Application for Innopitch competition

1. ‘Bite-size edu’
Initial proposal
May 2012

2. Bite-size edu is an affordable, interactive m-Education
innovation which provides learners with 24/7 access to a
catalogue of short audio/visual modules aligned to high school
curriculum, an interactive peer forum and a repository of
practice examples with instant, actionable feedback

3. South Africa’s educational outcomes are poor and
deteriorating
In 2003 South Africa "Maths literacy... what is that? It's worse than
scored lowest in the the arithmetic I did under Bantu education"
Trends in International
Mathematics and Dr Mamphela Ramphele (Mar 2012)
Science Study (TIMSS)
Nearly all white kids get
Only 35% of our kids can read, with results through matric and some
ranging from 12% in Mpumalanga to a 60% go on to tertiary - while
"high" 43% in Western Cape. only 50% of black kids get to
matric and 12% to
Graeme Bloch (Former DBSA education university.
policy analyst, 2011) Tafelberg (2009)
SOURCE: ‘The Toxic Mix: What is wrong with South Africa’s schools and how to fix it’ (Tafelberg, 2009)

4. Root causes of this are long standing issues which are
hard to reverse
Issue Example
• Low level of training and qualifications • KZN alone has 13000 under-qualified
Poor teacher among teachers teachers
performance • Average learner to educator ratio in SA
high schools is 29.4 while global average is
18
• Parents and peers do not motivate students • Learners are encouraged to quit school and
Weak learning to achieve academically begin ‘contributing’ to the family by
culture searching for a job early on
• No supplementary tuition or tutors • Quality tutoring ranging in cost from R40 to
Lack of additional • Parents and family members are unfamiliar R200 per hour is not accessible to learners
support with new curriculum and unable to assist of lower LSM
(often legacy of Bantu education)
• Relatively high average cost of textbooks • Textbooks not delivered to public schools in
Low access to • Insufficient supply of up-to-date resources a timely manner e.g. Eastern Cape this Jan
study resources caused by transition in curriculum (’06 – ’08) • Provinces acquired wrong titles which
resulted in a capacity backlog for publishers could not be used by schools
Inadequate • No standardised systems in place to assess • SA is unable to benchmark literacy and
tracking and and evaluate whether learners are achieving numeracy scores against international
monitoring curriculum outcomes and to identify key standards on an annual basis
areas in curriculum that require
improvement
Source: South African Democratic Teachers Union; 2009 Dinaledi Schools Project (DoE and business partnership)

5. We dream of a perfect world we could have a ‘fix’ for it all, but
in fact, to some extent by using technology we already do...
Conceptual ‘fix’ Proof of concept
• Leverage the few exceptional teachers in the • Khan Academy: 3200 educational videos
Excellent teachers system to teach a larger “virtual” classroom posted YouTube 147,344,639 lessons
for all delivered http://www.khanacademy.org
• Mobilink’s SMS literacy project in Pakistan
(case study incl. in appendix)
• Society shows immediate reward for • Social networks e.g., Facebook + Twitter
Strong learning academic excellence are being used more than Google for
culture • Peers engage in friendly competition on referrals and everyday questions
academic grounds • Mobile gaming e.g.Dr Math
• Tutors-on-demand at low cost • Nokia Momaths: MxiT based Gr.10
Support available • Instant, actionable feedback mathematics learning application including
24/7 • Virtual “study” village where peers can live chats and practice test with instant
problem solve and tutor each other feedback (low cost) www.momaths.org
Free and timely • Free online educational material in the form • Aakash, India’s $35 tablet for education
access to study of electronic text books and “bite sized” • UNISA is developing R30 textbook concept
resources video/audio catalogues (is R30 still not too expensive?)
Just –In-Time • Consistent feedback on learner progress • Polls and online surveys are used by
tracking and across the country by way of learner input marketers daily
monitoring based assessments done on a regular basis • Company’s sales force tracks customer
satisfaction via mobile phone assessments
Can technology leapfrog the South African education system quickly,
affordably and with wide reach as it has in other countries???
Source: South African Democratic Teachers Union; 2009 Dinaledi Schools Project (DoE and business partnership)

