EXPLORING MOBILE PHONE USAGE AND POTENTIALS FOR ENHANCING HIGHER EDUCATION GHANA, WEST AFRICA

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EXPLORING MOBILE PHONE USAGE AND POTENTIALS FOR ENHANCING HIGHER EDUCATION GHANA, WEST AFRICA

ABSTRACT

As a result of the high diffusion of mobile phones in Ghana, almost all students in high schools and colleges own and use them quite frequently in and outside classrooms.  The Ghana Education Services in 2010 suggests that the use of mobile phones among high school students is destructive in their learning process; therefore, the use of mobile phones has been forbidden in all high school campuses [Imoro 2012] . It seems to be assumed that the prohibition of mobile phone usage in high school may help the students to focus on their studies instead of concentrating on their  mobile phones. However, it could be presumed that this ban may limit students’ exposure to the modern technology, hence, limiting the learning experiences that could occur outside of the classroom setting.  However, students are permitted to use mobile phones in the university environment.

Today, nearly all students  in most universities have mobile phones and use them primarily for communicating with families and friends and for everyday business purposes.  Mobile phones can be viewed as potential resource tools for learning rather than seen as a classroom distraction.  In order for mobile phones to become useful as platforms for learning in the educational environment, it is imperative for educators and curriculum developers to know how students use mobile phones in their current educational settings. Also, given the high level of mobile phone usage among university students in Ghana, it can be assumed that some of the students may use their mobile phones for learning purposes. Hence, it is important to examine this phenomenon and to ascertain how mobile phones are currently used and to examine how mobile phones can be used to enhance the learning process among students in Ghana. In examining the current and possible use of mobile phones in the educational setting in Ghana, consideration was also given to Transactive Memory Theory and how the constructs of this theory could be used to better understand and enhance the learning process of university students in Ghana.

This qualitatively driven mixed methods study investigates five specific questions: (1) Do students in universities in Ghana use their mobile phones for the purpose of learning?  (2) If they do, what factors influence their use of mobile phones for learning, and if they do not, then why?  (3) What kinds of mobile educational tools do they use and why?  (4) How do students use their mobile phones to further enhance their learning process. (5) How and why do mobile phones relate to and support transactive memory in the context of learning in Ghana? In order to answer these questions, students are asked to complete a survey with some open-ended questions on their use of mobile phones, and how the phones impact their learning processes. The survey was conducted via crowdsourcing, on campus labs, and through the traditional printed copies.

These questions are addressed by using Transactive Memory Theory (TMT) and the concept of mobile learning as the bases for the interpretation and discussion of the student responses. While the survey analysis suggests that university students in Ghana use their mobile phones for learning purposes, this study also suggests ways in which mobile phones can be used as educational tools among higher education students in Ghana.

 

Chapter 1

Introduction

The use of mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablet computers, e-readers and digital audio players such as MP3 has become quite popular among students all over the world. There are over 5 billion mobile phone users throughout the world [Kanhere 2013] . It is important to note that most of these users live in the developing parts of the world and that the use of mobile phones in these areas continues to increase yearly. For example, in Africa, mobile phone ownership increased from 10 % in 1999 to more than 75% by 2010 [Komunte 2012] , and has been projected to be 788 million by 2015 [Rao 2011] .

With multiple mobile phone subscriptions by individuals, Ghana alone has over 24 million subscriptions [GSMA 2013] . This wide spread of mobile phones has made it possible for both elementary, high school, and university students to own and use mobile phones. The Ghana Education Services in 2010 suggests that the use of mobile phones among elementary and high school students, is destructive in their learning process; therefore, the use of mobile phones has been forbidden in all high school campuses [Imoro 2012] . However, as the students advance to the university environment, they are permitted to use mobile phones on campus. It seems to be assumed that the prohibition of mobile phone usage in high school may help the students to focus on their studies instead of concentrating on their  mobile phones. However, it could be presumed that this ban may limit students’ exposure to the modern technology, hence, limiting the learning experiences that could occur outside of the classroom setting. Given that the use of mobile phones increases among students, it is important that educators learn as much as possible about the possible use of mobile phone in the educational setting so that they can better understand and incorporate these devices into the teaching and learning process.

