Through the live SMS chatting, text to win, mobile coupons, ringtones and plethora of other mobile campaigns we see each day it’s easy to forget the basic utilitarian feature of an SMS message – quick inexpensive communication.
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a group of development agencies with mandates ranging from health and education to architecture, culture, micro-finance, rural development, disaster reduction, the promotion of private-sector enterprise and the revitalisation of historic cities.
In rural areas of Africa the AKDN has set up schools where it not only teaches students, but teaches teachers through participating in class room facilitations. In a typical scenario a head teacher in the field may come across a question for which he/she needs support from their Course Facilitator who is stilling at the AKU’s Institute for Educational Development over a 1,000 km away in Dar es Salaam. With highly unreliable internet connections the only choice that had been available to the lone head teacher in the field was to request a face to face with the Course Facilitator. This was not only expensive but also slow. Enter SMS.
In 2008 the AKDN launched a pilot program where a head teacher in the field could text message their Course Facilitators or even their colleagues for help. They met regularly in groups to discuss issues in establishing new practices in their schools and shared their learning with AKU through SMS messages. The SMS messages were then uploaded to Moodle (a virtual learning environment) that helped faculty track individual comments and provide support to the larger group. Ouma Felix Otieno, Head Teacher and one of the course participants from Opande Primary School said, “The service kept us linked together, kept us updated and involved all in the programme. It kept participants on their toes, in line with the facilitators’ expectations, and extended our learning areas even to the field and home, not necessarily only in the school or classroom.”
Participants in the program also found that “the field sessions entail discussions about the participants’ action research study, which can very well be done through SMS without having to board a plane, book a room in a hotel for 10 days, and then hire a taxi to visit all the schools involved.”The program was also cost efficient. The average cost to the AKDB per teacher to use the text based system was around $4 while the previous option of a face-to-face was about $120.
Kudos to the AKDN for such an innovative use of SMS. To read the article in its entirety click HERE.