糖心TV

There is much discussion and much interest in the capacity of mobile technologies to deliver, support and enhance learning for the disenfranchised, the disadvantaged and the developing communities and regions of the world especially in Africa.

Much of this discussion, interest and activity is however uncritical, simplistic and poorly synthesised.

In general the argument for using these technologies to address educational disadvantage is plausible, self-evident and straightforward: their ownership and acceptance are near-universal and cut across most notions of digital divides; their use is based around robust sustainable business models; they are, unlike other ICTs, found at the bottom-of-the-pyramid, amongst the next billion subscribers; they deliver information, ideas and, increasingly, images. And there are no other options!

There is furthermore a rapidly increasing ownership of more powerful handsets in the developing world, decreasing real costs of this hardware and connectivity, increasing coverage of higher specification networks in these regions and renewed activity of donors and of corporates representing publishing, handsets, services and infrastructure looking for business models based on the educational use of mobile devices.

These various communities, including computer scientists and researchers, necessary actors in facilitating successful learning using mobile devices and technologies, each come with considerable potential but often inappropriate contributions, partial understandings and flawed assumptions. This seminar will explore the extent to which their optimism is misplaced and where computer science might fit into the picture.