LIHI Mobile Education

A Curriculum Development Project

By Gabe Gossett for Adult & Higher Education 590, Global Perspectives in Education

Overview

  • Introduction
  • Context and setting
  • The curriculum proposal
  • Lessons learned

Introduction

LIHI, WWU, and Seattle-area community college students partnership.

Mentors will be from North Seattle Community College, Seattle Central Community College, and South Seattle Community College. The mentors will engage in one-on-one tutoring empowering LIHI residents to develop digital and job hunting/soft skills. The project is based in Seattle and is one year long.

(Western Washington University, Woodring College of Education, n.d.)


Low Income Housing Institute

The Low Income Housing Institute develops, owns and operates housing for the benefit of low-income, homeless and formerly homeless people in Washington State; advocates for just housing policies at the local and national levels; and administers a range of supportive service programs to assist those we serve in maintaining stable housing and increasing their self-sufficiency.

(LIHI, n.d.)


ICT

Information &Communications Technology

"[Is a] term that stresses the role of unified communication and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information."

“Information and communications technology,” 2014

Context & Setting

  • Immigrants / refugees
    • In transitional housing
    • Seeking to develop skills for work and social engagement
    • Likely to be at or below the poverty level
    • May require special ICT for international communication


Low Income

US Census Bureau data for "Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months by Nativity"

Or put Another Way . . .


27.3% of Seattle’s population below the poverty level is foreign born and one out of every five foreign born residents is below the poverty level

Resident's ICT Needs from Interviews

  • Communicating with family in Africa, Iran, or other location abroad
  • Likely to own cellphones, but not necessarily using all of the features
  • More data could help inform this more



ICT Needs from other Conversations

  • Need to know how to make communications cost effective
  • Become familiar with cultural aspects of communication
  • ICT needs can vary widely between individuals

Other Documentation

Crossing new borders: Computers, mobile phones, transportation, and English language among Hispanic day laborers in Seattle, Washington

  • Mobile phones are the most important ICT
  • English language and ICT are intricately related
    • Mobile phones are adaptable to different languages
  • Mobile phones can be an economic necessity and social form of support

Crossing New Borders

Crossing New Borders

Mobile phones can help reduce the digital divide

“I recently started to use a mobile phone again because I need it to get a job. If I lost it now, I feel lost, I feel like I don’t exist, I think I’m going to miss something important” (Baron, Neils, & Gomez, 2014, p. 103).

Phone support likely comes from informal networks

Remittances

Mobile banking increasingly allows for sending money to originating countries and can decrease the incidence of theft (Hamel, 2009)





The Curriculum Proposal

Foundational Approach

LIHI residents have unique knowledge to contribute


"The solution is not to 'integrate' them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become 'beings for themselves'" (Friere, 1995, p. 141).


Participatory Education

  • Resident's real-life experiences are important aspects of context and peers can learn from them
  • Participatory pedagogy is empowering and common with immigrant groups (Rivera, 2008)
  • Multiple device types and multiple approaches to using them

A Series of Problems

There is little in the way of mobile phone curriculum

  • What does exist is outdated
  • What exists is not targeted at immigrant/refugee groups
  • Workshops through libraries focusing on ICT tend to focus on computer skills
  • Different phone types and plans make structured workshops difficult or impossible
  • Which all supports a participatory educational approach

Structure (1)

A mentoring session will focus on assessing needs in four areas

  • Device usage: Does the resident own a phone or wish to obtain one? If so, is there a need for mentoring on basic device usage? Will the mentor be able to assist with their existing background and knowledge?
  • Basic communications: Does the resident have a need to call family and friends abroad? Have they found a cost-effective way to do so? What alternatives might be available? Is there an interest in learning about text messaging, video chat, and other apps?

Structure (2)

  • Literacy: Does the resident want to use their phone for literacy or other educational purposes? Are they able to access and use ebooks, etc.? Does the resident wish to access news sources?
  • Economic and civic engagement: Does the resident need to make calls for work or job seeking activities and are they familiar with etiquette? Would the resident like to practice making phone calls for job interviews or other work related tasks? Does the resident wish to engage in mobile banking, including sending remittances?

Resources

  • Mentors have a question sheet to fill out in dialog with their resident mentees
  • Reference sources will be on a website
    • Phone buying guide
    • Basic mobile phone usage module
    • Lists of apps that might be of interest for smartphone users

Level 2

  • Mentors will compare responses
    • Common issues or themes will be identified
    • Based on feedback from residents a decision will be made whether to have a forum or forums where issues and answers can be shared 
      • Many people with different knowledge might be invited, including other residents with expertise, employees from a local phone store, educators/librarians who do ICT training
      • The forums should result in an informal technical support network, i.e., people who can support each other should share phone numbers

What does Success Look Like?

  • Residents and mentors will have increased ICT skills when using phones
    • Interpersonal communication
    • Social information access
    • Economic access
  • Residents are able to identify people in a social network with whom they can draw upon and share expertise
  • Residents will be able to reduce phone costs

My Lessons Learned

  • Curriculum to model a project on may be non-existent or difficult to access
  • Even if you find it, with ICT it is likely out of date
  • However, the adaptability of participatory education is a good response
  • A site visit would have helped a lot; the PAR would have been easier in a dialog

Questions and Comments?


Impoverished African migrants crowd the night shore of Djibouti city, trying to capture inexpensive cell signals from neighboring Somalia—a tenuous link to relatives abroad. -National Geographic.

References

Baron, L. F., Neils, M., & Gomez, R. (2014). Crossing new borders: Computers, mobile phones, transportation, and English language among Hispanic day laborers in Seattle, Washington. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(1), 98–108. doi:10.1002/asi.22949

Becoming Visible and Finding Your Voice. (2014, May 15). LIHI/WWU mentoring: Blog. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from https://wce.wwu.edu/lihi/blog

Boeriswati, E. (2012). The Implementing Model of Empowering Eight for Information Literacy. Online Submission. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535495.pdf

Friere, P. (1995). Pedagogy of the oppressed. In S. Merriam (Ed.), Selected writings on philosophy and adult education (2nd ed., pp. 137–146). Malabar, FL.: Krieger Publishing Company.

Low Income Housing Institute. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://www.lihi.org/aboutUs.html

References

Rivera, K. M. (2008). Adult biliteracy in community-based organizations: Venues of participation, agents of transformation. In K. M. Rivera & A. Huerta-Macías (Eds.), Adult biliteracy: Sociocultural and programmatic responses (pp. 75–95). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Seattle Department of Planning and Development. (2013). About Seattle: Race & Ethnicity. Seattle Department of Planning and Development. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cityplanning/populationdemographics/aboutseattle/raceethnicity/default.htm

Stanmeyer, J. (2014, February 19). Signals from Djibouti. PROOF. Retrieved from http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/19/world-press-2014-signals-from-djibouti/


References

US Census Bureau. (n.d.). Poverty status in the past 12 months by nativity; Universe: Population for whom poverty status is determined; 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. American FactFinder. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_5YR_B17025&prodType=table

Western Washington University, Woodring College of Education. (n.d.). LIHI/WWU Mentoring Project. Retrieved May 28, 2014, from https://wce.wwu.edu/lihi/lihiwwu-mentoring-project

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