses designed to
facilitating student learning. However, the help teachers to use mobile phones for
Kenya project and others like it did not mature capacity‑building;
beyond a test phase. A specific goal of the ●● Digital platforms to facilitate teacher
UNESCO intervention was to demonstrate that
collaboration and peer learning.
mobile services for teachers are scalable and,
with country ownership, sustainable. Figure 1 below illustrates processes and steps
that guided the overarching intervention and
The UNESCO project sought to create mobile
helped shape the individual country projects.
phone ‘ecosystems’ to support teacher
Figure 1: The enabling ecosystem of mobile learning for teachers
Establish and train

Foster awareness Build content Evaluate and
teams to develop
Institutional of mobile learning and provide adjust content and
content and
support among teachers pedagogical teacher support
provide teacher
and schools leaders support to teachers activities
training
Analyze teacher and Deliver initial and Provide continuous

Professional Design mobile
student needs and follow-up trainings support and refine
development learning pathways
focus interventions with on-site coaching training based on
activities for teachers
accordingly when possible teacher needs
Scope and evaluate Develop and test Adjust the solution

Mobile various options a mobile solution based on teacher
Deploy the solution
learning to build teacher tailored for specific feedback and data
and promote it
solutions capacities with contexts and about uptake and
mobile technology beneficiary groups use
Improved
instruction and
enhanced learning
outcomes
16
4. Overview of the The main beneficiaries were teachers, and

secondary beneficiaries were teacher training
four projects institutions and ministries of education. The aim
The four UNESCO country projects aimed to was to assist teachers working in schools and to
advance new and cost-effective models of provide models that might be of use to larger
teacher development that could be emulated institutions looking for strategies to support
elsewhere, especially in developing countries teacher development.
where access to fixed-line ICT is non-existent or
Specific features of each country project are
scarce. Each country project included:
outlined in Table 2 and Table 3. What all projects
●● Ministries of education, particularly the shared was mobile learning content developed
divisions responsible for teacher education to assist primary school teachers. UNESCO and
and ICT for education; its partners also worked to ensure teachers
●● Teacher development institutions; understood how to access the content. External
evaluators sought to measure the uptake
●● Developers and programmers, drawing
and use of the content as well as its impact as
particularly on the technical expertise of
reported by the teacher beneficiaries.
specialists at Nokia;
●● Teacher development and educational
content specialists.
Table 2: Overview of the four projects
Country Objective Features

Mexico Improve the teaching The project in Mexico sought to help develop the Spanish
practice of Spanish language skills and pedagogical practice of multi-grade primary
language instructors school teachers working in areas where indigenous languages
working with indigenous are dominant. The pilot project involved 59 teachers in schools
children who speak located in the state of Puebla, academically the lowest-performing
minority languages state in the country.
Nigeria Build the pedagogical The project in Nigeria utilized mobile phones to help teachers
capacities of primary schoolimprove the English language and literacy skills of primary school
English language teachers students. The project targeted 50 teachers working in 50 different
primary schools in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria.
Pakistan Strengthen the knowledge The project in Pakistan sought to improve the content and
and pedagogical practices pedagogical knowledge of female teachers working in the field
of early childhood care and of early childhood care and education. The project reached
education teachers working 150 female teachers working in 75 different schools in 4 areas of
in rural areas Pakistan.
Senegal Enhance the teaching The project in Senegal supported early grade mathematics
practice of mathematics instruction. The intervention was unique because it provisioned
instructors and provide mobile technology for student use as well as teacher use. The
students with additional project involved 100 primary school teachers, reaching 40 schools
educational resources in Diourbel, a city in the centre of the country, and 10 in Pikine, a
city near Dakar.
17
Table 3: Underlying attributes and mobile learning solutions in the four projects
Attributes Mexico Nigeria Pakistan Senegal

Target teachers Multi-grade Primary school Early childhood Primary school
primary school teachers care and teachers
teachers education
teachers
Teacher Subject Language Language Child Mathematics
professional focus development
development
Format Centralized Centralized and Centralized and Centralized
self-directed self-directed
Purpose Upgrade Upgrade teachers’ Upgrade Upgrade

teachers’ pedagogical teachers’ teachers’
technological content pedagogical technological
and knowledge content and
pedagogical knowledge pedagogical
content content
knowledge knowledge
Offline Workshops and Workshops Workshops Workshops
school visits and follow-up and follow-up
meetings meetings
Online Knowledge - Knowledge -
sharing sharing
Technical Content Nokia Education Nokia Life+ Nokia Education Nokia Mobile
platform delivery Delivery Delivery Mathematics
(MoMath)
Interaction Blog - Facebook -
Mobile Content Spanish Pedagogical Video clips Mathematics
learning language tips for English about ECCE lessons,
lessons language based on including
instructors national lessons
curriculum designed by
teachers
Learning Viewing lesson Reading tips Viewing of Using and
activities plans; video about English video clips; creating
recording language taking multiple MoMath
student teaching choice lessons;
conversations; methodologies; questions encouraging
sharing and taking multiple students to
applying own choice questions use the mobile
videos learning utility
and monitoring
and guiding
its use
18
5. Evaluation ●● Changed subject matter and pedagogical

knowledge;
The project evaluation involved a collaboration
between three parties: independent evaluators, ●● Changed teaching and communication
UNESCO and NOKIA. practices;
Research questions and proposed data- ●● Perceived impact of the intervention.

gathering activities were outlined by the
The survey tools and questionnaires were
independent evaluators, reviewed by UNESCO
designed in English by the evaluation
managers, circulated to project implementing
team and translated into local languages
agencies and then agreed. Country-level
by UNESCO. All qualitative feedback from
partners were responsible for securing local
support for the evaluation process and ensuring participating teachers in non-English
that any ethical permissions specific to the languages was translated into English for use
subprojects were secured. by the evaluation team. It was noted from
the outset that the responses in the surveys
The projects were monitored and evaluated
represented the opinions of the participating
using a mix of quantitative and qualitative
teachers, therefore the impacts detected were
methods. Data collection mechanisms for all
self-reported.
four countries included:
To gather statistics about technology use,
●● Surveys with Lickert-scale and open-ended
questions to gather both quantitative and each subproject employed mobile technology
qualitative data; platforms which anonymously tracked and
stored usage data. The evaluation team reviewed
●● Statistics regarding the duration, frequency
this data and collated uptake and use statistics.
and nature of technology use by programme
The usage data was collected for a minimum of
participants.
seven weeks.
The instruments for data collection comprised:
For data analysis, only surveys completed by
●● Participant questionnaire given near the teachers who had done a baseline and endline
outset of the intervention (baseline); survey were used. The survey was designed
●● Participant questionnaire given near the end to group data into coherent sections to show
of the intervention (endline). overall trends and shifts. Paired T-tests were
used to measure the statistically significant
The evaluation tools sought to measure teacher
shifts in pre- to post-data.
perceptions related to:
The uptake and usage data analysis compared
●● Changed ICT skills;
the initial profile of beneficiaries to the actual
●● Changed frequency of ICT use; uptake by beneficiaries. It examined usage
●● Changed attitudes regarding using ICT for patterns in relation to project phases and, where
teaching and learning purposes; possible, examined types of use by beneficiaries.
19
6. Report structure
The body of this report has four chapters. Each
chapter describes work undertaken in a specific
project country and is organized around the
following headings:
●● Educational context;
●● Project focus;
●● Objectives;
●● Mobile learning ecosystem;
●● Teacher training;
●● Key results;
●● Lessons learned and recommendations.
A concluding chapter shares findings

running across the four country projects. It
also includes recommendations intended to
benefit future efforts to support teachers with
mobile technology.
20
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
1. Educational context 2. Project focus

Mexico has made substantial progress in UNESCO and the Mexico country project team
improving literacy rates for children and adults. planned the mobile learning intervention to
Targeted policies such as the introduction enhance the pedagogical practice of Spanish
of distance education programmes and language teachers working with indigenous
initiatives to expand early childhood education students who did not speak Spanish as a native
have helped to ensure that over 98% of the language. The project aimed to help make
population can read and write, while also language instruction more authentic and to
making learning opportunities more accessible take advantage of mobile phones features with
to people from disadvantaged communities.20 educational relevance, notably voice and video
Participation in education has also improved at recording capabilities. Care was taken to ensure
the primary school level. that the pedagogical approaches promoted
in the mobile resources were aligned with the
Despite this progress, deficits remain. Of national curriculum.
particular concern with regard to literacy are
persistent performance gaps in reading between
speakers of indigenous languages and native 3. Objectives
Spanish speakers. Mexico is home to the largest
The project had the following objectives:
indigenous population in Latin America and has
6.7 million inhabitants who speak an indigenous ●● Create lesson plans that are easily disseminated
language. Roughly one million of these people do via mobile phones and support the social
not speak Spanish, the dominate language of the practice of language aligned with formal
country.21 Improving Spanish language literacy for curricula;
these learners, especially children and adolescents ●● Encourage communication among teachers
enrolled in formal education, ranks among the and build communities of practice to enhance
country’s most urgent educational challenges. knowledge sharing;
The geographic isolation of indigenous groups
●● Develop a new, cost-effective model for teacher
has complicated efforts to provide expanded
development that can be replicated in other
education services. The implementation of high-
areas of Mexico.
quality bilingual education programmes that can
reach remote indigenous communities is thus a The project design allowed for two phases in the
strategic priority to improve education equity and teacher development process:
enhance the integration of Mexico’s ethnically ●● The first phase aimed to familiarize teachers
diverse population. with the Nokia Education Delivery (NED)
platform, the technical utility used to access
20 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2017. Mexico country data.
21 OECD. 2013. Education policy outlook for Mexico. educational content from a basic mobile
24
Mexico
phone. Ten lesson plans were uploaded on that focuses on the use of technology in
the platform, based on the existing national education, was responsible for the local
curriculum developed by the Federal Ministry of management of the project and the
Education. Each of the lesson plans introduced coordination of implementation.
teaching strategies to practice language for a
●● Nokia provided technical assistance for
specific communication purpose, for example
project and ongoing support related to the
understanding and talking about recipes for
NED platform.
cooking. Teachers were also shown how to
create a blog to encourage knowledge sharing
and communication among peers. Mobile learning solution
●● The second phase allowed the teachers to The mobile learning solution included mobile
deliver eight out of the ten lesson plans in a applications, mobile learning content and a
classroom setting. mobile learning pathway.
The project employed two mobile tools:
4. Mobile learning ecosystem ●● The NED platform was used for delivering
lesson plans containing specific objectives
Beneficiaries and educational activities.
At the start of the project, the beneficiaries ●● A blog was used for feedback, comments and
were: knowledge sharing.
●● 59 bilingual teachers, trained and equipped The first phase of the project introduced
with mobile devices, teaching in rural multi- the NED mobile platform and the ten lessons
grade elementary schools; it contained. Each lesson included specific
●● 770 students from 9 schools in the State of objectives and activities for selected teachers.
Puebla (6 in Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez and The lessons were based on the existing national
3 in Tehuacán). curriculum developed by the Federal Ministry
of Education and emphasis was placed on the
social practices of language, in particular on the
Partners
usage of spoken and written language in social
While UNESCO was responsible for overall contexts. Thus, each lesson was a teaching
project monitoring and evaluation, the sequence that focused on a communicative
organization worked with several key partners purpose of language as identified in the
in the field: curriculum. Overall, the teaching strategies of
●● The State of Puebla hosted the project this project aimed to develop social practices
under the auspices of the Secretary of Public of the language in various contexts, with
Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, different communicative purposes by using
SEP) and funded part of the project. authentic texts.
●● The National Pedagogical University in In the second phase of the project, eight of
Mexico City, a public research university these lessons were adapted by the teachers for
25
use with their students in a classroom setting 6. Key results

(see Annex I for lesson outlines).
An independent evaluation of the holistic
Activities designed for the lessons involved: project found mixed results. Teacher
●● Teacher viewing of lesson plans; engagement flagged over the course of the
project mainly because of inconsistent mobile
●● Recording videos; network connectivity. Also, because very few
●● Students recording videos of conversations participating teachers completed surveys at
among students; the conclusion of the project, it was difficult
to generalize findings. While the responses
●● Sharing and applying the videos made by the
received were valuable, they came from only
students themselves.
about 15% of the participating teachers.
From the data that was collected, teachers