 

The mobile learning phenomenon has gained the attention of researchers in many educational institutions, and has stimulated these researchers to devise new and innovative ways to enhance the potential of mobile phones as an important educational tool [Johnson 2012] .  As a result, many researchers are focusing on the design of mobile friendly applications that will facilitate the learning process for students. Alcatel-Lucent [2010] indicated that for hundreds of years educators have relied on non-digital textbooks when distributing information to students.  This focus on the design of mobile friendly applications is changing the educational landscape, while providing students with opportunities for dynamic individual learning experiences.

 

In March 2014, it was reported that, over 120 billion mobile applications downloaded.  Over 7% of these downloads are educational applicationsand 5% are books. Many of these applications are available for college students using Apple’s iOS devices, Windows, Blackberry, and Android mobile devices [Statistics Brain 2014] .  Some of these software applications are available free of charge to the public. For example,myHomeworkprovides students with the opportunity to keep track of homework, classes, projects, and tests on their mobile phones [Neri 2014] .Documents to Gogives students the opportunity to upload and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files [DataViz Inc. 2014] . Whether students in Ghana make use ofeducational applications such as these is not known at this time. As a result of the availability of useful software that can assist students with their learning, important research questions can be raised, especially in relation to the use of mobile devices in the educational setting in developing countries.  The importance of education has been realized as a catalyst for improving development. Given that education is the key to the progress of developing countries, if mobile phones can be used to accelerate learning in higher education, it may be possible for developing countries to progress at a more rapid pace.

 

Therefore, research, which investigates how students make use of mobile phones, becomes a very relevant and practical area of inquiry in relation to developing countries.  Using Ghana, West Africa as an example of a developing country, research questions in this instance can be framed as: (1) Do students in universities in Ghana use their mobile phones for the purpose of learning?  (2) If they do, what factors influence their use of mobile phones for learning, and if they do not, then why?  (3) What kinds of mobile educational tools do they use and why?  (4) How do students use their mobile phones to further enhance their learning process? (5) How and why do mobile phones relate to and support transactive memory in the context of learning in Ghana?  In order to answer these questions, students are asked to complete a survey with some open-ended questions on their use of mobile phones, and how the phones impact their learning process.  The survey was conducted through crowdsourcing, on campus students’ computer labs, and by traditional printed copies.  These questions are addressed by using Transactive Memory Theory (TMT) and the concept of mobile learning as the bases for the interpretation and discussion of the student responses.

 

The purpose of this study is to investigate these questions, and to examine ways in which mobile phones could better aid Ghanaian students in their learning process.  Ghanaians place emphasis on personal interaction, direct communication with individuals, a respect for the past and the importance of the oral tradition in their culture. Based upon the emphasis on personal interaction, direct communication with individuals, a respect for the past and the importance of the oral tradition in Ghanaian culture, this study is conducted and analyzed through the lens of  Transactive Memory Theory (TMT). This theory places emphasis on personal interaction and group dynamics. “Transactive memory theory is a psychological hypothesis, first proposed by Daniel Wegner in 1985. It is a system by which groups collectively encode, store, and retrieve knowledge.  It draws upon the memories within the individuals in the group to update information, create new ideas and solve problems.  The theory focuses on the sharing of stored knowledge.” [Wegner 1985] .

 

Lewis and Herndon [2011] note that there are three conditions that determine a welldeveloped transactive memory. These are: 1) community members’ differentiated knowledge, 2) members’ knowledge credibility, and 3) members’ ability to coordinate their knowledge with others. TMT consist of three components; (1) the individual memory, thus, a person’s independent memory.  (2) External memory, which consists of record keeping tools such as books, and external storage devices like computers and mobile phones, and (3) transactive memory, (the interaction between two individuals and or the interaction between an individual and a computer or a mobile phone during learning process).  Therefore, it can be said that transactive memory process is taking place when a person retrieves information from another individual, a group of people, and / or from an internal memory of a mobile phone and the Internet via the phone.

 

Transactive memory theory is used in this study because communication between individuals is important to developing and maintaining a well-integrated transactive memory, and mobile phones allow group members to maintain consistent and interactive communication with other individuals over a greater distance. Therefore, it seems that mobile phones ought to be enhancing the development of transactive memory systems, or promoting the creation of new ones.  This study also considers the concept of mobile learning as it directly relates to mobile phone usage in the context of higher education in Ghana. Mobile learning (m-learning) refers to the ability to learn at any time and place by the use of mobile device [Nyiri 2002, Sharples 2005, Fuxin 2012] .

 

In addition, it has been observed that with the increasing usage of mobile phones, the people of Ghana still maintain the oral tradition of learning. Therefore, they have the tendency of relying on each other’s memories and they also have a great admiration for individuals that have good retentive memory. It is assumed that this behavior would increase by the use of mobile phones. Based on this observation, the research questions are as follows:

Research Questions

  1. Do students in universities in Ghana use their mobile phones for the purpose of learning?  
  2. What factors influence their use of mobile phones for learning?  
  • What kinds of mobile educational tools do they use and why?  
  1. How do students use their mobile phones to further enhance their learning process?
  2. How    and        why       do          mobile                 phones                 relate    to           and        support               transactive           memory              in            the         context                of            learning              in            Ghana?

Rationale for this study

The ubiquitous nature of mobile phone technology has made it possible for individuals to stay connected wherever they are. As a result of the increasing mobile phone technology, more and more people use mobile phones in a variety of contexts. This raises the question; to what extent is the usage of mobile phones beneficial in college education? The purpose of this study is to investigate this question by examining ways in which mobile phones could better support students with their learning processes. There are currently several educational mobile applications available. Whether students in the universities in Ghana make good use of these resources is undefined at this time.

 

As stated earlier in this chapter, there are over a 120 billion mobile application downloaded worldwide. Approximately 7% of the 120 billion apps are educational applications and 5% include books [Statistics Brain 2014] . Some of these applications are available free of charge to the user. A few examples includemyHomework, which provides students the opportunity to keep track of homework, classes, projects, and tests [Neri 2014] . GoogleMobileapp allows students to search Google using voice input [Google Inc. 2014] .DocumentstoGogives students the opportunity to upload Microsoft Word and Excel files and edit the files on their phones wherever they may be [DataViz Inc. 2014] . It is imperative to find out whether students in Ghana make use of these mobile applications for learning purposes, and to find out how they can better use the applications to enhance their education.

Objectives and Contributions

The use of mobile phones is highly personal, and qualitative and quantitative methods are better for understanding the reasons behind the phenomena observed in this case.  Therefore, this study is conducted using a limited mix-method to explore the use of mobile phones as tools for learning and for encouraging the learning process among students.  As Creswell [2003] indicated, this method is used because the use of both qualitative and quantitative data helps to provide the best understanding of research problem [p.12] . In an investigation of this nature, a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context is examined. The goal of this study is to explore how and why students use their mobile phones in higher education in Ghana.  Through this process, the ways in which college students use their mobile phones for the purpose of facilitating their learning processes is examined.

 

The outcome of this study may serve as a way to increase awareness among college students and educational communities on how to make good use of their mobile phones in the teaching and learning process.  This search may also promote the development of software for mobile phones that is useful for college students. Although there are extensive studies done in this domain, none has examined mobile phone usage as it relates to college education in Ghana through the lenses of Transactive Memory Theory. Therefore this study adds to the existing pool of Knowledge and literature in the areas of teaching and learning relative to how this phenomenon occurs in developing countries.

 

This study will also make both theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of Information and Communication Technology research. The theoretical contribution is the use of two different constructs (Transactive Memory Theory and Mobile Learning ) at the same time in this study. From a theoretical standpoint, this will be the first time the theory of transactive memory and the concept of m-learning are used together in the analysis of mobile phone usage among college students in Ghana. This study also contributes to the practical understanding of how mobile phones are used in the learning process of college students in Ghana and adds to the existing literature in the field of learning by the use of technology.

 

The methodological contribution is the combination of three different ways of data collection.  (1) the use of crowdsourcing to capture participating subjects around the world; particularly, individuals who had college education experiences in Ghana, but did not reside in

Ghana at the time of this study;  (2) the use of an auto pop-up of the survey in the computer labs

to gain the attention participants who may not be familiar with crowdsourcing;    (3) the use of print-copy survey as a result of the lack of stable electricity power supply.

EXPLORING MOBILE PHONE USAGE AND POTENTIALS FOR ENHANCING HIGHER EDUCATION GHANA, WEST AFRICA

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