Mobile Apps for Education. Presented at the Mobiles for Reading Breakout Session, International Literacy Day, September 8th, USAID Office, Washington DC (Organized by the mEducation Alliance, http://www.meducationalliance.org/)

1. Mobile Apps for Education
Christelle Scharff, PhD
Soda Niang-Samb, Abdoualye Noumounthi Diao
Chun Hei Cheung, Balla Diop Dieng
SenMobile Presented at the Mobiles
for Reading Breakout
senmobile@senmobile.com Session, International
Literacy Day, September
8th, USAID Office,
Washington DC
http://facebook.com/senmobile (Organized by the
mEducation Alliance,
http://www.meducationallia
@senmobile nce.org/)

2. Problem
Addressing mobile learning for children in
kindergarten
Pupils
 Exposure to technology
 Access to computers in and
outside the classroom
 Different ways of learning
 Motivations
Teachers
 Large class size
 Difficulty to provide each child with individual attention
 Hard to track student progress
 Resources for technology

3. Apps for Children
We developed a series of mobile apps for
children
Focus of the apps Apps are aligned with the
Sound instead of text curriculum
Icons / Images / Colors Formes123
Instant feedback and Lettres123 Developed in
Java ME to
assessment Chiffres123 support a
Easy to use and good user EduCivic123 wide range
of phones
experience SuiteABC
Makes learning fun Suite123
Local content (culture, Couleurs123
language, curriculum) Sante123
Link parent / teacher with
SMS Apps and pedagogical
model

4. Formes123

5. Sante123

6. Pilot in 3 Interviews with
schools – 90
pupils Early observations teachers
 Students Record pupils
using apps
 In 2 sessions pupils are able to use the apps independently
 Pupils motivated by mobile phones
 Pupils help each other and worked collaboratively
 Proud of achieving success screens for answering questions correctly
 They want more apps!
 Teachers
 Liked active learning
 Fights against the digital divide
 Verbalizes what children have learned
 Saves time
 Easier to assess pupil's knowledge
 Encourages teamwork
 New ways of learning