5. Teacher training reported that the project enabled them to ‘be
more professional’, especially in terms of lesson
At the outset of the project, a two-day training
planning and assessing the prior knowledge
workshop was organized for the teacher trainers
of students. One respondent noted that the
tasked with overseeing the projects and the
intervention helped him see education as a ‘task
implementation with classroom teachers. The
of constant evolution, especially with respect
workshop helped trainers learn to use mobile
to the use of technology as a learning tool’.
phones and project applications including NED
The teachers also appreciated the integration
and the project blog. It also taught the trainers
of authentic learning activities, such as the
how to develop and monitor the classroom
creation of recipes and poetry books, which
teachers under their supervision. The training
they felt were exciting and positive learning
was provided by the project content developers
experiences for students.
as well as by a technical team specializing in
mobile technology. Another important point raised by respondents
was the alignment of the interventions with the
The 59 local participant teachers were then
national curriculum. Such coherence between
invited to a separate two-day session to initiate
micro implementations of lessons and macro
them into the project. The trainers helped the
formulation of national policies created a clear
teachers practice using mobile devices for
direction for teachers.
learning and worked with them to improve their
technical understanding of how to use mobile Teachers also reported a higher level of
devices and applications. comfort using ICT and greater interest in using
it to support teaching and learning. Most
Two site visits were made by the local
respondents remarked that the project carried a
implementation team in the San Marcos
lasting impact; they said they had learned new
Tlacoyalo and Tehuacán Puebla regions in order
ways to investigate and search for information
to monitor the progress of teachers and support
on the internet, and that they would continue
project implementation.
to incorporate these skills in their teaching.
Overall, a considerable increase in digital skills
was reported for every area. The evaluation
26
Mexico
report showed that the greatest increases were An evaluation of the uptake and use of
in accessing the internet for teaching and using educational resources showed low to moderate
social networking sites. use of the NED platform and moderate use
of the project blog. It is estimated that the
After the intervention, most teachers were
lesson plans hosted on the NED platform were
strongly in favour of using the device in
accessed less than once a week, a frequency
classroom settings. While many teachers also
that was lower than anticipated. On the blog
supported using the device for out of school
there were consistently more views than posts
teaching and learning, there was a notable
and the blog activities were skewed towards
increase in the small number of teachers who
viewing both lessons and the profiles of
were ‘strongly opposed’ to the idea, perhaps
other participants. The group communication
reflecting an objection to blurring lines
tools, functions that allowed teachers to
between work and home. The World Bank
communicate with all project participants,
and other organizations have reported that
were used consistently throughout the project,
powerful teachers unions in Mexico often
but the frequency of use fell off considerably
oppose measures that do not clearly delineate
after five weeks reflecting most likely
professional and personal time.22 Overall
declining interest.
though, the attitude of the project teachers
towards using ICT for teaching both in and Evaluation data gathered about the second
out of the classroom improved significantly phase of the project, the period in which
over the course of the intervention, in line with teachers implemented the lessons plans hosted
project goals. on the NED platform in classrooms, indicated
that teachers found the lessons beneficial
Another aim of the project was to ‘promote
and felt that they benefited learners. Teacher
dialogue between experts and participating
attitudes about using ICT in classrooms also
teachers to improve Spanish language
went up significantly for instructors who
pedagogy’ and to ‘encourage exchanges
completed phase two and completed a survey,
between teachers and build communities
a sign of enthusiasm about the implementation
of practice’. Given the low response rates
of the lessons plans accessible from mobile
to the endline survey, it is not possible to
phones. These encouraging findings should
comment on the extent to which these aims
be treated with caution though in light of the
were achieved for the target group. However,
relatively small sample size.
based on the limited responses, there was a
reported increase in the frequency of the use Overall, the intervention resulted in
of mobile phones for calls and e-messages improvement in the following areas:
to various groups (managers, peers, parents
●● Support for using mobile phones in
and students), which indicated greater
classroom settings for teaching and learning;
use of mobile devices for communication
and networking. ●● Moderate support for using mobile phones
out of school for teaching and learning;
●● Frequency of general ICT use;
22 Bruns, B. and Luque, J. 2015. Great teachers: How to raise student ●● Reported mobile phone skills.
learning in Latin America and the Caribbean.
27
7. Lessons learned and Infrastructural constraints

recommendations According to the project close surveys, the
The pilot project in Mexico encountered quantity of mobile phones was insufficient and
there were persistent difficulties with internet
challenges related to context, infrastructure,
connectivity. Several teachers commented
time duration, connectivity and teacher support
that devices with larger screens would have
and coordination.
benefited them; some also suggested that the
phones were not easily connected with other
Contextual constraints devices, such as a projector, which limited the
Mexico was the only country where two stages utility of devices in classroom settings.
of activities were planned and tested, and one of
Recommendation: Improve the quantity and
the greatest challenges confronting this project
quality of mobile phones, and include projectors
was the high attrition rate of participants from to enable classroom viewing. Gather inputs from
the first stage to the second. Of the 59 teachers, teachers and technicians at the conceptualization
only 40 continued into the second stage, and stage in order to ensure more engagement and
blog use declined sharply from 39 users to just 8. to obtain a more detailed understanding of
Based on interviews with local project managers classroom operating conditions, appropriateness
and tutors who conducted the teacher training of technology and connectivity issues.
and school guidance visits, this was due to:
excessive daily academic workloads in schools; Time constraints
other planned priorities during the period,
Most of the teachers in the survey reported that
especially assignments for degree programmes;
time pressures restricted their engagement in
teacher frustration and demotivation due to poor
the project, showing that initiatives which ask
internet connectivity; intermittent mobile phone
teachers to do ‘one more thing’ are not always
signals in certain communities; problems reading
enthusiastically received. The first phase of
small fonts on the phone screen; and personal
the project aimed to have teachers study one
issues, including family obligations.
lesson per week but this was expanded to one
Recommendation: These results suggest lesson every three weeks, due largely to heavy
that complex contextual constraints need teacher workloads and other competing time
to be addressed beforehand if a new mobile commitments.
learning solution is to be created for teachers Recommendation: Help teachers understand
who have heavy daily workloads and live in how mobile learning interventions can, in
poorly resourced communities. Attention must the long run, save and decrease workloads.
also be paid to teachers who drop out of a Alternatively, provide teachers with adequate
mobile learning project. Mechanisms should time to experiment with new technology
be in place to identify the specific reasons for and practice implementing mobile
steep drop‑out. learning solutions.
28
Mexico
Poor connectivity
Many teachers reported that WiFi and mobile
networks did not work consistently. Several
teachers lived in areas that were not served
by any mobile signal. Because aspects of the
mobile learning solution were dependent on
connectivity, this led to frustration on the part of
teachers and likely contributed to the lower than
expected teacher retention over the course of
the project.
Recommendation: Establish locations where

mobile services are guaranteed to work and
regularly monitor and maintain connectivity at
these location. Train teachers how to download
content from internet or mobile network ‘hot-
spots’ and then use this content offline.
Lack of coordination and

teacher support
The lack of teacher coordination was cited as one
of the intervention’s weaknesses. Respondents
expressed the desire to work more closely with
other teachers and to have a mentor who could
answer questions and facilitate faster progression
through the mobile learning content.
Recommendation: Increase social learning and

guided participation in order to enhance project
outcomes. A pre-implementation study of the
schools would be advisable, in order to gauge
the commitment level of school leaders and
participating teachers, and also to determine
the kind of support needed for a successful
intervention. If the project is to be replicated,
project managers should carry out regular
teacher visits to schools, in order to provide
input to participating teachers and facilitate
their learning.
29
Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria
1. Educational context success. The importance of early English language

instruction is heightened by the fact that many
Nigeria faces serious challenges in the education children—whose first language is regional or tribal
sector. Currently, 8.7 million children are out of —have had very little exposure to English when
primary school and many more are not attending they start primary school. Students in Nigeria
secondary school.23 In addition, many of the often leave school at an early age because they fail
children and adolescents who are in school often to develop strong English language proficiency
fail to achieve basic literacy and numerary skills.24 and cannot follow curricular instruction.
Gender disparities in education are another Several studies have shown that the quality of
concern. Currently, only 65% of girls acquire basic English language instruction in Nigeria is very low.
reading skills whereas the literacy rate for boys is Teachers are frequently underprepared to manage
approaching 80%.25 the large classes typical of Nigerian schools,
The twin problems of educational access and and unfamiliar with contemporary pedagogical
quality have resulted in some of the highest strategies.27
illiteracy rates in the world. Nearly 40% of the adult For these reasons, improving teacher capacity in
population in Nigeria cannot read or write. For the the field of English language instruction is critical.
youth population, illiteracy is slightly lower but is
still very high by global standards: 27% of youths
between 15 and 24 years of age are illiterate.26 3. Objectives
Data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
shows that progress toward improved literacy has The project had the following interrelated
largely stalled over the past two decades. objectives:
●● Improve the quality of English language
instruction delivered to primary school
2. Project focus students;
UNESCO tailored its mobile learning intervention ●● Help build the ICT capacities of teachers so they
to support and build the capacity of 50 English can use mobile technologies for professional
language primary school teachers in the Federal development and other educational purposes;
Capital Territory of Nigeria.
●● Build a sense of community among English
English is the primary language of instruction in language teachers within and across schools.
Nigeria and foundational to students’ educational
23 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2015. Leaving no one behind: How

far on the way to universal primary and secondary education?
24 UNESCO. 2014. EFA global monitoring report 2013/14.
25 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2017. Nigeria country data. 27 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2014. Wanted: Trained teachers to
26 Ibid. ensure every child’s right to primary education.
32
Nigeria
4. Mobile learning ecosystem phones. Nokia also handled various technical

demands related to the project.
Beneficiaries ●● Drawing on its global expertise in English

language teacher-training, the British
The project targeted 50 teachers working in
Council provided the educational content,
50 different primary schools in the Federal
which was a consolidation of its Certificate
Capital Territory of Nigeria, a state that
in Primary English Language (CIPELT) course.
encompasses the nation’s capital Abuja. The
Following the closure of Nokia Life Plus in
teachers, predominately women aged 30-40,
December 2013, the British Council moved
were overseen by five teacher trainers. Indirect
the mobile learning content to a mobile-
beneficiaries of the project included anyone friendly website in January 2014.
who accessed the mobile learning service.
●● NTI promoted and supported the project
in Nigeria. Working with UNESCO, the
Partners
organization identified teachers and teacher
The project in Nigeria involved four core trainers for each pilot group, and arranged
partners: UNESCO, Nokia, the British Council initial service registration and training. NTI
and the Nigeria Teachers’ Institute (NTI). These also helped to establish the monitoring and
partners worked cooperatively to create, launch feedback structure that allowed teachers to
and sustain a mobile learning service to support communicate feedback to UNESCO and other
English language teachers: project partners.
●● UNESCO designed the project and provided

overall coordination, working closely with
Mobile learning solution
the other partners to ensure that the mobile The content developed by the British Council
service for teachers was of high quality and in cooperation with UNESCO formed the core
easily accessible from basic mobile phones of the mobile learning service in Nigeria. The
provisioned as part of the project. UNESCO content took the form of short daily messages
also organized an initial training seminar and delivered over a 52-week period. Holistically, it
four subsequent support meetings for the aimed to convey the same learning as the British
50 pilot group teachers. UNESCO elicited and Council’s 30-hour CIPELT course.
consolidated feedback from participating The mobile content targeted in-service primary
teachers on a regular basis in order to school teachers working in low-resource
improve the mobile service and to ensure contexts with large mixed-level classes. It
that it responded to the needs of project covered the basics of child language acquisition;
beneficiaries. how instructors can produce and use resources
for primary-age students; and how to plan,
●● Nokia hosted the educational content on
manage and assess the progress of classes.
its Nokia Life Plus platform from May to
December 2013. The Nokia Life Plus system The content was broken into daily messages
ensured that the content was easy to find of 50-100 words, accompanied by one image
and use on a wide variety of Nokia mobile or graphic. On the Nokia Life Plus platform,
33
individual messages carried a label such as and the content was reorganized. The new
‘information’, ‘resources’, ‘hands-on activities’, website could be accessed by any mobile device
‘review’, ‘summary’, ‘quote’, or ‘reflection’ to signal equipped with an internet browser.
the type of content messages contained.
Figure 2: Nokia Life Plus home page
The messages were sequenced to
gradually build more complex pedagogical
understandings. Messages regularly referenced
or elaborated content covered in previous
messages and followed an order established
by the British Council and UNESCO. While the
sequencing was intentional and important,
missing one or two messages from time to time
was not disruptive to the learning process.
Overall, the messages sought to help teachers

encourage learner independence, cultivate
different learning aptitudes and reflect on
their teaching practice. They also included
resources, information and quotes relevant to
teachers. (See Annex II for sample messages and
screenshots.)
The service application on the Nokia Life Plus

system was called ‘English Teacher’ and could
be activated using a simple interface. Once
activated, the service sent a daily message
behind an icon labelled ‘English Teacher’ 5. Teacher training
(see Figure 2).
At the outset of the project UNESCO and
The Nokia Life Plus system could only be used Nokia, in collaboration with NTI and the
on Nokia brand phones. However, because British Council, organized an initial training
Nokia Life Plus was pre-installed on most Nokia seminar for all teachers participating in the
headsets sold in Africa, teachers only needed pilot project. The teachers were given Nokia
to activate the English Teacher service to use it; headsets with pre-paid SIM cards and received
installation of third party application was not training on how to access and navigate the
needed. The end user incurred only minimal mobile learning service.
data fees to download the message. These fees
The teachers were organized into five groups,
did not exceed more than a dollar per month
each overseen by a teacher trainer who
and, depending on the data plan of the user,
provided ongoing interaction and support—
could be as low as a few cents per month.
both technical and pedagogical. Teachers in
At the end of the pilot project, the service was each group also provided support to other
moved to a mobile-friendly (HTML 5) website group members and met regularly to discuss
34
Nigeria
the application of the pedagogical concepts objectives. The evaluation also showed that the
learned. The teachers gave feedback about the reported frequency of ICT use for both general
service to their respective teacher trainers who, and teaching-specific purposes had increased
in turn, reported this information to UNESCO. considerably over the course of the project.
UNESCO consolidated the feedback and, when
Another finding was that the project had
appropriate, made changes to the service,
helped to create communities of practice
ensuring it met teacher needs and remained
among teachers. At the project conclusion,
useful and engaging for end users.
teachers stated that the frequency with
In addition to the initial training, three meetings which they used mobile phones for making
were held with teachers in the pilot group. and receiving calls, sending messages
These meetings allowed teachers to voice and communicating via websites and
questions, troubleshoot technical issues, social media with other teachers had
discuss the mobile service and share examples increased significantly.
of how they translated pedagogical tips into
Based on the analysis of baseline and endline
classroom practice.
surveys, the project intervention reduced the
Following the conclusion of the pilot project, feeling of isolation in schools and instilled a
the service was migrated to an HTML website sense of collegial community. In interviews
hosted by the British Council. Additional and testimonials, teachers routinely made
training was organized to explain the new statements such as: ‘The project helped me
platform, and ensure participants were able meet teachers who face similar challenges’ and
to access and use it on their mobile phones. ‘The service provided a platform for talking
Teachers continued to receive support from about teaching and debating effective practices
NTI and teacher trainers following UNESCO’s for language learning’.
handover of the project.
The evaluation further found that teacher
attitudes towards using ICT out of the classroom
for teaching and learning became more
6. Key results positive over the course of the project, but less
Feedback from participating teachers was positive about using ICT in the classroom. The
positive, with significant shifts in teachers’ precise reason for this divergence is unknown,
views regarding the value and utility of mobile but it seems to highlight the difficulty of
learning. There was also an impressive uptake leveraging mobile phones for education in
of the service beyond the targeted beneficiaries classroom settings.
during the pilot period which extended over
A peripheral benefit of the project was that it
one academic year. Teachers reported that the
improved teachers’ views of their profession
project exceeded their expectations by helping
generally. It also seemed to have helped
them accomplish more than they had initially
demonstrate that pedagogy is a complex act. In
anticipated.
completion surveys, teachers often agreed with
Teachers said that the mobile learning statements such as ‘I have a lot to learn about
intervention improved their English language teaching English’, indicating that engagement
teaching skills, in line with the project’s with the project helped them recognize how
35
much knowledge and skill is required to teach a 7. Lessons learned and