6. In SA vs. RoW a greater case can be made for mobile technology.
Even from a broadband perspective, mobile accounts for more
subscribers than traditional fixed lines
Context Broadband subscribers
▪ Low PC penetration %, thousand Fixed Mobile CAGR,
and poor fixed 2005-11
broadband 1
infrastructure with 22 75 211 482 972
100% = 91%
little coverage 9 13 9 8 7
3 5 10 12 291%
▪ Telkom – local 7 18
incumbent offering
ADSL broadband
29
38 317%
▪ Mobile Internet 91
offered 77
by three providers: 68
Vodacom, MTN, and 53
42 92%
iBurst
▪ Aggressive rollout
of the 3G network 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 H1
by Vodacom Broadband
0.2% 0.6% 1.7% 3.7% 7.4% penetration
1 Vodacom owns 10% stake in iBurst
Sources: Company reports; BMI-T; Pyramid

7. The high level of accessibility, affordability and convenience make
mobile connection a winning formula in SA relative to computers
120% • In 2010 ,SA’s mobile penetration was already 97%
and was expected to grow at 6% CAGR between
97%
100% 2010 and 2015.
• “Mobile is the PC and e-Reader of Africa”
80%
• Mobile is even used for browsing internet more than
60% computers. 39% of urban South Africans and 27% of
rural users are now browsing the Internet on their
40% phones due to higher accessibility
20%
• Mobiles are a part of our culture and society, today
12%
there is no “technology-free” society so why would
0% education need to be kept “technology-free”?
Penetration in 2010 • However, a solution is not as simple as “cut and
Computer Mobile paste” from existing online resources
Vs. “m-Education is not just e-learning gone for a walk”
– J. Traxler*
*John Traxler is Director of the Learning Lab and Professor of Mobile Learning at the University of Wolverhampton.
SOURCE: WCIS+; The Mobility 2011 research project, conducted by World Wide Worx and backed by First National Bank

8. What is m-Education?
Mobile Education: Various definitions
“The ability to access educational resources,
tools, and materials at anytime from anywhere
using a mobile device”
– GSMA development fund (2010) Key elements
▪ Enhanced learner
“Learning enhanced by the use of mobile outcomes
technologies, or learning by people, mobile, or ▪ Using a mobile device
remote, from a fixed location in a place, time, and technology
or context of their choosing”
▪ Accessing educational
– Gartner (2010)
resources anytime and
from anywhere
“Knowledge transfer events, content, tools,
and applications built using mobile
information architecture and accessed on
handheld computing devices”
– Ambient (2010)
SOURCE: GSMA; Gartner; Ambient

9. One can look at m-Education as a spectrum
Mobile
Location-based/ Classroom-enhanced Social learning and
learning Personalized learning Digital inclusion
contextual learning learning collaboration
outcomes
Foundation Teacher training Health education
Vocational Languages Life skills
Learning Primary Ongoing Patient education
Certified self- Practice/ Development
area Secondary education and Practitioner
improvement improve learning education
Tertiary support Education support
User Student Teacher Employee Self-motivated
Independent
Learning Complementary
(as a stand-alone way of accessing educational
method (support to other learning activities)
tools, resources)
Non-
Academic Content Government Mobile network Technology
Players government
community providers organizations operations vendors
organizations
“m-Education has the potential to transform education service
delivery with improved learning outcomes” - GSMA
Note: mobile learning outcomes defined in appendix
Sources: GSMA; Gartner; team analysis

10. What our solution looks like... bite-size edu
Bite-size edu is an affordable, interactive m-Education innovation which provides learners
with 24/7 access to a catalogue of short audio/visual modules aligned to high school
curriculum; an interactive peer forum and a repository of practice examples with instant,
actionable feedback
▪ Accessible via low end phones
▪ Affordable to all learners
▪ Interactive learning material, practice and receive feedback
▪ High quality of teaching scaled via audio and visual
▪ Aligned to SA High School curricula
▪ To be used as an additional resource outside of traditional schooling
systems and independent of teachers
▪ “Bite-size” or short modular learning
▪ 24/7 availability
▪ Harnessing a competitive learning environment/gaming
▪ Flexibility to customise learning to learner’s specific needs
▪ Create supportive and safe space to learn at own pace
▪ A learning community/virtual village with peer forums (online chat or
instant messaging)

