The education potential of mobile content

Again and again I’m struck by the massive uptake of mobile phones in the developing world. Exact figures are often hard to come by, but in South Africa it is estimated that 70% of the population has access to a mobile phone. Amongst the youth, that figure is easily 90%. The mobile phone is the information and communication technology of the masses. We need to think of it as a very powerful tool for education. Two initiatives that demonstrate this deserve a mention.

In late 2005, as part of the Freedom HIV/AIDS initiative four mobile games were released in India to raise awareness around the diseases. According to a World Bank article, it has become the “largest ever social initiative on mobile devices.”

“Initially the games were launched on nine million handsets, and later were scaled up to 40 million handsets. In a span of 14 months, there was a record download of 10.4 million game sessions. The games were specially designed for low-end black-and-white mobile devices, to be able to reach the grass-root communities. Different mobile technology platforms were also considered to cater to over 100 devices and handsets covering over 80 percent of device specifications.”

(The creators of the games, ZMQ Software Systems in New Delhi, have also extended the work to Africa, with very interesting partnerships and business models — see the article above for more on this.)

While more is known about the outcome of the initiative than the actual impact, the figures alone are staggering. Further, games are experiential, requiring active involvement by the players as opposed to passive consumption of content like TV or radio. Gaming thus holds the potential to more deeply engage youth. On topics such as HIV/AIDS, where millions are spent on awareness raising campaigns, deep engagement with the message is something highly desirable.

The other initiative is a 20-minute AIDS education film that is being distributed on mobile phones in Georgia, Eastern Europe. Save the Children and UNICEF actively involved young people in preparation of the film itself, especially in the scenario development process, and now rely on peer-educators and youth to virally spread the film on their phones. Most young people in Georgia have mobile phones that support video viewing and Bluetooth. Apparently the film is gritty and doesn’t preach a message.

I love this! The project is working with young people and their technology to raise awareness about AIDS. Peer-to-peer education is a highly effective way to engage young people on topics that are traditionally served top-down from older people to the youth, such as sex education, drug addiction and even the importance of science, technology, entrepreneurship and maths (STEM) in today’s world. The latter cause is the focus of Hip2B², which uses teenage “brand ambassadors” to influence their peers by showing how STEM can be cool.

Mobile is here to stay. While the mobile phone can be very distracting — as teachers in South Africa will tell you — it is also an incredibly important tool, as the above projects demonstrate.