particular discipline.
recommendations
In terms of quantitative data, teachers in
The pilot project encountered challenges
the pilot group regularly accessed the daily
related to content, technical problems,
content messages, even when it required
training, mobile phone credit, connectivity and
overcoming connectivity problems. A
hardware.
surprising finding was the large numbers
of people who used the service outside the
pilot group. At the end of the project, the Content sequencing
UNESCO-Nokia mobile learning service was and delivery
reaching approximately 70,000 users, far more
Teachers generally reported that they preferred
than anticipated. Furthermore, there was a
messages that gave them concrete ideas for
positive correlation between the increased
lessons, rather than more abstract pedagogical
user numbers and daily page views. The high
advice. They also preferred messages that were
uptake strongly indicates that the mobile
open-ended rather than merely information.
service had relevance far beyond the pilot
Messages that posed questions or sparked
group of 50 teachers. The numbers further
reflection were also generally well-received.
indicate how quickly mobile learning projects
UNESCO and its partners worked to incorporate
for teacher development can upscale to
these preferences into the service.
reach more users. While the growth in user
numbers reflects a general interest in mobile Educators involved in the project designed the
learning services, the UNESCO offering had Nokia Life Plus service so that all users received
two advantages that likely accelerated uptake: messages in a strict sequential order, beginning
the service was available on the widely used the day they activated the service. This meant
Nokia Life Plus platform and NTI promoted the that a teacher who initiated the service on, say,
service extensively throughout Nigeria. 28 May would always be ‘one message ahead’ of
a teacher who initiated the service on 29 May.
Overall, the project demonstrated that the
capacity of English language primary school While some teachers seemed to have no
teachers could be improved through a problems checking messages on a daily basis,
relatively simple mobile service. It also helped others indicated that they preferred to read
show that a mobile learning service could multiple messages on the same day. Ultimately,
be scaled-up quickly without major financial this seemed to be a matter of taste. When the
investments. The challenges confronted and service was migrated to the mobile-friendly
lessons learned over the course of the project website, it was built in such a way that teachers
should inform the development of future could easily peruse the full library of messages,
projects. Similarly, recommendations derived reading as many as they wanted in a single
from the project have wide applicability both sitting.
within and beyond Nigeria.
Recommendation: Content should be practical,
open-ended and constructive, rather than
merely informational. Ideally, content sent to
36
Nigeria
groups of cooperating teachers should be the Credit to access the internet

same and sent at the same time to facilitate
discussion about it. While content can be Initially, UNESCO and Nokia provided teachers
ordered and delivered in a sequential fashion with SIM cards containing a modest data plan.
The plan provided sufficient credit to access
to build on previous learning, platforms that
the educational service for months, but it was
host this content should also be searchable and
impossible to track the kind of data that was
flexible; the full library of content should be
actually downloaded. Many teachers exhausted
accessible.
their data plans quickly, probably because
they used data to retrieve content that was not
Site-based support and purely educational.
coaching UNESCO and Nokia stopped providing free data
The structure of the pilot project—teacher credit towards the end of the pilot study for
trainers overseeing small groups of classroom this reason. However, because costs to access
teachers—worked well. The teacher trainers messages on the Nokia Life Plus system were
greatly facilitated communication with minimal (fractions of a USD cent), the effect on
classroom teachers and helped UNESCO and participation was minimal.
its partners tailor the service to the needs of Recommendation: Future projects should
end users. consider involving mobile network operators
While UNESCO and its partners invested as partners. Zero-rated access to educational
significant resources in training teachers how content would ensure that teachers have
to use the mobile phones, teachers with limited the data privileges needed to access mobile
learning services, and would prevent the issues
ICT experience still had trouble accessing
encountered above with regard to data plans
English Teacher messages and using other
and private usage. There is a growing precedent
options such as text messaging. Informal
for this. For instance, in South Africa leading
training sessions were arranged where teachers
network operators provide free access to Nokia
taught one another how to take photographs,
Mobile Mathematics. Separately, the Wikimedia
use email, store contact information and use
Foundation has lobbied numerous operators
third-party applications such as WhatsApp, a
in developing countries to allow people to
free messaging service.
view mobile versions of Wikipedia articles free
Recommendation: Enhance communication of charge.28
networks by using teacher trainers to oversee
small groups of classroom teachers and give Connectivity
feedback to project partners. Informal support
One of the most serious project challenges
training should be given alongside more formal
was poor connectivity. Some teachers in the
technical training in the early stages of any
pilot group reported a loss of connectivity to
future interventions, in order to ensure that mobile phone networks, making it impossible
all participating teachers are able to utilize for them to access English Teacher content.
educational and capacity-building services
available on their mobile devices. 28 Wikimedia Foundation. 2016. Wikipedia Zero.
37
Feedback reports indicate that teachers to support teachers who attempted to use
gradually identified coping strategies—for technology in this way.
example, by identifying the places and times
Recommendation: Organizers of future
where their phones could get reception—but
projects may wish to develop mechanisms and
these were fraught with difficulty: teachers had
processes to support mobile learning inside
to know the precise locations (and, in some
classrooms as well as outside them.
instances, specific times during the day) where
they were likely to find a mobile signal. While
limited connectivity did not compromise the Data disruption due
overall viability of the project, it represented to phone sharing and
a significant barrier for teachers living in more multiple SIM card use
remote areas of the Federal Capital Territory.
In developing countries, mobile phone owners
Recommendation: Although expanding commonly use multiple SIM cards. This caused
connectivity is normally beyond the scope the sequencing of messages to be disrupted
of small projects similar to the one UNESCO during the project because the sequence was
undertook, future interventions should determined by the SIM card. At the outset of
acknowledge the challenge of limited the project, UNESCO felt that using SIM cards
connectivity upfront and give participants as identifiers was advantageous because
concrete coping strategies, such as identifying it eliminated the need for user names and
different locations with connectivity and passwords to track the progress of participants.
restarting a device to force it to search for However, the use of multiple SIM cards
a mobile signal. A platform offering flexible by individual users complicated efforts to
access to a complete repository of educational track user progress and led to frustration for
messages would also enable those with limited end users when the sequencing of messages
connectivity to view and download numerous was disrupted.
messages when connectivity is available.
Recommendation: Future projects should
provide a unique user login for mobile services
Ideas for ICT use employing sequenced messages if participants
in classroom settings are expected to use multiple SIM cards to access
A significant finding of the project evaluation mobile services. Organizers might also like to
was that participating teachers were less try and develop content that is not sequence
in favour of using ICT inside classrooms dependent.
for teaching and learning than they had
been at the outset of the intervention. This
finding highlights difficulties associated with
integrating mobile devices in classroom
settings. While the current project did not
explicitly seek to promote technology use
in classrooms, more could have been done
38
Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan
1. Educational context empower individuals and communities, and spur

development.
Pakistan has long been working to improve the
provision of education. According to the latest
figures from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the 2. Project focus
national literacy rate stands at 56.44%, well below
regional benchmarks and international targets. UNESCO and the Pakistan country project team
Access to basic education remains a challenge; designed mobile learning solutions to build
Pakistan is home to 5.6 million out‑of‑school the capacity of female ECE teachers working
children, approximately 10% of the global total. in mostly rural areas, with a specific focus on
Gender equity is another area of concern: for applying teaching methodologies introduced
every 100 boys in school in Pakistan, there are only by the Federal Government. The project was
83 girls.29 aligned with Goal 1 of the Education for All
(EFA) initiative: ‘Expanding and improving
To confront these challenges, Pakistan has begun comprehensive early childhood care and
to emphasize early childhood education (ECE). In education, especially for the most vulnerable
2002 a national ECE curriculum was developed and disadvantaged children’.31 Since the launch
and policy attention continues to be directed of the Dakar Framework of Action in 2000,
toward building learning foundations for young Pakistan has included ECE in key areas of its
children before they enter primary school.30 These education sector reforms.
efforts are constrained however by persistent
teacher shortages at the pre-primary level and
underqualified ECE instructors. The vast majority of 3. Objectives
ECE teachers in Pakistan are women and they tend
The project had the following objectives:
to receive low salaries for their work. Opportunities
for them to receive professional development are ●● Improve the subject matter knowledge of
rare and many ECE instructors enter the profession female ECE teachers working primarily in
with limited grounding in childhood development rural areas;
and education.
●● Provide pedagogical training and guidance to
Harnessing widely owned mobile technologies to ECE teachers;
build the capacities and knowledge of ECE teachers
●● Improve student skills in writing, speaking and
has the potential to better prepare children to excel
listening;
in primary education and acquire basic skills that
●● Introduce a new and affordable model of
teacher development for replication in other
regions of Pakistan.
29 UNESCO Institute for Statistic. 2017. Pakistan country data.
30 Pakistan Ministry of Education. 2007. National curriculum for early
childhood education. 31 UNESCO. 2015. EFA global monitoring report 2015.
42
Pakistan
4. Mobile learning ecosystem The partners collaborated to lay foundations for

the project. Main activities included:
Beneficiaries ●● The formation of a technical committee to

facilitate implementation. The technical
Project beneficiaries included teachers and
committee helped the FDE to select and train
schools:
teachers, and to develop content which was
●● 150 rural teachers working in pre-primary uploaded to the NED platform along with
schools; other training materials. Members of the
committee included representatives from the
●● 75 different schools in 5 areas (Bhara Kahu, following organizations:
Nilore, Sihala, Tarnol and urban areas of
–– Ministry of Capital Administration and
Islamabad Capital Territory).
Development Islamabad;
FDE;
Partners ––
–– Federal College of Education;

While UNESCO was responsible for overall
–– Islamabad Model School for Girls;
project execution, it was supported
by different public and private sector
–– UNESCO Islamabad Office.
organizations: ●● A 3-day workshop to select content for
20 teacher training videos on ECE themes.
●● UNESCO’s primary partner, the Ministry of
The objectives of this workshop were to:
Capital Administration and Development
Islamabad, ensured political commitment –– share and discuss the content of the
to the project and was responsible for local selected ECE themes;
supervision and coordination. –– receive feedback and advice regarding the
content from a group of ECE experts and
●● The Federal Directorate of Education
media script writers;
(FDE) in Islamabad was responsible for
providing training and support to teachers.
–– discuss video themes and content in order
to ensure their relevance to teachers and
●● Nokia, the main donor, provided technical learners;
assistance on the Nokia Educational Delivery –– reach consensus regarding the video
platform, the main technical platform used to content.
access content related to the project.
●● Midas Communications, a media firm, Mobile learning solution

