School 2.0 in SA

Wikipedia is a free multilingual encyclopedia with over 10 million articles that have been collaboratively written by volunteers from around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can access the Wikipedia website (Source Wikipedia). For me however it provides a good place to kick off whatever research you want your leanrers to engage in. It is therefore a wonderful safe place to start your information journey (please, not as an end in itself!)

But did you know that you can get your learners with wap enabled cellphones to access all this information straight from their cellphones? The actual wikipedia website is not formatted for cellhone use and is difficult to read, but a wonderful cellphone version called Wapedia gives you a clear and simple version of wikipedia with a single column for easy reading. (Source )

I have a very cheap phone with wap (R299) and it works great even on GPRS! To set it up (on my phone….Menu…Applications…Wap browser….enter URL…type in….http://wapedia.mobi/en/ and save it as a bookmark) or give to a digital native to set up!

The new thumbtribe generation has embraced an innovative way to slay their age old enemy- maths, using their cellphones and the much debated and severely fouled, Mxit!

Mxit has been getting a lot of bad press ever since it became the craze of the teen (and pre-teen) generation with parents and teachers alike, calling for Mxit to be regulated. In the midst of “slut-lists‘ and paedophile phobic verbal attacks on the popular cellular chat-client, Dr Maths is emerging as a ray of hope!

There is no doubt that Mxit is incredibly popular. This free service has grown by word of mouth to over 2000 learners country wide! So Laurie’s Butgereit of the Meraka Institute’s brainwave to use our learner’s favourite tool for teaching and learning, was indeed not only a stroke of genius, but an incredibly brave move in the face of adversity. I, for one, was initially sceptical about whether the learners will allow us to use their favourite tools for something like (…uhmmm) learning maths, but the popularity of this maths helpdesk speaks for itself.

To test the service and to catch up with the latest Mxit-maths “craze” I dialled in on this here lazy Sunday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to found the friendly maths tutors on hand, ever so professional, helpful and oh so knowledgeable. I have it on authority that they are well trained not to just provide answers, but to guide the learners through the meaning making process. The fact that there is also a delay between responses also makes it possible for learners to “give knowledge a try” and most of the time, they get to the answers themselves with just a little nudge from the tutors. The tutors can assist with maths and maths literacy problems and even help out with a bit of science hassles along the way as well. Truely remarkable!

So how does it all work?

First off, you need to install Mxit on your cellphone and/or computer. For more instructions on how to do this….

• Give your cellphone to a member of the thumbtribe (the closest teenager around you) and tell them to set you up (Quickest and easiest method)
• Or you can follow the instructions from the Mxit website
• Add Dr maths as one of your contacts 27799923960 thru 27799923969
• When they come online, you will hear a little sound and there will be a green dot next to their name
• Then go ahead and ask away!
• The Dr Maths team is online after school hours i.e. Mondays to Thursdays 2pm-10pm and Sundays between 11am and 8pm. They are even considering extending the service to Saturdays as well. How amazing!

They also have introduced a maths game which can be played when the team is not online when there are no tutors on. The learners can then compete in different categories, like addition, subtraction, factorials and others, to see who can get then highest score. The champion and the previous champion are notified to defend their title. Positive peer pressure at work!

So bravo to Laurie and her Dr Maths on Mxit team! Let us learn from their enthusiasm for creating authentic learning environments using the oh so dreaded Mxit on cellphones!

A few more articles regarding DR Maths on Mxit:

• Maths is cool when you MXit – South Africa – The Good News
• Using MXit to learn
• Learning and Support using MXit
• MATH ON MXIT: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE (Laurie’s Amesa Paper on her brainchild- a must read!!!)

What do we do about cellphones in a school context? Do we ban it or embrace it as an educational tool?

The tendency in our country (and pretty much world wide) is to ban the use of cellphones in schools. They complain about the disruptive ringing of phones in their classes, learners using their phones to share test answers as well as learners distributing compromising photos and videos of fellow learners (and even teachers) . We know that we are dealing with a new generation of “thumb tribe” learners who can Mxit in their pockets while listening to lessons (Mmmm….)

Then there is the personal safety concern of learners being mugged outside of schools for their cellphones. Media coverage of learners being kidnapped after giving out personal information as well as more recent “slut-lists” making the round on Mxit, implores us to take the general use of cellphones (in or out of schools) more seriously.

There are definitely educational advantages to allowing cellphones in and out of the classroom. The learners have a ready calculator and encyclopedia in their hands. They can get help with their maths from Dr Maths on Mxit, Mlearner or MyMobi. How about getting the learners to video science experiments or summarise Shakespeare using Mxit? Maybe if we keep them busy with educational experiences on their cellphones, we will actaully manage to keep their attention?

Then there is also the advantage for parents to keep in touch with their children using cellphones. I am also glad to see that nmore and more schools are using SMS technologies to advise parents of school functions and their children being absent from school.  So to say that the tool is all bad, is just not giving the whole picture and we need to work towards finding a middle ground between learning and abuse of the tool.

My feeling is (as with the rest of the new technologies doing the rounds) to be pro-active. Isn’t it our job as educators to educate our learners about safe use practices? Can we do this if we ourselves are not informed?  So the first step is for us to use the tools. We need to get connected to Mxit, use it critically before we ban it outright.

So let’s get the debate going, voice our fears and more importantly start using the tools ourselves so that we can be informed, prepared and educated! We have created a wiki page for educators on this very topic, see http://saschools.wetpaint.com/page/Cellphone+use

Some articles to get the discussion going: