Context: 

Mobile phones can be carried in a pocket and can provide access to various sources of information, knowledge and data worldwide. They easily promote collaborative and different types of learning through their wireless connection to the internet. This obvious advantage carries huge potential that is exploitable for the benefit of education (Naismith, L., Lonsdale, P., Vavoula, G., & Sharples, M., 2004). Such an enormous developmental change was noticeable in Myanmar during the last decade when the internet accessibility arrived at virtually every university of our country. At that time, mobile phone usage during the classroom was not encouraged, not only in several countries worldwide but also schools and universities in Myanmar. Nowadays, Myanmar has at least 33 million active mobile subscriptions in a country with an official population of 53 million. Mobile phone usage rate has increased to up to 80% all over the country in the 2014 census. These mobiles as education tools could be the basis of an online learning society in Myanmar. 

After having the matriculation examination, two hundred and sixty thousand students in 2018 must attempt to higher education which their preferred institutes or universities or polytechnic collages or vocational education centers based on their matric result marks. Nowadays, seven hundred and eighty thousands of students are studying as undergraduate students of forty-eight Arts and Science universities within Myanmar. About two hundred and fifty thousand of students’ entrance allow day-study in the Arts and Science universities. At that time, the rest five hundred and thirty thousands of students join to the thirty-five Distance Universities of Myanmar (15 universities in Lower Myanmar and 20 in Higher) except Education Universities, Yangon University and Mandalay University (News and Periodical Enterprise 2019). 

For the day-study undergraduate students, each studies for two semesters (four months) for four years. Thus teachers have a lot of lecturer, discussion, practical and tutorial times as well as students have  for study times four months per semester doing as a participant of their university life with other activities such as Red Cross, Scouts, Sports, Arts, Excursions, Field Trip and other events for each semester. For distance students who are based on student–workers life, each subject takes ten days or twelve hours per year within intensive courses lecture time. In this case study, I will focus on the role of day-students in Hinthada University because more than four hundred and fifty day-students of geography specialization know on the mobile phone lecture-class than distance students. The student groups were both undergraduate (1^styear Map work and basic techniquesI &II and 4^thyear Geomorphology I&II) and postgraduate (2^ndyear Honest Research methodology and field surveyand 1^stMaster Special technology for research). For my lecture time schedule for each semester, More than fifty studied as the first year geography students and thirty-five students were attending at the final year. And, seven students for master degree were attending at Hinthada University. 

Mobile phones motivate studentsto be more interested in their specialization courses. Today, the mobile phone to enhance distance learning systems is being utilized worldwide (Wagner E.D., 2005). Mobile learning can be more interactive involving context, communication and collaboration with distance student of Myanmar.  

Aims

• To enable students to take advantage of mobile technologies to to help their learning
  
• To evaluate the skill of both teachers and students using mobile device in university level learning
  
• To assess the achievement of mobile phone teaching method in online learning system

The Activity 

This teaching and learning methods focus on the problem based approach to active learning. This makes the learning experiencemore memorable by relating new information and knowledge to the former information already known.Student learning can be made ubiquitous in obtaining or retrieving course information through their phones (Yousuf, M. I., 2007). Students expect their tutors to use phones to give lectures or demonstrations about their courses, to get teachers’ response on their performance, to practice internet searching and use of applications for the question and answer, to submit their assignments or practical results and to draw a schedule of the time consumed of distance learning courses.

On the other hand, teachers also want to evaluate that students are able to access the mobile phone internet learning, catch the key of course outlines, provide the course content to off campus students, guide their scope of study and question types format, share link the www and other resources, reference for their textbooks, to understand the practical demonstration or guidance of calculation or lecturer notes from image or figure/ maps or video clip, to submit assignment questions or checklist their range of ideas about their courses after used of study time and to contribute the student individual’s progress. 

Mobile technologies do appear to have a great future in developing countries. Mobile teaching and learning system has also provided to the flexible delivery of distance education at any places and anytime. Although online pedagogy plays a key role in the delivery of education, teachers and learners must be implement the transformation or upgrading our society to reach international education level but effectiveness depends on instructional outcomes. Today, the use of mobile devices to enhance distance learning systems is being utilized some of the teachers in Myanmar’ universities. Indeed, mobile phones are one of the less expensive, most accessible and popular media among distance learning students of all ages. Flexible and low cost mobile technologies can be used to maintain and enhance contact with students and teachers, and, by arranging training effective use can be enhanced in distance learning.According to Barker, Krull and Mallinson (2014), the impacts of mobile phone technologies on learning are portability, collaboration and motivation enhancing students, parents and teachers’ education system. I therefore decided to develop a mobile phone activity for my student group to evaluate the extent to which international best practice in mobile learning could be transferred to the Myanmar higher education context.

How to run the activity

This case study focuses in the online distance education both students’ learning effectiveness and teachers’ perception on new pedagogy. I will focus this case study on day-students rather than distance learning students because they could be given more lecture-time in each semester, face to face discussion, group seminars, assignment and sharing knowledge which they want to know than distance students. I changed my teaching technique for day students from whiteboard or lecturer books to group discussion or mobile phone teaching. 

First of all, I enquired about their use of mobile devices: iOS or android or keypads or notebook. This is very important to apply online teaching and learning processes with more interested motivation. Each group included three students based on the difference type of mobile phone named with year, course name and roll number (eg. 4_geomo(2015)_5). Then I instructed for each group to install the “kahoot” application via a web browser and to create an email address ID. When I wanted to teach them “Chapter: 5 the river mouth fluvial process” for five hours lecturer time or one week, sending with lecture articles by mail or viber group, sharing with website link related documents by mail or viber group.

In the start lecture time of this week, I was grouping and dividing their specific portion in detail. I also advised them about the articles “I can’t accept only Myanmar language translation form English, You must be thinking the processes about your received article, finding the related figure, facts, maps and the similar processes of our country from your mobile phon. At the presentation time, I would like to add your assigned articles searching more knowledge from internet. If your group do the interested presentation for audiences or other students, you will got double score but if not, took the lower score.”In the next lecturer time, I allowed three groups to make presentations within a three hours session. One of the groups took 15 minutes to present with specific explanation with projector or other teaching aid materials, at that time, me and audience were careful listening and creating questions which included clarifying confusing detail or terminology.

At the end of the presentation time, other groups were asked three or more questions about this topics within 25 minutes. I also gave the valuable commons or suggestions or positive way of thinking and highlighted to them with the similar situation of our country’s landforms for 20 minutes. During the tutorial one-hour time or the last lecture time of this week, I was prepared the multiple-choice quiz with open books using “kahoot” mobile application with during time limit. All of the students answered on their mobile phones in my classroom. After finished all of the answers using their mobile application in my classroom, I was showing their individually scores list on the board at once. When I recorded both their participation in classwork and tutorial marks, I also announced that “I will give as credit points in exam”.

Students were able complete their assignment with their own explanation sentences which were based on the text and their knowledge. Student attended my classroom, observing other students’ presentation skill and finding the questions to ask to the existing presentation group. That is why, some of teachers said me “Your class is always attending full of students but most of the students absented during lecturers. Why? How do you to control the class and manage for attending to all student?”I always tell my colleagues that mobile phone teaching and learning technique is easier and more interesting than textbook lectures. But why were they not interested? I don’t understand to change or effort new pedagogy.Finally, I conclude that most of the students want to change their learning approach with the advanced devices, studying their progressive knowledge and applying the useful of IT technology but some of the teachers cannot effort their innovation of pedagogy, weak of the devices’ application knowledge and prefer to traditional teaching methods.

Feedback from students

After I transferred to Yangon University of Distance Education in 2017, most of students in Hinthada University send email to me about this effectiveness of teaching pedagogy. After they graduated, they can use their mobile phones to get a better job, to apply for a scholarship, to study abroad, to search for price of paddy and pulses (most of the student’s parents devoted their life in agriculture farm in Hinthada Township), to trade with other buyers or to select good salary work. They said that“Teacher Yu, you are intelligent teacher for us, we always appreciate on teaching method which is useful for us more and more, love and miss, please come to visit again, want to meet again”.  Nowadays I don’t know who are continuously carrying on this useful mobile phone teaching pedagogy in University level.  

Strengths and Weaknesses

Thus, mobile phones allow students' communication together with their refreshing knowledge, share information mindset and result more successful collaborative learning. Students having technical skill and personal confidence using mobile phone can give full attention to their learning courses. Teachers’ perceive also importance that the use of mobile phones within student learning system increasing their course activities. Mobile communication is an everyday reality in the lives of teachers/learners and it will increasingly be true in the future.

With the education knowledge age, the rapid technology improvement is having a great number of impacts, some positive, some negative. Mobile devices allow the user to have relationships with information in their own ways; learners are uniquely served by mobile learning and teachers are actively created by mobile teaching technique. Mobile technologies do hold potential for flexible modes of language communication, which can be used strategically to support and improve student retention. Teachers who want to change the learning environment must pursue relevant opportunities to grow professionally and keep up-to-date with current knowledge and research in the subject area. Therefore it is a great possibility that mobile learning will have a direct positive effect on learning. 

Most of the students in this case study used mobile phones profitably used to search for knowledge, language, entertainment, communication. However, some of the students plagiarized with their phones in both tutorial and examination time. Students are influenced negatively to a great extent by social media because attention is focused on chatting, music and other distractive while their academic activities are neglected and left to suffer. Language barriers, specialized terminology and lack of technology skill may be weaknesses for the use of mobile technology by Myanmar Students.  

References

Barker, A. Krull, G. Mallinson, B. (2014)): ‘A Proposed Theoretical Model for M-Learning Adoption in Developing Countries’, Department of Information Systems. Rhodes University, South Africa [online] <https://www.ebscohost.com>

 Naismith, L., Lonsdale, P., Vavoula, G., & Sharples, M. (2004): ‘Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning’, Future lab University of Birmingham, UK.

News and Periodical Enterprise (2019) ‘Yangon University of Distance Education’ [online] Available at: <http://www.moi.gov.mm/npe/?q=node/17584> Accessed 29/3/2019.

Wagner E.D. (2005): ‘Enabling Mobile Learning’, EDUCAUSE Review, 40(2):40-53.

Yousuf, Muhammad I.(2007):‘Effectiveness of Mobile Learning in Distance Education’, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE October 2007 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 8 Number: 4 Article 9 [onlone]<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26477395>

Key Words: Distance Learning, Mobile Phone Pedagogy, advanced device, Online Education, group presentations

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