was responsible for the digitalization of A mobile learning solution encompassing
educational content. video learning content and other resources was
●● Mobilink provided data-enabled SIM cards designed to respond to teachers’ training needs.
which provided free internet connectivity and To strengthen ECE teaching capacity, an early
supported text messaging for the duration of education training manual was developed for
the pilot project. use on mobile devices. The manual digitized
43
existing learning materials drawn from the Video content was hosted in a cloud library
National Curriculum for ECE and included four and downloaded to teachers’ phones via the
major topical areas: NED platform. The videos were supported by
multiple choice questions intended to motivate
1 Introduction to ECE;
teachers, facilitate their engagement with the
2 Effective implementation of ECE, including videos and evaluate their understanding of the
the role and responsibilities of teachers in content.
ECE, instructional guidance for teachers, and A Facebook page created for this project
the creation and management of effective facilitated communication and collaboration
learning environments; between the teachers and other stakeholders. A
broad-brush analysis of the posts indicated that
3 Key areas of learning, including personal and
the social media platform helped participants:
social development, language and literacy,
health and hygiene; ●● Share pedagogical tips with members of the
community, such as dealing with different
4 Effective assessment of ECE.
types of learners, motivating students and
This content was optimized for use on small creating a positive classroom environment;
screen mobile devices. ●● Improve the visibility of the project by
The project team also developed 20 videos on showcasing educational content;
ECE, 12 of which were class-based and included ●● Keep parents and community members
activities in creative arts and basic mathematics. informed about outputs created by students;
The remaining 8 were lecture-based and aimed
●● Disseminate administrative information such
to improve teachers’ understanding of ECE.
as the project evaluation surveys.
(See Annex III for details about the content
developed as part of the project.) The videos
were recorded in Urdu, the first language for 5. Teacher training
most teachers and learners. Furthermore, all
the videos were open educational resources Participating teachers were organized into
5 groups of 30. Each of these groups received
under a creative commons licence, which means
a 3-day training workshop on the operation of
that they could be freely shared, adapted and
mobile learning tools and the pedagogical use
modified as long as attributions were respected.
of the 20 ECE videos.
Each participating teacher was given a
The workshops:
free Nokia mobile handset by the UNESCO
Islamabad Office, and Mobilink provided ●● Reaffirmed the importance of ECE and
SIM cards with six months of free internet sensitized teachers about the national ECE
connectivity in addition to generous credits for policy plans;
text messaging and voice calls. The Mobilink ●● Familiarized participants with the operation
text messaging service was the principal means of project provisioned mobile phones and
by which the participant teachers interacted how to access educational resources using
with each other and asked questions. the phones;
44
Pakistan
●● Linked the mobile learning content to the also reported that the impact on learners
national ECE curriculum. was lower than anticipated. However, most
participating teachers noted improved student
motivation.
6. Key results
Overall, the majority of participant teachers
The teachers reported that the intervention supported the use of ICT for education but,
improved their teaching and technical interestingly, not in classroom settings. Teachers
skills and, more importantly, changed their were less enthusiastic about using technology
approach to teaching. Teachers said the project in the classroom after the intervention than
helped them practice innovative teaching before it. However, teacher attitudes towards
methods, including activity-based learning, using mobile phones out of school for teaching
in addition to more conventional written and learning were more positive.
activities. Participating teachers also reported
The analysis of the pre- and post-intervention
improved relationships with children, teachers
surveys indicated that the project achieved
and parents. Reasons given include a broader
many of the desired outcomes. The most
understanding of ECE and related pedagogical
notable change was the increase in usage and
strategies. Additionally, the project prompted
skills associated with mobile devices. Reported
lively exchanges between teachers and parents increases in knowledge-sharing among
about class improvement. The teachers were colleagues and learners as well as the use of
positive about the impact of the project on internet-based ECE support programmes for
their teaching practice. They reported that teaching were encouraging.
the intervention helped them expand their
knowledge of ECE, facilitate learning with An evaluation conducted regarding the uptake
students and find new materials to make their of the mobile learning tools used in this project
teaching more versatile. indicated a high overall participation rate from
the teachers consistent with the project design
The participating teachers were also surveyed and objectives. Consistent participation by the
on their use of mobile phone functions. This majority of targeted teachers was evident in
included downloading educational videos, and their regular responses to SMS questions, where
accessing the internet for other resources, such participation rates were recorded for each week
as games, music or general information. In all of the project. It is useful to note that although
but one case, the shift from pre- to post-survey teacher engagement fluctuated somewhat
was positive. The most dramatic improvement over time, there were not strong differences
recorded related to accessing social networking in activity levels among individual teachers.
sites and downloading videos which was The participating teachers remained with the
expected, as these were the two tasks teachers project for its duration; no notable drop off was
completed most often as a result of their detected.
inclusion in the project.
There was regular, albeit moderate, use of NED
Although the intervention resulted in personal and Facebook by the participating teachers.
impact, there was little change in anticipated There was slightly more activity on NED in the
impacts in the teachers’ schools. The teachers early phases of the project than its concluding
45
phases, probably reflecting enthusiasm at the 7. Lessons learned and

outset of the intervention. However, the reverse
was the case for Facebook, where activity
recommendations
increased in the latter part of the project, There were several areas identified for
revealing that social media platforms appeal to improvement which could inform the
users, even when engagement is educational development and implementation of similar
in nature. In interpreting the decline in NED projects in the future.
data, it is important to realize that NED logged
usage data only when an ‘online’ activity was Connectivity
performed, and so would not have recorded
The main concerns raised by teachers included
repeat classroom viewings of a previously
the poor internet connection and difficulties
downloaded video.
with mobile connectivity. This led to delays in
The Mobilink text messaging platform was used downloading videos, despite the NED’s ‘queuing’
as a tool to reinforce communication among feature that allowed users to download files
teachers and to build communities of practice. overnight.
The participating teachers interacted with
the service by answering questions posed via Recommendation: Project managers
the platform. A total of 714 closed questions need to develop contingency plans to help
were posed to teachers, eliciting an average beneficiaries in areas with intermittent or
of 22 replies per question, of which 78% were slow connectivity. While videos can transmit
correct. There was consistent engagement compelling educational content, they generally
with the questions from teachers in all project require high bandwidth connections. Allowing
regions and the backend data from Mobilink participants high and low bandwidth options
showed high levels of participation. to access content can help ensure project
goals are achieved even in areas with slow
The main aim of the project was to leverage data networks.
mobile technologies to improve the
professional capacities of ECE teachers and,
Time constraints
overall, data collected from the project suggest
that this objective was achieved. Given that the Some teachers expressed concern that the
project did not set out to provide or improve project started late into the school year and
classroom access to ICT, it is not surprising to was interrupted by the summer vacation.
see how little increase there was in the use of Some teachers reported that they did not
ICT for classroom teaching purposes. ICT is have enough time to work through all the
not yet fully integrated into the teaching and capacity‑building materials.
learning processes in Pakistan and its impact on
Recommendation: Organizers should establish
the academic outcomes of the learners is not
flexible project durations to account for
yet known.
scheduling uncertainties and hard-to-predict
training needs. They should also find ways to
46
Pakistan
support and reduce teachers’ existing workloads Provision of free handsets and
to create space for the use of ICT.
data
Site-based support for teachers’ The active engagement of participants
throughout this project, despite limited access
continuous development
to ICT, poor connectivity and low ICT skills, was
The project was favourably received by the probably due in part to the provision of free
participating teachers and seems to have handsets and free data for six months.
generated significant enthusiasm for ICT.
Recommendation: In order to ensure that
However, teachers noted a lack of monitoring
future projects receive similarly positive
visits and ongoing evaluation in their feedback.
engagement, the provision of free handsets
Lack of time for feedback and engagement was
and data should be continued. While this clearly
also highlighted.
presents challenges related to sustainablity, it
Recommendation: Include training during is unrealistic to expect teachers in developing
teaching days and extend the feedback period. countries to shoulder substantial costs to access
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of project mobile learning services.
activities are likely to improve engagement
and establish feedback mechanisms that allow
project managers to tailor interventions to
better meet the needs of intended beneficiaries.
Also, more context-specific information about
how teachers use mobile learning resources
is likely to help reveal strategies to refine and
improve these resources.
Hardware limitations
Several teachers raised concerns about the
sound quality of videos, and the lack of
projectors or large screens for classroom
viewing of video materials.
Recommendation: If groups of people need to

watch videos, access to a projector or TV screen
equipped with speakers is essential. Videos
should not be used in a classroom setting when
such ICT is unavailable or outside the scope of a
project budget.
47
Senegal
Senegal
Senegal
1. Educational context girls in both early and late primary school.36

Educational equality is also problematic with
While Senegal has made considerable progress regard to performance: PASEC data showed that
toward achieving international goals for Senegal had the greatest inequality between
education over the past decade, the country lower primary school students of all the
still faces major challenges relating to literacy, 10 African countries included in the study.
numeracy, resources and teacher training.
Learning resources in Senegal are scarce. The
The literacy rate for adults only recently PASEC data found that a majority of learners have
surpassed 50% and currently stands at about to share a textbook with one or more student in
56%.32 However, this figure obscures large gaps in both primary and lower-secondary school. This
literacy between males and females. Across the is particularly true in mathematics classes, where
country, male literacy is approximately 66% for there tend to be fewer textbooks available than
the adult population while the rate for females in other subject areas.37
is only 44%.33 This gap has narrowed because
of efforts to make education more inclusive for In an attempt to accommodate a growing
girls, but the divisions remain: for young people demand for teachers, many countries in West
(aged 15 to 24 years), the literacy rate for males Africa have ‘accelerated’ teacher training
is 76% and 64% for females.34 These rates, low by programmes, condensing training that used
global standards, reflect continuing problems to extend over years into months. A 2016
guaranteeing universal access to basic education. World Bank report estimates that primary
Despite improvements since 2000, Senegal has school mathematics teachers receive only
one of the lowest primary gross enrolment ratios six months of training in Senegal, among the
in the world.35 shortest preparation periods in the region.38
Many teachers receive even less training.
In mathematics, the area of focus for the UNESCO Senegal makes wide use of contract teaching to
mobile learning project in Senegal, fewer accommodate more students in primary schools,
than 60% of learners reached or exceeded the and by 2004 over 50% of teachers were on
‘sufficient’ level established by the Programme temporary contracts and earning only one‑third
for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC), a of the salary of teachers on regular contracts.39
programme that helps francophone countries
conduct and analyse educational assessments.
Gender differences in performance were also
detected, with boys significantly outperforming
36 PASEC. 2014. Education system performance in francophone
sub-Saharan Africa: Competencies and learning factors in primary
education.
37 Ibid.
32 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2017. Senegal country data. 38 World Bank. 2016. Mathematics education in sub-Saharan Africa:
33 Ibid. Status, challenges, and opportunities.
34 Ibid. 39 UNESCO Dakar. 2014. World Teachers’ Day: Teacher challenges in
35 UNESCO. 2014. EFA global monitoring report 2013/14. the Sahel countries.
50
Senegal
Recent UNESCO data indicates that only one half Surveys conducted in Senegal prior to the start
of teachers are trained to national standards.40 of the UNESCO project indicated that large
numbers of Senegalese owned personal mobile
While educational technologies are regularly
phones. Subsequent surveys have suggested
identified as a tool to improve the quality
that people in Senegal and other developing
of mathematics education, teacher training
countries are receptive to using internet
institutes in Senegal and the wider region
connected technologies as portals to learning
rarely prepare teachers to use technology for
and education.43 The UNESCO project sought to
teaching and learning. A recent study of formal
leverage mobile devices and connectivity to help
teacher education programmes in sub-Saharan
teachers improve mathematics instruction.
Africa found that none provided access to video
material to support the teaching and learning of The overall goals of the project were:
mathematics and none had computer software
●● Contribute to teachers’ overall professional
specifically related to mathematics instruction.41
development;
●● Use mobile technologies to support teaching
2. Project focus and learning in mathematics.
The UNESCO project in Senegal sought to

enhance teaching and learning in mathematics
at the primary school level through the use of
3. Objectives
services accessible from mobile phones. The project had the following objectives:
Teachers working in basic education in Senegal ●● Reinforce teachers’ skills in mathematics and

often face very large classes of students and increase their knowledge of the curriculum;
have limited resources at their disposal. This ●● Improve student learning outcomes in
can be particularly problematic in mathematics
mathematics and increase their engagement
where students often require individual attention
in the subject;
and need workbooks and other resources to
apply concepts and practice operations learned ●● Improve communication within the school
in school. A shortage of teachers and well- community;
qualified teachers, combined with a dearth of ●● Promote a new model of teacher
learning resources, contributes to Senegal’s
development to other teacher training
low completion rate for primary school and
institutions in Senegal and influence national
persistent problems with learning outcomes in
and state policy-making in this area.
mathematics. In Senegal only 50% of students
can count to 100 by the end of Grade 2, and a
similar percentage of students cannot solve basic
subtraction problems.42
40 UNESCO Dakar. 2014. Paradigm shift for teacher training in the

making in Senegal.
41 World Bank. 2016. Mathematics education in sub-Saharan Africa: 43 PEW Research Center. 2015. Internet seen as positive influence on
Status, challenges, and opportunities. education but negative on morality in emerging and developing
42 Ibid. nations.
51
4. Mobile learning ecosystem de l’Éducation de Dakar or CRFPE in French),

delivered the teacher training.
Beneficiaries ●● The main project donor, Nokia, provided

technical support for the mobile learning
The beneficiaries of this project were 100
application chosen for this project, Nokia
primary school teachers with classes of 31-50
Mobile Mathematics, also known as MoMath.
learners at CE1 (8-9 years) and CM2 (10-11 years)
levels. The project covered 50 schools in total, ●● Orange-Sonatel provided free mobile
40 in Diourbel, located in central Senegal, and connectivity to the MoMath application
10 in Pikine, located in the suburbs of Dakar. for teachers and students participating in
One male and one female teacher were selected the project.
from each school to pilot test the mobile
learning platform with their students. Mobile learning solution
Around two-thirds of the participating teachers Nokia Mobile Mathematics (MoMath) was
owned a basic mobile phone, with almost 20% the main mobile learning solution selected
owning a smartphone. About one in three to respond to the needs identified by the
owned a laptop and one in five had a personal local partners. A free, browser-based mobile
computer. Almost half the teachers (44%) application, MoMath could be accessed from
accessed the internet, usually from home. any mobile phone with a data connection or
While the project did not set out to improve any computer with an internet connection. In
the ICT infrastructure of the pilot schools, it addition to the application, the project used a
did interject mobile technology into schools Moodle-based online learning management
that either had no ICT or a very limited number system to support administration related to
of computers and other hardware which was the project. Although this was the first project
typically outdated. Only a small number of to use MoMath in Senegal, the platform was
schools had ICT planning and policies in place. effectively deployed in South Africa in 2008 and
reached 50,000 learners by 2014.44
Partners The local implementation team, which included

inspectors and members of educational
While UNESCO was responsible for overall
institutions, was responsible for delivering
project execution, it was supported by different
teacher workshops and validating the digital
organizations:
content. Teachers and their students connected
●● The African Distance Learning Network to the MoMath application through mobile
(Réseau Africain de Formation à Distance phones. Teachers received a free mobile phone,
or RESAFAD in French), a branch of the and pilot schools were also provided with five
Senegalese Ministry of Education, was additional phones to be used by students under
responsible for the local management and the teachers’ supervision.
implementation of the project.
●● The Dakar Regional Teacher Training Centre
44 Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2014. Nokia mobile learning app
(Centre Régional de Formation des Personnels makes mathematics fun for everyone.
52
Senegal
Using a structured, game-style approach, ●● Help teachers and principals understand how
MoMath allowed students to learn to use basic mobile phones;
mathematical theories and concepts via ●● Train teachers how to use the MoMath
a mobile phone. After reading about a application and inform them about other
mathematical concept, students could earn educational uses of mobile technology;
points through practice exercises and tests,
compete with their classmates and send
●● Increase student interest in mathematics and
messages to other students or teachers. improve student performance;
Information about student progress, for both ●● Support teachers in their work with students;
groups and individuals, was stored on a remote
●● Explain the process of content creation and
server and made available to teachers. This
validation.
enabled them to track usage statistics, provide
help where needed, compare progress between
learners and send homework reminders. 6. Key results
For the purpose of this project, MoMath had to The Senegalese teachers were surveyed
be tailored to match the national curriculum. twice during the project: a baseline survey
Teachers were then given opportunities to was administered at the outset of the project
develop content for students, under the and a second endline survey was given at the
supervision of their respective school directors completion of the pilot project. The full project
and inspectors, a process that helped further duration in Senegal was approximately seven
assure the alignment of MoMath to the formal months. Overall, the evaluation data indicated
curriculum. After validation of teacher-produced that teacher skill levels in using ICT and mobile
content by the local implementation team, phones increased significantly as a result of this
the content was uploaded onto the MoMath project. Not surprisingly, the biggest increase
platform. During the pilot phase of the project, was accessing the internet from mobile phones.
approximately 20 lessons were developed by Because the MoMath application was web
instructors. based, teachers had to use a mobile browser to
access project-specified learning content.
The uptake and usage data for the MoMath