11. Where does bite-size edu fit into the m-Education
spectrum? Where bite-sized edu fits in
Mobile
Location-based/ Classroom-enhanced Social learning and
learning Personalized learning Digital inclusion
contextual learning learning collaboration
outcomes
Foundation Teacher training Health education
Vocational Languages Life skills
Learning Primary Ongoing Patient education
Certified self- Practice/ Development
area Secondary education and Practitioner
improvement improve learning education
Tertiary support Education support
User Student Teacher Employee Self-motivated
Independent
Learning Complementary
(as a stand-alone way of accessing educational
method (support to other learning activities)
tools, resources)
Non-
Academic Content Government Mobile network Technology
Players government
community providers organizations operations vendors
organizations
“m-Education has the potential to transform education service
delivery with improved learning outcomes” - GSMA
Note: mobile learning outcomes defined in appendix
Sources: GSMA; Gartner; team analysis

12. bite-size edu requires an intersection of
desirability, viability and feasibility
Desirability:
Why would high learners want to use bite-size?
What would motivate them to continue using it?
Why would parents and teachers encourage usage?
Why would peers recommend it to one another?
What would make a learner try it for the first time?
How would you build a large population of users quickly?
A C
Desirability Feasibility
Viability:
What business model is required to make bite-size self sustaining?
What scale is required to make content generation inexpensive on
a per user basis?
How do you make bite-size affordable for the learner (end user)? B
What government institutions ,foundations , private sector
institutions incl. networks would fund bite-size?
Viability
How do you manage the high cost of quality teachers?
Feasibility:
How do you provide a quality audio visual experience over a low-
end mobile device at low cost?
What existing platforms can be leveraged?
What other options or “add-ons” could enable this experience and
provide the reach/scale of mobile phones?

13. A Some thoughts on desirability
• Key is that learners would want to learn via bite-size edu because
they see results, additionally:
– Online community creates motivation
– Adequate marketing drives awareness of product among peers
– Gaming component to learning
– At scale competitive nature kicks in within schools
– Tailored learning – “I will only need to learn what I am struggling with”
– “bite sized” lessons mean I can learning whenever, wherever
– How do we encourage teachers + parents to support usage?
– There is a big requirement to test the tool to see if it actually yields
results...
– Current thinking on what the tool would actually look like?
• Instructive learning
– Database of bite-sized modules with audio and visual explanations of topics delivered by
a good teacher
– Tutor “live questions” and support
• Independent learning
– Online practice resources by module with instant feedback
– Online competitions and peer learning forum

14. B Some thoughts on Viability
• Key is affordability and sustainability
• From a financial perspective: What business model is required? Unlike in an
online system there will not be a need to distribute hardware (PCs or tablets) to
students as they already own their own handsets however other cost drivers will
be:
– Content generation (can we use a model like Wikipedia i.e. User generated? Perhaps teachers
can upload lessons online, the lessons are check before learners can access them)
– Marketing (lesson from mNovels: usage and marketing are highly correlated, it gets costly
quickly)
– Online teachers and tutors?
• Possible funding methods
– Project becomes self funded: this will require leveraging scale i.e. spreading cost of content
generation across multitude of users e.g. MxiT does well because it charges 40million users 1c
per transaction; another option would be to allow an annual subscription similar to tuition
fees in a distance learning model
– Government/foundation funded: costs of development + data transmission absorbed by
Department of Education or Department of Science & Technology. This could be in exchange
for data gathering on student outcomes
– Private sector funding: sponsorship by way of engineering,
accounting and other quantitatively heavy firms in exchange for
recruiting and scholarship opportunities
– Network subsidised: data transmission costs absorbed by networks

15. C Some thoughts on Feasibility
• Key is developing the technology to transmit video + audio to basic handsets
• We need to over come 3 issues:
– Affordability of voice, sms and data transfer is still very high in South Africa. The average European
spends 1% of their monthly salary on mobile. The average African spends 18%.
– “Bring Your Own Technology” complicates the solution space as any solution needs to be universally
compatible across various mobile phone models
– Basic phone with basic functionality can be expected from the target market which limits solution
space in terms of enhanced applications. While entry level mobiles are becoming “smarter” and
more affordable, the bulk of high school users will still use battered, hand-me down mobile devices.
• Currently low end phones that are wap enabled do have internet access however this is slow and
expensive. It is much better to connect via an application platform such as mxit. However mxit does not
currently have video transmission or audio (both are imperative to effective learning remotely case study:
Khan Academy)
• Does this technology already exist? What platforms currently exist?
• This technology needs to be dirt cheap to ensure affordability of the tool
• If it is not possible – what alternatives/handset “add-ons” could be distributed to make meet
requirements
• If we cant “add-on” how else can we transmit
sound bites and video? How can we make a
similar connection in this way?
• Upfront the bulk of R&D needs to be in this area
Basic Phone is a voice-centric, entry-level mobile device with basic functionality;
Smartphone - Entry-Level is closer to an enhanced phone in specification and usage, but runs
on an open operating system
SOURCE: mLab SA, GSMA

16. Bite-size edu evaluation
Drivers
Challenges • High mobile growth rates and device
• Pricing: ownership penetration
– High tariffs/costs of mobile data • Advantage for first movers
– Expensive handsets • Portable: Anytime, anywhere
• Content: connectivity
– Consumer demand must be stimulated • Less cultural resistance to mobile
– Lack of local content usage
– Content partnerships not developed • High social interaction and content
• Technology: engagement (make learning fun)
– Small screens of mobiles/PDAs • Ubiquitous connectivity encourages
– Low memory compared to PC “snack learning”
– Incompatible development platforms, OS and • Customizable to user needs
non standardised devices • Government funding potential
– Battery life
– Absence of 3G networks
• Regulatory status unclear

17. Appendix

18. Defining: Learning outcomes from m-Education
Contextual learning Personalized learning Classroom-enhanced learning
Provide location-based content, Customize pace and content to Enhance subjects and assessment
e.g., at a museum, zoo, etc. each learner administration
Social learning and collaboration Digital inclusion
E.g., real-time sharing and Enable inclusion access in locations
exchange of ideas, virtual games with less infrastructure
Source: Gartner

19. Case example: Mobilink’s SMS literacy project in
Pakistan
Pakistan context ▪ Early gains in literacy: share of
▪ Extremely low female literacy in Pakistan is typically girls receiving the lowest scores
because the educational facility is far and the family dropping nearly 80%
does not want the girl to go outside the house
Project setup ▪ Impact to families: Participants
▪ Mobile operator Mobilink partnered with UNESCO and their families are even
and local NGO Bunyad in 2009 taking advantage of other
▪ Project targeted 250 females aged 15-24 in a rural features of the phones,
part of Southern Punjab including the calculator.
▪ Each of the girls was provided with a low-cost mobile
phone capable of Urdu text SMS, with prepaid ▪ Socio-cultural acceptance:
connection. While 56% of learners and their
Learning program families initially maintained
▪ Teachers were trained by Bunyad to teach students negative feelings toward the
how to read and write using mobile phones program, 87% were satisfied
▪ The girls received up to six messages a day on a with its results by the end
variety of topics including religion, health and
nutrition, and were expected to practice reading and
writing down the messages and responding to their
teachers via SMS
SOURCE: GSMA

20. Many types of educational programs can be
carried out through mobile handsets
Basic self Assistance based Advanced real-time
Type of
learning Cancer awareness through Student-teacher based Live and interactive learning
SMS and IVRS portal remote tutor-helpline through session through chat IM,
call, SMS videocall, GPRS
Complexity of learning program
Tata Teleservices Mobilink
Learn English service SMS literacy project
Device capability
Basic Handset
University of Wolverhampton Multiple participating
Maryland Local Authority institutions
Digital library Learning2go MoLeNet project
Smartphone
Entry level
Basic Phone is a voice-centric, entry-level mobile device with basic functionality; Smartphone - Entry-Level is closer to an enhanced phone in specification and
usage, but runs on an open operating system
SOURCE: GSMA