Learning with Mobiles. A Developing Country Perspective on Mobile Technologies use in Learning for Livelihood Support

The disputation will be held digitally. Spectators may follow the disputation digitally – link is available below.

Dianah Nampijja of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Agder has submitted her thesis entitled «Learning with Mobiles. A Developing Country Perspective on Mobile Technologies use in Learning for Livelihood Support» and will defend the thesis for the PhD-degree Friday 10 December 2021. 

She has followed the PhD-programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Agder, with specialisation in Specialisation in Global Development and Planning.

The doctoral work have been funded by Norad through the Distance Education Leapfrogging Project (DELP) in a collaboration betweeen the University of Agder and Makerere University in Uganda.

Summary of the thesis by Dianah Nampijja:

Mobile Learning for Livelihood Support

In this dissertation, Dianah Nampijja has explored how mobile technologies enhance learning for livelihood support among smallholder farmers in rural Uganda.

Mobiles, Learning and Livelihoods

Access to knowledge and learning opportunities can enhance smallholder farmers livelihoods that are constrained by climate change, poverty, high disease burden, food insecurity, illiteracy, lack of advisory services, and inadequate infrastructure.

By prioritizing the use of mobile technologies, like mobile phones, farmers in less privileged communities can access knowledge and learning opportunities, thereby reducing the technological divide. Mobile technologies can be applied as pedagogical instruments to extend and support non-formal learning.

The number of development projects using mobiles for information dissemination has grown. Consequently, it is of high academic and practical relevance to understand to which extent mobiles can actually enhance non-formal learning for livelihood support.

Three Mobiles for Development (M4D) projects

This dissertation analyzed three M4D projects - Grameen Foundation Community Knowledge Worker project, Lifelong Learning for Farmers, and USAID Community Connector (CC) project - all of which employed mobile technologies to enhance smallholder farmers adaptive capabilities in rural communities.

This doctoral thesis employed a qualitative interpretive case study design in a multiple case approach. Empirical data was obtained from 90 participants including, Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs), smallholder farmers, local leaders, government officials, religious leaders, youths, organization staff and non-project farmers.

Empirical findings

Throughout the five research papers, this dissertation has revealed how smallholder farmers have prioritized mobile phone usage, and how the accessibility, portability, and multifunctionality attributes make mobile phones suitable for farmers’ diverse activities. Mobile learning has contributed immensely to formal learning systems. In a livelihood context, however, the mobile learning challenge cannot just be overcome by merely providing the technology. The active involvement of farmers and farming communities in problem solving and authentic learning situations is crucial. This includes, for example, availability of experienced peers; local organizational support; social capital; traditional knowledge sharing systems, and farmer groups.

The notable constraints at the actual research sites like; technology breakdowns, limited literacy skills, intermittent network connectivity, limited access to financial capital, but also some community resistances affected the adoption of mobile learning.

The analysis revealed certain relationships between gender and empowerment in supporting food security systems. Women engaged in activities beyond their traditional roles. Mobiles were instrumental in unpacking social injustices by facilitating discursive gender formulations that extended mobiles use within everyday social-cultural spaces.

Contributions

Taken together, the findings from this research have important policy implications for development practitioners, policymakers, educationists and technology providers interested in using mobile technologies as means to extend non-formal learning opportunities to less privileged communities.

The thesis suggests the following factors as critical considerations for how mobile technologies may enhance learning for livelihood: organizational support; technological resources; diverse and dynamic learner needs; techniques for problem solving and situated learning; community as agency; and sustainability.

What to do as an audience member:

The disputation is open to the public, but to follow the trial lecture and the public defence, which is transmitted via the Zoom conferencing app, you have to register as an audience member.

We ask audience members to join the virtual trial lecture at 10:05 at the earliest and the public defense at 12:05 at the earliest. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time. Further, we ask audience members to turn off their microphone and camera and keep them turned off throughout the event. You do this at the bottom left of the image when in Zoom. We recommend you use ‘Speaker view’. You select that at the top right corner of the video window when in Zoom.

Opponent ex auditorio:

The chair invites members of the public to pose questions ex auditorio in the introduction to the public defense, with deadlines. It is a prerequisite that the opponent has read the thesis. Questions can be submitted to the chair Anne Halvorsen on e-mail anne.halvorsen@uia.no