5. Teacher training service was somewhat disappointing. UNESCO
All the teachers participating in the project were and its partners studied backend data collected
taught how to use the MoMath application to from the MoMath application for seven
support their instruction and provide students weeks and found that 853 user accounts were
with increased opportunities to practice established, of which 407 were new. Many of
these users were not active in the application
problem sets. Participating teachers also
however, and may have discovered it through
received a free mobile phone and face-to-face
avenues unrelated to the project. Because
training was provided to address basic ICT
students as well as teachers were supposed to use
literacy skills for mobile devices.
the application, these overall numbers were quite
The specific objectives of the trainings included: low and likely reflect difficulties teachers had
53
getting acquainted with the service in a relatively Disappointingly, the participating teachers felt
short time period and perhaps a hesitation to less positive about the project at its conclusion
encourage students to use the service. than they did at its start. This likely indicates
that the project did not meet teachers’ initial
Despite these setbacks, the reported frequency
expectations. In the project close survey,
of ICT and mobile phone use increased
participating teachers were asked to comment
substantially over the course of the project. The
on their experiences, consider the project
greatest increases were detected in project focus
strengths and weaknesses, and propose
areas, such as accessing the internet from mobile
recommendations for future projects.
phones and accessing online programmes to
support teaching and learning in mathematics. Reported strengths included:
Prior to the project the teachers used PCs more ●● Motivation of learners and teachers;
often than mobile phones to access the internet.
This practice reversed over the course of the ●● Improved teacher understanding of ICT and
intervention, although the frequency of internet the internet;
use for both PCs and mobile phones remained ●● Improved teaching quality.
relatively low. The increase in usage frequency
was larger in some non-project-related areas, Reported weaknesses included:
for example playing and downloading songs ●● Heavy reliance on mobile phones and a
and videos. However, increased usage of ICT, shortage of devices;
even when not strictly education-related, is
●● A need for larger screens.
usually positive, as teachers who become more
comfortable using technology are better able to Suggested changes included:
use it for educational purposes.
●● More teacher training, particularly on the
Another positive finding was that users creation of learning resources for MoMath;
tended to create content rather than view it
●● Replace emphasis on individual content
passively. Authorship of content peaked early
creation with a more collaborative approach,
in the project and then declined steadily. The
allowing groups of teachers to develop
downward trajectory likely reflected a number
educational resources;
of factors: a honeymoon phase at the outset
of the project weeks when enthusiasm was ●● Improve communication on project progress.
unusually high and competing time pressures
and declining interest after this initial period.
7. Lessons learned and
Most of the mobile learning content viewed
in the MoMath application consisted of either
recommendations
problem sets or explanations of mathematical On the whole, the evaluation data indicate
concepts. With regard to exercises and tests, that the participating teachers felt that the
there was a marked shift away from easy level project had a strong potential, but due to
problem sets and concepts in the initial phase practical difficulties encountered during the
to a more balanced pattern across different implementation, this potential was only partially
difficulty levels in later phases. realised due to a number of constraints.
54
Senegal
Internal and external computing is not feasible, then mobile phones

should be provided in sufficient numbers to
disruptions facilitate work in groups of 3 or 4 students.
Activity levels in the MoMath application
provided an indicator of user participation in Registration and data tracking
the project. The expected weekly participation
from users was lower than expected, due in One of the useful features of MoMath is that
part to a number of disruptions, including a teachers can monitor each student’s progress
national teacher strike, a lengthy examination and provide relevant feedback and guidance.
period and school holidays. The intervention However, in Senegal the MoMath user accounts
was also delayed by the project management were created by the project administrators, and
team who wanted to improve the quality of the did not appropriately differentiate between
learning content. teacher and student accounts, limiting the
opportunity to collect meaningful data on
Recommendation: Contingency planning for user participation. Teachers could not easily
future projects is essential. A longer period of see which students were completing MoMath
time for implementation would provide greater activities.
flexibility to overcome disruptions and help
teachers and students establish routines using Recommendation: Ensure differentiation
mobile technology for learning. between user accounts. Self-registration by
users might be a useful way to track user data
in order to provide relevant feedback to both
Inadequate teacher training teachers and learners.
Although teachers reported improvements
in their teaching, they also said that they felt Teacher participation in
insufficiently trained to fully exploit the potential
content development
of mobile phone technologies in their classrooms.
This project employed a participatory approach
Recommendation: Revisit, revise and perhaps
where teachers acted as content developers.
lengthen teacher training workshops prior
The content was validated and uploaded to the
to the outset of projects involving unfamiliar
MoMath platform by the local implementation
technologies and learning resources.
team. Teachers expressed frustration that they
were expected to design high-quality online
Insufficient mobile devices materials in addition to their normal teaching
Given the large class sizes in Senegal, it is loads, which had a negative impact on their
clear that the single mobile phone given to a overall perception of the project.
project teacher and the five additional phones Recommendation: Ensure that teachers are
provisioned for students were not enough to equipped with the necessary time, support
engage classes in a meaningful mobile learning and tools to benefit from such pedagogical
experience. design experiences. Teachers should be given
Recommendation: Increase the number opportunities to practice developing content
of mobile phones provided. If one-to-one in collaborative groups led by mentors, before
being asked to produce content individually.
55
Conclusion
Conclusion
The work described in this publication sought about educators being resistant to change,
to test whether mobile technology can support UNESCO’s finding was that teachers were
teachers and build their capacities in low- excited to use mobile technology to build their
resource contexts. UNESCO piloted solutions in professional capacities.
Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal to better
Teachers reported strong interest in each
understand the feasibility of implementing
country project at its outset and—with the
mobile learning interventions targeting teachers.
exception of Senegal and, to a lesser extent,
This chapter is broken across four short Mexico—interest remained high throughout
sections. The first section shares key findings the intervention. Instances where teacher
from the projects as perceived by the teacher interest flagged could be attributed to clearly
beneficiaries. The second section summarizes defined-challenges: in Mexico limited mobile
lessons learned from the overarching connectivity and in Senegal difficulties
intervention. The third section proposes implementing a mobile learning solution with
recommendations to guide the development students. The broad takeaway was that teachers
of future mobile learning projects targeting in the four countries were quite willing to
teachers. The fourth and final section offers experiment with ‘outside the box’ approaches to
forward-looking reflections. teacher professional development.
Challenges
1. Findings about the
Teachers called attention to a number of
perceived impact of the challenges that transcended individual
intervention country projects.
UNESCO contracted an independent Notably, many teachers felt that the initial
organization to conduct evaluations of each of trainings were sometimes insufficient for their
the four country projects, drawing on baseline needs, despite UNESCO’s attempt to frontload
and endline surveys—both quantitative and interventions with in-depth workshops,
qualitative—given to participating teachers. orientations and other face-to-face preparatory
This section presents findings from a meta- meetings and demonstrations. Teachers also
analysis of country-specific results. indicated a desire for additional continuous
support, following the early training period.
Reception
Teachers routinely had trouble with
Across the four project countries, teachers connectivity and, in some instances,
were largely enthusiastic about using mobile connectivity problems prevented teachers from
technologies to build their capacities, easily or seamlessly accessing mobile learning
particularly at the beginning of the UNESCO content. Unreliable connectivity tested the
intervention. Despite oft-repeated laments
58
Conclusion
patience of even highly motivated teacher country project managers indicates that teachers
beneficiaries, especially in Mexico. strengthened their ability to find high quality
learning information on the internet and inside
Although the overarching UNESCO projects,
mobile applications, some of which were not
with the exception of Senegal, did not normally
specified by project managers. This is a promising
ask teachers to use mobile technology directly
development. Academic studies of teacher use
with students, a number of teachers wanted
of ICT in and out of schools have underscored
to share materials with students in classroom
that in addition to needing general ICT skills,
settings and felt constrained by the lack of
teachers are particularly well served by an ability
projectors, large-screen TVs and full classroom
to judiciously search for and select good quality
sets of mobile phones.
educational resources from the internet and
Several teachers said the project timelines other repositories of digital content.45
should be extended in order to give them
more time to become acquainted with mobile Frequency of ICT use
learning solutions. In some country projects,
scheduling posed challenges. School breaks Unsurprisingly, teacher use of ICT increased
and unanticipated developments such as strikes substantially as a result of the intervention. In
complicated project implementation and all project countries, a statistically significant
disrupted sequenced activities and trainings. increase in teacher frequency of ICT use was
detected, both in general and specifically with
regard to the use of mobile technology. This was
ICT skills a consistent trend across the different projects.
Teachers reported dramatically improved ICT (See Table 5 for details.)
skills as a result of the intervention. The greatest
gains were measured in Pakistan and Nigeria, Table 5: Reported increase in frequency of
with more modest but still statistically significant ICT use (expressed as change in the average
shifts in Senegal and Mexico. Improved ICT value of responses to Likert scale questions)
skills for teachers is probably the single greatest
Mexico Nigeria Pakistan Senegal
impact of projects, as measured by quantitative Increase in
indicators. (See Table 4 for details.) frequency of
33% 43% 46% 41%
general use of
ICT
Table 4: Reported increase in ICT skills Increase in
(expressed as change in the average value of frequency of 20% 19% 54% 25%
responses to a Likert scale question) mobile use
Increase in
no
Mexico Nigeria Pakistan Senegal frequency of
significant 76% 46% 41%
Improved use of ICT for
change
mobile phone 31% 83% 133% 61% teaching
skills
Although the UNESCO evaluation did not specify

the precise sub-domains where teachers’ ICT 45 Hinostroza, J. E., Ibieta, A., Claro, M., and Labbé, C. 2016. Character-
isation of teachers’ use of computers and internet inside and outside
skills had improved, qualitative feedback from the classroom.
59
Content knowledge attention could have been paid to encouraging

this type of communication, although it is
Changes in content knowledge were not tested possible that teachers were already participating
empirically in isolation by the evaluations, so in established professional networks at the
statistical measures of shifts are unavailable. outset of the projects and the intervention did
However, participating teachers who completed not change overall communication practices.
open-ended questions on project endline
surveys often noted that content knowledge of
School-level changes
their subject areas had improved as a result of
the intervention. This was particularly true for Teachers indicated that the intervention had
the projects in Nigeria and Mexico. a beneficial impact on their schools in three
of the four project countries (Mexico, Pakistan
Pedagogy and Nigeria). In these countries, the reported
school-level impact was encouraging, with all or
Although teacher pedagogy was not directly almost all responses to various statements about
observed or formally measured by the project positive impact averaging between ‘agree’ and
evaluations, qualitative data derived from teacher ‘strongly agree’ on Likert scale questions. The
surveys point to possible changes in teaching exception was again Senegal where teachers
practices. In all countries, teachers reported were neutral about the impact of the project on
increased learner participation in the classroom, their schools.
especially in Pakistan and Nigeria. The data also
showed an increase in the use of technology
Student learning
to support the teaching of educational content
in formal school settings. These findings are The reported impact on learners as reported
encouraging because they suggest that the by the teachers was largely positive but not
projects may have prompted altered classroom particularly strong. In the cases of Pakistan and
practices. Improved pedagogy—while difficult Senegal, almost all responses to various positive
and expensive to measure scientifically—was a statements about impact on learners fluctuated
central aim of the intervention. between ‘neutral’ and ‘agree’ on Likert scale
questions. Responses in Mexico were slightly
Communication more positive, and responses in Nigeria were very
positive. This result is understandable because
Clear trends with respect to teacher changes in the country interventions sought to improve
communication with colleagues were difficult the pedagogical knowledge and capacity of
to detect. In some countries and for some teachers. Improving student learning outcomes
types of communication, there was a small in a short period of time (or the perception of
and statistically significant increase in reported these outcomes) was not a core objective of the
communication with school managers and other project. Over a longer time horizon, it would be
teachers. In other countries, there was little to no important to see evidence of this, but learning
change. This result is somewhat disappointing outcomes were not measured empirically in the
because a peripheral benefit of the projects was current study.
expected to be increased interaction between
teachers and their peers and mentors. More
60
Conclusion
many. Equally essential ingredients include

compelling content, institutional partners,
extensive teacher training, ongoing project
2. Lessons learned support, communication campaigns and buy-in
from education leaders. UNESCO built complex
Mobile phones appear to ecosystems in each project country to transform
provide a viable means to a generic communication technology into an
integrated learning solution. The solutions
expand access to professional
implemented in each country went well beyond
development opportunities the provision of mobile phones. In Nigeria,
Considered collectively, the UNESCO Mexico and Pakistan, content had to be built
interventions established, beyond mere from scratch to ensure its relevance for teachers.
hypothesis, that teachers in developing and Even the content used in Senegal, repurposed
middle-income countries are able to access from an earlier deployment in South Africa, had
and productively use mobile learning solutions, to be changed in fundamental ways to align
embedded in carefully planned ecosystems, it with the Senegalese national curriculum.
to facilitate their professional development. Teachers also needed numerous face-to-face
This is exciting because it means that an trainings to become familiar with the mobile
increasingly ubiquitous technology offers a phones used in the projects. While some
vehicle to support teachers living in areas where teachers understood the basic functionalities
traditional capacity building opportunities are of mobile phones prior to the intervention,
scarce. nearly all of them required assistance learning
how to leverage these devices to access lesson
The interventions also appear to be scalable.
plans, pedagogical tips and other capacity
In Nigeria, around 70,000 people regularly
building resources. Ultimately, the teacher
accessed a mobile service designed to improve
training workshops proved to be the most
the knowledge and pedagogical practice of
expensive and logistically complex aspects of
primary school English language teachers.
the four country projects. They were also the
The projects in other countries did not have
most important. The success or failure of the
anywhere near this reach, but this was due
interventions hinged on teacher knowledge
to limited user uptake rather than technical
barriers. From a technical perspective, any of of how to use a mobile phone for educational
the projects could have supported the scale purposes. This mattered at least as much as
achieved in Nigeria. teacher access to a connected device.
Access to mobile phones Consistent and well-curated

should not be conflated with a educational resources appear
mobile learning solution to be hallmarks of effective
The UNESCO projects underscored that while
mobile learning content
working mobile phones provide a basis for Overall, the UNESCO projects seemed to work
mobile learning, they are one ingredient among best when they provided teachers with discrete,
61
well-organized and sequenced packages objectives, they generally require substantial

of learning resources that established clear up-front investments and incur regular,
learning pathways. This was evident in Nigeria ongoing costs. For the projects reviewed
where teachers received daily messages and in in this publication, UNESCO had to provide
Pakistan where teachers accessed a carefully mobile hardware and SIM cards to participating
organized library of educational videos. Some teachers, in addition to contracting content
of the content used in the UNESCO projects was developers and paying for initial teacher
interactive (teachers would occasionally take training and follow-up support.
short quizzes to show comprehension) but most
Mobile learning projects premised on
of it was static and didactic in nature. While there
assumptions that teachers in poor countries
is understandable enthusiasm around mobile
will appropriate phones they already own to
learning content that is highly interactive, this
access educational services and incur associated
type of content was not always easy for teachers
data fees rarely gain traction or achieve scale.
new to digital technology to use and added a
Sometimes teachers in developing and middle-
layer of complexity to projects with relatively
income countries do not own phones at all and
short durations. As an example, in Senegal
those who do often have very basic handsets
teachers were expected to use a dynamic
that cannot access project-recommended
mathematics application tailored for use on
applications and services. Even teachers with
mobile devices with students. The application
powerful phones often have devices with
and a supporting web-portal provided rich
operating systems that are incompatible with
feedback to teachers about student progress
project content. Beyond this, teachers should
and offered various customizable features, but
not be expected to purchase a mobile phone
these resources were not used as often as less
for professional purposes. Although the price of
interactive content developed for projects in
mobile hardware is falling rapidly, it is still out of
other countries. Across the four country projects,
reach financially for many of the primary school
content that supported a direct learning pathway
teachers who participated in the UNESCO
seemed to be more effective and easier to
projects. Data plans can also be prohibitively
implement than content that supported multiple
costly. Across the four country projects, UNESCO
and less defined learning pathways. This almost
paid for SIM cards with enough preloaded data
certainly stemmed from teacher inexperience.
credit for teachers to access target educational
As teachers build digital skills, they are likely
content for the duration of the intervention.
to become more comfortable experimenting
with complex mobile portals, applications and In summary, holistic mobile learning solutions
software. In the beginning though, simplicity is a incur major expenses, and some of these
defining attribute of successful content. expenses, like connectivity and maintenance,
are continuous. This is not to say that mobile
Mobile learning solutions carry learning solutions are expensive compared to
other, comparable interventions, but project
significant costs organizers should be realistic about the costs
While mobile learning solutions can offer required to leverage mobile technology for
good value for money vis-à-vis comparable teacher development. While mobile devices and
interventions seeking to achieve similar data plans may eventually become so affordable
62
Conclusion
that institutions can reasonably expect teachers 3. Recommendations

to use their own hardware and data plans to
access learning services, this is not yet a reality,
particularly in developing countries where
Ensure institutional-level
teacher salaries are low and mobile hardware and support and investment
connectivity tend to be more expensive than in Institutions need to embrace holistic and
developed countries. integrated approaches to create mobile learning
solutions for teachers. The mere presence
Mobile learning solutions of mobile technology does not provide
for teachers have numerous adequate foundations for large-scale initiatives.
Institutional-level support and investment are
limitations and are not yet needed to guarantee the creation of strong
substitutes for traditional content, ready necessary infrastructure, procure
and evidence-based teacher hardware and provide training to teachers,
training and development among other essential components. Mobile
learning initiatives, especially those seeking
While mobile phones offer a promising vehicle to have national impact, require buy-in from
to assist underserved teachers, they are, in the highest levels of ministries in light of
many respects, severely limiting: screen sizes their complexity.
are small; complex information is difficult to
package for learning on mobile phones; and
creating and producing new content is difficult
Provide appropriate and
on phones compared to PCs. While some of agnostic mobile learning tools
these disadvantages are being addressed by Close attention should be paid to ensuring
improved technology (for example, tablet teachers have appropriate tools that can fulfil
computers have larger screens and better project objectives and meet teacher needs.
input options than mobile phones), mobile Ideally, mobile learning technology selected
learning solutions should supplement rigorous for educational use will be agnostic and open.
teacher training programmes, not replace them. Teachers should be able to access mobile
Complex pedagogical strategies are usually learning solutions from different devices with
best demonstrated in-person, and classroom different operating systems and from different
observations followed by discussion and network operators on platforms that are free
feedback with expert teachers, remain among and open. Accomplishing this in practice is
the most effective ways to mentor teachers and challenging and, in many instances, expensive.
help them improve their practice. The solutions As one example, developing educational
UNESCO piloted should not stand-alone; they applications to work on different mobile
offer pathways to expand capacity development operating system typically incurs significant
that is already in place and deemed effective. costs, much more than developing for a single
In lieu of no other options or resources to assist operating system. Nevertheless, decisions
teachers, mobile learning still has utility, but related to the selection and development of
ideally it will supplement richer and deeper mobile learning tools should be guided by a
teacher training.
63
principle of expanding access and creating as tend to know which networks provide the most
many entry-points as possible. reliable coverage in their areas. Vouchers have
been used successfully for this purpose.
Integrating new technology with existing
investments is also important. Teachers in the
Mexico project wanted inexpensive cables to Support teacher training and
connect their mobile phones to digital projectors continuous development for
and TV screens already installed in a handful of mobile learning
schools. Although UNESCO could not provide the
cables due to compatibility issues, institutions Teachers need initial and continuous support to
should make efforts to ensure earlier technology use mobile technology for educational purposes.
investments complement newer investments This was apparent in all the UNESCO projects.
when possible. Institutions should further Ideally, teacher training for mobile learning
strive to maximize opportunities for teachers to will be integrated into mainstream teacher
model mobile learning resources and practices credentialing programmes and constitute a pillar
to students. More and more young people in of professional development efforts.46 Policy
developing countries are getting access to makers and school leaders should also consider
mobile phones, but they do not know how to ‘phasing’ the use of technology. In the first phase,
turn their devices into portals to education. teachers can access mobile learning resources
A teacher who can connect a phone to a individually for professional development; in
projector is able to demonstrate utilities that are the second phase and after intensive training,
increasingly accessible to students and others in teachers can begin using technology to
the community. facilitate the learning of students in school
settings. Teachers should feel comfortable
with mobile learning tools before they are
Enhance access to mobile deployed in classrooms. Teachers in the UNESCO
networks projects reported that transitioning from using
mobile technology for personal professional
Problems with poor network service was a development to using technology with learners
recurring complaint across all four project represented a major jump and required
countries. Although resolving the issue was commensurate training, as was particularly
beyond the scope of the UNESCO intervention, evident in Senegal. Overall, teacher capacity
future interventions may wish to establish building for mobile learning is likely to become
partnerships with outside organizations or increasingly essential as a growing number of
telecommunication ministries to expand educators and students, including those in poor
mobile networks and ensure end users are able countries, buy and use mobile phones.
to access learning content from school and
community locations. Connectivity should not
be limited to schools exclusively or the ‘anytime
and anywhere’ potential of mobile learning will
be lost. A practical idea to help teachers stay
connected to mobile networks is to let them
select their own mobile carrier because they
46 UNESCO. 2013. Mobile learning policy guidelines.
64
Conclusion
Build strong and sustainable to end users. Other projects ask teachers to
develop original mobile learning content, but
partnerships in the UNESCO experience this entailed a steep
The UNESCO projects benefited from learning curve. This was seen most clearly in
numerous partners invested in the success of Senegal where teachers were supposed to build
the different country projects. In Nigeria for content in addition to using content that had
example, UNESCO collaborated with dedicated been created professionally. Asking teachers to
partners who supported content development, create mobile-friendly content requires extensive
hosted technical platforms, provided teacher training and appropriate incentive structures.
training, promoted mobile learning services, Quality controls are needed to assure the value
reported user feedback and evaluated the and appropriateness of content regardless of
impact of the intervention. Other UNESCO its source.
projects involved partnerships with mobile
network operators. Unifying all the projects
was a desire to incorporate organizations— 4. The way forward
large and small—that could leverage specific
Viewed holistically, the UNESCO projects
competencies to support projects and establish
examined in this publication shine light on the
buy-in at international, national and local levels.
considerable potential of mobile technologies
Educational institutions should work to build
to benefit working teachers. They also revealed
partnerships with organizations, including those
that these gains are unlikely to come quickly or
not normally associated with the education
easily. Mobile learning interventions need to be
sector, such as telecommunications companies,
embedded in carefully planned projects that
to support and sustain mobile learning projects.
extend well beyond technology and emcompass
training, partnerships, content development and
Invest in high-quality mobile financing. Even then there are likely to be hitches:
learning content the technology does not always work as it
should, teachers need different levels of training
Major investments are needed to build high-
to begin using mobile devices for professional
quality mobile learning content. UNESCO
purposes, infrastructure is limiting, and support
allocated a substantial proportion of project
networks are challenging to build and sustain.
funding to create content that was easily
But overall, the UNESCO projects point in a
accessible from mobile phones. Tellingly, content
promising direction. With the correct preparation,
that was built from scratch for the projects in
learning pathways and infrastructure, teachers
Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan was better received
can use widely owned mobile technology to
than the content deployed in Senegal which had
improve their professional capacities.
been repurposed from a separate initiative in
South Africa. Feedback from participants showed Mobile technology is exciting because it seems
that content designed to address specific to provide a cost-effective vehicle to reach
teacher needs, unique to particular contexts, underserved educators and advance progress
was most effective. While many mobile learning towards the Education 2030 Agenda. Institutions
projects rely on content that is freely available should continue to experiment with efforts
online, these resources are not always relevant to leverage, adapt, shape and deploy mobile
65
technology to respond to specific educational

challenges and enlarge the evidence base
about what works, where and why. More work
is needed to clarify mobile learning models that
can support teacher development, but some
guiding principles—including those proposed
in this publication—are emerging from pilot
projects. Observation-based evaluations of how
particular mobile learning solutions influence
teachers’ pedagogical practices would be
especially valuable. The goal is to understand
how mobile‑based professional development
interventions can facilitate improved teaching
and, ultimately, better learning outcomes for
students.
It is UNESCO’s hope that other organizations

can use the lessons learned in Mexico, Nigeria,
Pakistan and Senegal to continue leveraging
mobile devices to assist teachers and, by
extension, improve learning opportunities for
students around world.
66
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72
Annexes
Annex I
Mexico
1. Screenshots of the project blog
2. Outline lesson plans from the second phase of the project
Lesson 1
We speak and write about ourselves

Aim: To provide opportunities for students to use spoken Spanish to introduce themselves and to adapt
the verbal introduction into written text.
Activities: Record a verbal introduction using a mobile phone and upload video to the blog site. Write
up the introduction on the blog and describe the attributes of classmates. Reflection on the relative
challenges of speaking vs writing Spanish.
Teacher provides comments based on students’ responses via blog.
Lesson 2
Write to offer products or services

Aim: To enhance student understanding about advertisements as a form of social practice, and to create
advertisements that are relevant to daily life.
Activities: Scan newspapers to identify different types of advertisements, design an advertisement to
market a relevant service or product. Using students’ mobile phones, upload photos of advertisements
onto blog.
76
Annex I
Lesson 3
The words can be flowers

Aim: To enhance student understanding about features of poems.
Activities: Creation of poems, paying particular attention to the meaning of words used and the rhythm of
verses. Digital resources provided as a source of reference to scaffold students.
Teacher records and downloads the videos of children reciting their poem and invites students to perform
self-evaluation when viewing the video clips.
Lesson 4
Reflect on the use of language

Aim: To enhance students’ conceptual understanding of the social practices of language in their daily life
and its relationship with school practices.
Activities: List how language is used in students’ daily life, take photos of activities and upload them onto
the blog. Teachers facilitate the discussion and draw linkages between the social practices of language
and the activities in the classroom. Students reflect critically on whether what has been done in school
would be useful for their development in society. Teachers take a photo of the points written alongside the
discussion and post it onto the blog.
Teachers write a brief reflection on the uses of language that children need outside of school and critique
whether the school is promoting the use of this language in the classroom.
Lesson 5
Collect stories of the community: listening, transcribing, editing, publishing and reading
Aim: To enable students to transcribe and write a story and to identify the characteristics of different genre
of texts. To facilitate a richer understanding of the students’ community through the compilation and
reading of relevant stories.
Activities: Students identify a suitable person from their community and invite them into class to narrate
stories related to the history and traditions of their locale. Record the narration using a mobile phone and
download the video clips onto a computer. Students hear the audio again and re-write the story based on
their interpretation. Teachers provide scaffolds such as asking students to write the name and description
of characters, places and the major events recounted. Students share their output and peers provide
comments about the story. Students are then grouped into pairs to go through the written text again and
amend factual errors or grammatical mistakes. Students revise the story taking into account their peers’
feedback and inputs. Partner will review the final product. Students upload their artefacts onto the blog
and the teacher reviews the recording as well as the first iteration and revised version of text.
Lesson 6
Recipes for learning and cooking

Aim: To enhance student understanding about the purpose and essential elements of recipes, and the
implications of reading and using a recipe to prepare a dish.
Activities: Distribute recipes to students; ask students to choose one of the recipes and identify its name,
ingredients and steps involved in its preparation. Students agree on the ingredients required and bring
them to the classroom to prepare the dish. Teacher records the process on a mobile phone and posts the
video onto the blog. Students can then create a recipe themselves and present their recipe to the class,
reading out the text and performing the steps. Teacher records the process and uploads the video onto
the blog. Students exchange recipes for review and further improvement, then integrate and compile all
recipes into a cookbook, ensuring that the cover, title, index, introduction and necessary embellishments
are included. Teacher takes photos of the recipes and shares them on the blog.
77
Lesson 7
Emotions in the voice

Aim: To enhance the oral skills of students through reading a story to children from another class or school.
Students use the recording function on the mobile phone to self-correct and make improvements to their
reading skills.
Activities: Select a story book from the library and prepare a draft of the story to be narrated, to include title,
author and publisher of the book. Teacher invites volunteers to read the draft and records their narration
with the mobile phones. Students listen to their audio clip and revise their story to make it more enticing to
the audience, and re-present it. Teacher records their performance using a mobile phone and organizes a
plenary for students to reflect on the experience.
Lesson 8
Teach what we learn

Aim: To enhance student skills in conducting a self-assessment on their participation in this project; to
provide feedback and suggestions on content and project development.
Activities: Recapitulating what the students had practised and learned. Teacher creates a new group space
on blog for students to report if and how they have improved their Spanish language proficiency; activities
they liked best; activities they would like to include in future; and recommendations for enhancing content
and project development.
Teachers are also invited to reflect on the project, especially on whether the activities could help students
learn to speak, listen, read and write Spanish better. They are encouraged to write a conclusion about the
participation of students in this project and upload the text onto the blog.
78
Annex II
Annex II
Nigeria
1. Messages from the Nokia Life Plus platform sent in week 2 of

the project
WEEK 2
Week 2/day 8 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 1 – INFORMATION

We are all unique
Each of us is unique and we all learn differently. The more we understand about how our
students learn, the better we can help them.
We all teach in different ways with our own teaching style and what we believe about
learning affects the way we teach.
We are going to look at two areas that affect learning: learning style and motivation.
Learning style is the way that we take in, process, absorb and retain new information.
Motivation is the desire or willingness to learn the language. Think of a time that you were
motivated to learn as a child and as an adult. What motivated you?
Week 2/day 9 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 2 – INFORMATION

What is motivation?
Was what motivated you as an adult different to what motivated you as a child? We begin
our lives doing things because we are intrinsically motivated, that is, because it makes
us feel happy and fulfilled. Later, we become extrinsically motivated by rewards such as
money or holidays etc. Intrinsic motivation provides the best long-term performance.
We need to motivate our learners so that they enjoy learning English and build a lifelong
enjoyment of the language. What do you do in class that motivates your learners?
Week 2/day 10 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 3 – RESOURCES

How can we motivate?
As individuals, our students are motivated in different ways. How can we motivate them?
RELATIONSHIPS - get to know your learners as individuals and help them to get to know you!
ENGAGE - make them curious, tap into their interests and be sure what you are doing is
relevant.
CHOICE - let learners choose what to learn and lead the learning to enhance independence
CHALLENGE – set tasks which make them think
ENCOURAGE – make sure you look for small things to praise
ACTIVE – make your lessons interactive and move the learners around. Variety is the spice of life.
Be motivated yourself.
79
Week 2/day 11 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 4 – HANDS ON

Get Active, action it!
Do a mini action research project with your class. You can find information about action
research at TINYURL2. Choose 21 new items of vocabulary linked to the topic you are
studying. Each day, teach seven new items using a different five- to ten-minute activity.
Each activity should address a different multisensory learning style: visual, auditory or
kinaesthetic. Your action research question is – Do multisensory activities help a range
of learners to remember vocabulary better? You will be finding out more about these
learning styles over the next week.
Week 2/day 12 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 5 – REVIEW

What have we learned so far?
Our students are motivated in different ways and by different things. Motivation is more
sustainable if it is intrinsic. We can help our learners develop motivation towards language
learners through the way we teach and the enthusiasm we show for the language.
Week 2/day 13 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 6 – SUMMARY

In order to learn, your students need to be motivated. That motivation is best if it is
intrinsic and comes from within. You cannot give or show them how to have intrinsic
motivation but you can help them to get it through providing interesting, stimulating
and challenging lessons which appeal to a range of learning styles. To do this, you need
to get to know your learners as individuals, their needs and their interests. Have some fun
learning English and the motivation will automatically develop.
Week 2/day 14 – HOW WE LEARN – Message 7 – QUOTE

Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will
understand. – Confucius, 450 BC
2. Screenshots of the ‘English Teacher’ application on Nokia Life

Plus platform as seen on project-provisioned mobile phones
80
Annex III
Annex III
Pakistan
1. Key themes of the 20 teacher-training videos

number
Theme
Title Content
1 Importance of ECE • Definition of ECE

• Research findings on the impact of ECD
• How ECE/ECD enhances personal and professional development
throughout life
2 Child development • Stages of physical and mental development in children

• Critical stages in development
• Consequences of lack of cognitive stimulation and opportunities for
intervention during early childhood
3 Basic pedagogical • Activity-based, child-centred learning replacing conventional

principles of ECE, teaching methods
including ELD • Participatory approach and continuous motivation of children
• Dos and don’ts of ECE
4 ‘Katchi’ (state) class • Poor learning conditions in rural primary schools

in Pakistan and • Teacher attitudes (instructional or teacher-centred approach)
quality of ECE • Desirable learning conditions for ECE
5 Pakistan’s national • Education for All – Goal 1

and international • National Education Policy 2009
commitment to ECE • Article 25-A and Senate Bill 2011
6 National curriculum • Understanding the curriculum and its implementation in classroom

for ECE 2007 settings
• Salient features and structure of 2007 curriculum (5 key learning
areas and 32 competencies)
• Other requirements for implementation of 2007 curriculum
7 Personal and social • Physical development

development (part I) • Sensory development
• Social development
• Personal development
• Safety and security
81
8 Personal and social • Culture

development (part II) • Values
9 Language and • Oral skills (including national and provincial language, local dialect
literacy (part I) poems)
English language • Poems and rhymes
• Short stories, jokes and riddles
• Naming of different objects, events and plants
10 Language and • Introduction of symbols and pictures with names of common items
literacy (part II) in the learning environment
English language • Introducing and repeating central words and their constituent
letters through activities
11 Language and • Speaking skills: poems and rhymes (including national and
literacy provincial language, local dialect poems)
Urdu reading skills • Telling short stories, jokes and riddles
• Naming of different objects, events and plants
12 Language and • Introduction of symbols and pictures with names of common items
literacy in the learning environment
Urdu writing skills • Introducing and repeating central words and their constituent
letters through activities
13 Basic mathematical • Introduction and recognition of different colours

concepts • Introduction to size and volume
(part I) • Concept of numbers
14 Basic mathematical • Concept of geometrical shapes

concepts • Measurement
(part II)
15 The world around us • Introduction of family relations

• Different occupations and their roles
• Cultural sites in local area
• Introduction of local animals and plants
• Weather and the four seasons
• Environmental issues
16 Health and hygiene • Food and health benefits

• Personal hygiene
• Cleanliness of personal and local environment
17 Creative arts • Colouring, drawing and painting

• Clay moulding and creation of objects out of waste material
82
Annex III
18 Preparation of low- • Recycling waste materials (e.g. empty bottles, buttons, boxes, ropes,
cost and no-cost clay, plastic) to create low-cost and no-cost teaching aids
teaching-learning
aids for ECE class
19 Parent-community • Active parent participation and community involvement at

involvement for educational institutions
mobilization of • Improve parent, teacher and student collaboration
resources and • Avenues of parental involvement
support for ECE
20 Assessment • Assessment techniques of ECE pilot project on mobile learning

• Assessment for teachers
• Assessment for classroom (teachers and students)
• Assessment techniques for all ECE domains, based on the 20 themes
83
2. Screenshots of the ways in which the Facebook page was used

during the project
Contents of teaching learning resource kit produced Students’ artefacts on display during school
for the project monitoring visit
Broadcasting events such as the project close survey

Troubleshooting technological problems
with teachers
84
Annex IV
Annex IV
Senegal
1. Screen shots of Nokia MoMath (now Microsoft Math)
85
ANNEX V
Survey used to evaluate the project

SURVEY for UNESCO-Nokia project on using mobile technologies to support teachers’
professional development
Please answer these questions in as much detail as possible. If you require more space, please add in
lines, or write on the back of the page. Where options are provided in the blocks (e.g. question 12),
please circle the one that is most appropriate for you.
Please be aware that:

●● Although your name is asked for in this survey, it is only so that the researchers can identify you
and link your baseline responses to those you will make later in the project close survey.
●● The data collected will be for the group as a whole, so your individual responses will not be
traceable.
●● There is no right or wrong answer, so please answer as honestly and accurately as possible!
GENERAL INFORMATION (Please use capital letters)
1. First name:
2. Last name
3. School name:
4. For how many years have

you taught in this school?:
5. For how many years have

you been a teacher?:
6. Position held:
7. E-mail:
8. Personal telephone
9. Highest qualification/
Diploma obtained
10. Region in which you teach
86
ANNEX V
11. Your gender Male Female
12. Your age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
13. What subjects do you

teach?
14. For which grades do you English Other subjects:

teach…?:
15. Number of learners in your <21 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+

class(es)
16. Age range of learners in

your class(es)
ICT ACCESS
17. Does your school have a policy about ICT (computers, mobile Yes No
phones and the internet)
18. Does your school ban the use of mobile phones at school? Yes No
19. Does your school give learners guidance on appropriate ICT use? Yes No
20. Does your school have a budget for buying and maintaining ICT Yes No
equipment in the school?
21. What types of ICT do you own personally for use at home or at school?
21.1 PC Yes No
21.2 Laptop Yes No
21.3 Tablet (e.g. Apple iPad) Yes No
21.4 Mobile phone: basic features Yes No
21.5 Mobile phone: smart (WAP-enabled, etc.) Yes No
21.6 E-mail address Yes No
21.7 Internet access Yes No
21.8 If you do have at home at school at a Other:

internet access, community
please specify centre
where:
87
22. What types of ICT does the school provide for you to use at home or at school?
22.1 PC Yes No
22.2 Laptop Yes No
22.3 Tablet (e.g. Apple iPad) Yes No
22.4 Mobile phone: basic features Yes No
22.5 Mobile phone: smart (WAP-enabled, etc.) Yes No
22.6 E-mail address Yes No
22.7 Internet access Yes No
23. What types of ICT are available in your school? Number available
23.1 Dedicated computer laboratory without internet access

(minimum 20 computers)
23.2 Interactive whiteboards
23.3 Dedicated computer laboratory with internet access (minimum

20 computers)
23.4 Mobile computer stand (minimum 8 computers)
23.5 Computers for administrators (secretaries and/or clerks)
23.6 Computers for school managers (principals, deputies, heads of

department)
23.7 Computers for teachers
Yes
(Answer the rest of this No
24. Do you have a mobile phone? question please) (skip to Question 25)
24.1 Can your mobile phone send and receive Yes No

e-mail?
24.2 Can your mobile phone access the internet Yes No

(go to a website)?
24.3 For how long have you had your current Six One 2-3 3+ 5+
mobile phone? Or how old is your phone if months year years years years
you got it second hand? or less
24.4 What is the model of your phone (e.g.

Nokia E72)?
88
ANNEX V
YOUR CURRENT ICT SKILLS
25. Rate yourself from 1 to 5 where
1 beginner
1 = a complete beginner (no knowledge) and
5 expert
5 = an expert (know all there is to know about this):
for your current level of skill in using the following:
25.1 Using a computer
25.1.1 general (emailing, internet usage, etc.) 1 2 3 4 5
25.1.2 for word-processing packages (e.g. MS Word) 1 2 3 4 5
25.1.3 for spreadsheets (e.g. MS Excel) 1 2 3 4 5
25.1.4 for presentation software (e.g. MS PowerPoint) 1 2 3 4 5
25.1.5 with a digital/data projector 1 2 3 4 5
25.2 Using an interactive whiteboard / smart board 1 2 3 4 5
25.3 Using computer supported learning software 1 2 3 4 5
25.4 Using a mobile phone
25.4.1 for voice calls 1 2 3 4 5
25.4.2 to send a text 1 2 3 4 5
25.4.3 to access the internet 1 2 3 4 5
25.4.4 to find educational information 1 2 3 4 5
25.4.5 to share educational information with colleagues 1 2 3 4 5
25.4.6 to share education information with learners 1 2 3 4 5
89
CURRENT ICT FREQUENCY OF USAGE
Once or twice a month
Twice a week
Weekly
Never
Daily
26. In general, how frequently do you use the following ICT
26.1 Computer (PC or laptop) 1 2 3 4 5
26.2 Internet from a computer 1 2 3 4 5
26.3 Internet from a mobile phone 1 2 3 4 5
26.4 Digital projector/interactive white board/smartboard 1 2 3 4 5
26.5 Send/receive e-mail messages 1 2 3 4 5
26.6 Send/receive text messages 1 2 3 4 5
26.7 Use chat rooms or instant messaging 1 2 3 4 5
Twice a week
Weekly
Never
27. For teaching or educational purposes, how frequently do you
Daily
use ICT for each of the following:
27.1 Internet browsing/searches (e.g. researching information on a 1 2 3 4 5

teaching topic)
27.2 Internet chat forums (e.g. English teacher support groups) 1 2 3 4 5
27.3 Internet-based English language education interventions 1 2 3 4 5
27.4 Word-processing (e.g. worksheets, notes or tests) 1 2 3 4 5
27.5 Spreadsheets (e.g. class mark lists) 1 2 3 4 5
27.6 Presentations (e.g. MS PowerPoint presentations) 1 2 3 4 5
27.7 E-mails (school-related) 1 2 3 4 5
27.8 Texts (school-related) 1 2 3 4 5
27.9 Instant messaging chats (school-related) 1 2 3 4 5
90
ANNEX V
Twice a week
Weekly
Never
Daily
28. How frequently do you use a MOBILE PHONE to …
28.1 …make or receive calls …
28.1.1…to/from colleagues in your school 1 2 3 4 5
28.1.2…to/from colleagues at other schools 1 2 3 4 5
28.1.3…to/from parents 1 2 3 4 5
28.1.4… to/ from learners 1 2 3 4 5
28.2 …send and receive electronic messages

(e-mails, text or instant messages) …
28.2.1…to/from colleagues in your school 1 2 3 4 5
28.2.2…to/from colleagues at other schools 1 2 3 4 5
28.2.3…to/from parents 1 2 3 4 5
28.2.4…to/from learners 1 2 3 4 5
28.3
28.3.1…Transfer or ‘download’ files (music or video) to your 1 2 3 4 5

phone (using Bluetooth or Infrared)
28.3.2…Use the internet to get news or information about 1 2 3 4 5

current events
28.3.3…Use the internet to get news or information about 1 2 3 4 5

school/teaching
28.3.4…Use social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 or 1 2 3 4 5

similar websites)
28.3.5…Go to websites about movies, TV shows, music groups 1 2 3 4 5

or sports stars
28.3.6…Go online for no particular reason, to ‘Google’ or browse 1 2 3 4 5

for fun
28.3.7…Play games 1 2 3 4 5
28.3.8…Play videos 1 2 3 4 5
28.3.9…Play music 1 2 3 4 5
91
28.3.10…Download songs, videos, games or ringtones 1 2 3 4 5
28.3.11…Use the calculator 1 2 3 4 5
28.3.12…Use the calendar, diary or set reminders 1 2 3 4 5
One per term or semester
About monthly
Twice a week
29. How frequently do you communicate with others, where
Weekly
1 = Once per term (about 3 or 4 times per year)
Daily
5 = Daily
29.1 Face-to-face meetings with…
29.1.1…managers at your school (principal, heads of 1 2 3 4 5

department)
29.1.2…colleagues at your school (other teachers) 1 2 3 4 5
29.1.3…parents of learners in your school 1 2 3 4 5
29.1.4…individual learners in your school 1 2 3 4 5
29.1.5…colleagues at other schools 1 2 3 4 5
29.2. Paper/mail communication with

department)
29.3 Electronic communication (e-mail, text or instant messaging)

department)
92
ANNEX V
29.4 Websites/social media (for example, Facebook, school website,

intranet site, other web platforms)

department)
CURRENT ATTITUDES TO ICT / MOBILE LEARNING
Strongly opposed
Strongly in favour
30. Please rate what you think the current attitudes are, where
Opposed
In favour
1 = Strongly opposed
Neutral
3 = Neutral
5 = Strongly in favour
30.1 Attitudes towards using mobile phones out of

schools for communication, teaching and learning…
30.1.1…my attitude 1 2 3 4 5
30.1.2…my managers’ (principals, heads of department) 1 2 3 4 5

attitude
30.1.3…my colleagues’ (other teachers) attitude 1 2 3 4 5
30.1.4…my learners’ attitude 1 2 3 4 5
30.1.5…the parents’ attitude 1 2 3 4 5

Strongly opposed
Strongly in favour
Opposed
In favour
Neutral
30.2 Current attitude towards using mobile phones in schools for

use in class time…
30.2.1…my attitude 1 2 3 4 5
30.2.2…my managers’ (principals, heads of department) 1 2 3 4 5

attitude
30.2.3…my colleagues’ (other teachers) attitude 1 2 3 4 5
93
30.2.4…my learners’ attitude 1 2 3 4 5
30.2.5…the parents’ attitude 1 2 3 4 5
ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS
Strongly disagree
31. Please rate your response to the following statements, where
Strongly agree
1 = Strongly agree
3 = Neutral
Disagree
Neutral
5 = Strongly disagree
Agree
For how you feel NOW (before the project starts)…
31.1 I am an excellent and professional teacher of the subject 1 2 3 4 5

English
31.2 I regularly network with teachers teaching the same grade(s) in 1 2 3 4 5

my region.
31.3 I regularly network with teachers teaching the same grade(s) in 1 2 3 4 5

my country.
31.4 I know all about the subject (English) that I am expected to 1 2 3 4 5

teach to my learners
31.5 I know exactly how to teach the subject (English) to my 1 2 3 4 5

learners
31.6 I can easily find out how others are teaching English and find 1 2 3 4 5
out about good practice
31.7 I can easily find resources and ideas about how to teach English 1 2 3 4 5
31.8 I regularly share my ideas on teaching English with others 1 2 3 4 5
31.9 I feel confident teaching English 1 2 3 4 5
31.10 I feel excited about teaching, and have many new ideas to try 1 2 3 4 5
with my learners
31.11 I still have such a lot to learn about English 1 2 3 4 5
31.12 I still have such a lot to learn about how to teach English 1 2 3 4 5
31.13 I feel isolated in my school. I am on my own. 1 2 3 4 5
31.14 I feel part of a group of professional teachers for the subject 1 2 3 4 5

(English) who support each other
31.15 I need more training to understand the subject (English) 1 2 3 4 5
94
ANNEX V
31.16 I need more training to understand how to teach English 1 2 3 4 5
31.17 I get all the support that I need to be a good teacher 1 2 3 4 5
31.18 I am well connected with other teachers and know where to 1 2 3 4 5

get help if I need it.
31.19 I am connected with my learners’ parents and meet with them 1 2 3 4 5

to discuss learners’ behaviour towards education.
31.20 I think this project increases the equal opportunities between 1 2 3 4 5

boys and girls.
ANTICIPATED IMPACT of THE ‘UNESCO- Nokia Project on Mobile Technologies and Teacher
Development’ (The project)
Strongly disagree
32. Please rate how you THINK the project will help YOU (before
Strongly agree
the project starts), where
1 = Strongly agree
3 = Neutral
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
I think this project will help ME …
31.1 …to be a better teacher 1 2 3 4 5
32.2 …to be more professional 1 2 3 4 5
32.3 …to communicate more with parents 1 2 3 4 5
32.4 …to communicate more with colleagues at my school 1 2 3 4 5
32.5 …to communicate more with colleagues at other schools 1 2 3 4 5
32.6 …to communicate more with colleagues (educators and 1 2 3 4 5

experts) about English.
32.7 …to communicate more with learners 1 2 3 4 5
32.8 …to better understand the content that I must teach for my 1 2 3 4 5
subject (English)
32.9 …by reducing my workload 1 2 3 4 5
32.10 …by helping me use mobile phones appropriately for 1 2 3 4 5

education
32.11 …to use a mobile phone 1 2 3 4 5
32.12 ...to build better relationships with learners 1 2 3 4 5
32.13 ...to build better relationships with parents 1 2 3 4 5
95
32.14 …to have more status as a teacher among learners 1 2 3 4 5
32.15 …to have more status as a teacher among parents 1 2 3 4 5
Strongly disagree
33. Please rate how you THINK the project will help YOUR
Strongly agree
LEARNERS (before the project starts), where
No comment
1 = Strongly agree
3 = No comment
Disagree
Agree
I think this project will help MY LEARNERS to…
33.1 …master the subject (English) knowledge 1 2 3 4 5
33.2 …enjoy their subject (English) more 1 2 3 4 5
33.3 …improve their results for the subject (English) 1 2 3 4 5
33.4 … work harder at the subject (English) 1 2 3 4 5
33.5 …use technology to support their learning more often 1 2 3 4 5
33.6 …practise English more outside of school hours 1 2 3 4 5
33.7 …use technology to support peer-to-peer learning 1 2 3 4 5
33.8 …use technology to support collaborative learning outside of 1 2 3 4 5

school hours
33.9 …use technology to ask advice or help to solve English 1 2 3 4 5

problems from teachers
33.10 …think my role as a teacher has changed 1 2 3 4 5
Strongly disagree
34. Please rate how you THINK the project will help YOUR
Strongly agree
SCHOOL, where
No comment
1 = Strongly agree
3 = No comment
Disagree
Agree
I think this project will help MY SCHOOL to…
34.1 …implement a project involving outside funders. 1 2 3 4 5
34.2 …be known as a school that is innovative in trying new ideas 1 2 3 4 5
34.3 …be known as a school that uses technologies to support 1 2 3 4 5

learning
34.4 …collaborate with teachers and learners at other schools 1 2 3 4 5
34.5 …be known as a school that uses technologies to support 1 2 3 4 5

equal learning
Thank you very much for taking the time to complete this survey.
96
Highly qualified teachers are essential to the realization of the Sustainable
Development Agenda, but there are not enough of them, especially in developing
countries. UNESCO estimates that 69 million teachers must be recruited and trained
to achieve universal primary and secondary education for all by 2030. Additional
interventions are needed to ensure teachers already working in classrooms have the
subject and pedagogical knowledge required to help students achieve literacy and
numeracy, develop skills for employment and promote a culture of peace.
This publication traces UNESCO’s efforts to harness mobile technology to support

teacher development. It describes and analyses projects conducted in Mexico,
Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal. While the projects differed in terms of scope and focus,
collectively they reveal how governments and other organizations can use widely
owned technology to help educators facilitate the learning of students in ways that
are scalable, cost-effective and sustainable.
9 789231 002304

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Supporting Teachers With Mobile Technology: Lessons Drawn From UNESCO Projects in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal

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Supporting teachers with

David Atchoarena, the UNESCO Director for

UNESCO is grateful to Svetlana Knyazeva,

1 RAND Education. 2012. Teachers matter: Understanding teachers’

7 CISCO. 2017. Visual networking index infographic.

relevant when the project ended. But these

Taken holistically, this publication is important

10 Darling-Hammond, L. 2000. Teacher quality and student achieve-

Situating the UNESCO projects

1. A diverse portfolio the year in which the projects were conceived

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

3. Overarching aims of the In particular, the project targeted EFA Goal 618

18 UNESCO. 2014. Children need to be taught in a language they

quality by integrating mobile technologies in professional development in each of the four

Figure 1: The enabling ecosystem of mobile learning for teachers

Establish and train

Analyze teacher and Deliver initial and Provide continuous

Scope and evaluate Develop and test Adjust the solution

4. Overview of the The main beneficiaries were teachers, and

Table 2: Overview of the four projects

Country Objective Features

Attributes Mexico Nigeria Pakistan Senegal

Purpose Upgrade Upgrade teachers’ Upgrade Upgrade

5. Evaluation ●● Changed subject matter and pedagogical

Research questions and proposed data- ●● Perceived impact of the intervention.

A concluding chapter shares findings

1. Educational context 2. Project focus

The project employed two mobile tools:

use with their students in a classroom setting 6. Key results

From the data that was collected, teachers

7. Lessons learned and Infrastructural constraints

Recommendation: Establish locations where

Lack of coordination and

Recommendation: Increase social learning and

1. Educational context success. The importance of early English language

23 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2015. Leaving no one behind: How

4. Mobile learning ecosystem phones. Nokia also handled various technical

Beneficiaries ●● Drawing on its global expertise in English

●● UNESCO designed the project and provided

Overall, the messages sought to help teachers

The service application on the Nokia Life Plus

much knowledge and skill is required to teach a 7. Lessons learned and

groups of cooperating teachers should be the Credit to access the internet

1. Educational context empower individuals and communities, and spur

4. Mobile learning ecosystem The partners collaborated to lay foundations for

Beneficiaries ●● The formation of a technical committee to

–– Federal College of Education;

●● Midas Communications, a media firm, Mobile learning solution

phases, probably reflecting enthusiasm at the 7. Lessons learned and

Recommendation: If groups of people need to

1. Educational context girls in both early and late primary school.36

The UNESCO project in Senegal sought to

Teachers working in basic education in Senegal ●● Reinforce teachers’ skills in mathematics and

40 UNESCO Dakar. 2014. Paradigm shift for teacher training in the

4. Mobile learning ecosystem de l’Éducation de Dakar or CRFPE in French),

Beneficiaries ●● The main project donor, Nokia, provided

Partners The local implementation team, which included

The uptake and usage data for the MoMath

Internal and external computing is not feasible, then mobile phones

1. Messages from the Nokia Life Plus platform sent in week 2 of

2. Screenshots of the ‘English Teacher’ application on Nokia Life