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ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING MOBILE LEARNING IN MALAYSIAN SCHOOLS M. Mohamad1, J.Woollard2 1

University of Southampton (United Kingdom) University of Southampton (United Kingdom) [email protected] , J. [email protected] 2

Abstract This study describes the issues and challenges in implementing mobile learning via mobile phones to support English Language learning in Malaysian schools. The findings are drawn from interviews of English subject leaders, ICT subject leaders, head teachers and deputy head teachers from 4 schools in the United Kingdom. In addition, the study also describes the perspectives from the experts in education in Malaysia. They are English subject leaders, ICT subject leaders, head teachers, deputy head teachers from 9 schools in Malaysia and five officers in the Ministry of Education Malaysia. It is established that there are issues and challenges to implement mobile learning via mobile phones in Malaysian schools. The challenges to implement mobile learning are based in the following key areas: misuse; current educational policy; management and maintenance; stakeholders’ attitude; digital divide; and personal space invasion. With regard to misuse, respondents believe that misuse is a major challenge that needs to be addressed to implement mobile learning. The respondents believe that misuse might discourage the government to support the use of mobile phones in education. There are possibility of misuse via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Bluetooth. It is also possible that cyber bullying will occur through mobile phones. Respondents also have concerns that there will be increased teachers’ workload to handle misuse. For the respondents, current policy is another challenge to implementing mobile learning. The policy which prohibits the use of mobile phones at schools would become a challenge to implement mobile learning. Only with changes in the policy, could mobile learning be implemented in Malaysian schools. Management and maintenance is a major issue raised by the respondents. Respondents are concerned with the cost of deploying mobile phones for teaching and learning. They also believed that the organisation of mobile learning is time consuming. Technical issue related to management and maintenance is also a concern, for example, theft, loss and health hazard. Moreover, respondents also believe that the stakeholders’ attitude might be a challenge to implement mobile learning. The challenges might arise from the students, teachers, parents and the community. Another consideration is the digital divide. Although for some respondents, the use of mobile phones is cost effective, it might also lead to digital divide as the result of possible cost issues associated with using mobile phones for learning. The final challenge highlighted by the respondents is associated with personal space invasion, where students might be bemused or annoyed with the idea of using their own devices for educational purposes. This study contributes towards the body of knowledge of mobile learning in Malaysia as a developing country where mobile learning is still in its infancy. It adds value in understanding the situation of mobile learning in Malaysia, which could be replicated to other developing countries in embracing the potential of mobile learning in mainstream education. Keywords: Mobile learning, mobile phones, schools, Malaysia.

1

INTRODUCTION

In Malaysia, although the use of mobile phones in education is still in its infancy, mobile phones or smart phones are predicted to be used in secondary schools from the year 2016 to 2020 [1]. In a study by Abdullah and Siraj [2], mobile phones through Short Message Service (SMS) technology has become the most preferred mode of learning to be applied in mobile learning curriculum in Malaysian secondary schools. In addition, Siraj and Ali [3] also stressed the affordances of mobile phones to support home-schooling which they believed are cost effective in providing education to students in Malaysia. A study by Mohd Nordin et al. [4] also revealed that the in-service school administrators believed that mobile phones have the potential to be used in teaching and learning in Malaysian schools. Furthermore, Dr Norrizan Razali, Senior Manager from Smart School Department, Multimedia Development Corporation in Malaysia [5] was also positive regarding the future of smart phones in Malaysian schools. There was also rising efforts in research projects which explore the affordances of mobile phones to support mainstream schooling in Malaysia. A study which explores the use of mobile phones to support learning Mathematics for primary schools showed significant contribution towards students’ learning activities [6]. Other initiatives include development of a collaborative mobile learning module for science subject in Malaysian secondary schools [7], mobile application to support learning English grammar [8] and mobile application to support learning Malay idiom [9]. However, there are challenges to implement mobile learning via mobile phones in Malaysia; some are associated with the negative attitudes and inappropriate uses. Mobile phones could also cause various issues and can be the reasons mobile phones is not welcomed by many schools to be used as an educational tool. This paper discusses the issues and challenges to deploy mobile phones in Malaysian schools. The challenges are grouped around the following key issues: misuse; current educational policy; management and maintenance; stakeholders’ attitude; digital divide; and personal space invasion.

2

CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENT MOBILE LEARNING IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLING

The main challenge to the implementation of mobile learning in mainstream schooling is to address the negative implications of mobile phones towards students. Mobile phones are regarded as a disruptive technology at schools. In much research, classroom issues have been raised frequently. The feature of mobile phone, which enables students to beam documents and to send text messages, is one of the reasons of issues in the classrooms. These are related to cheating; by beaming answers during examinations, by sending answers using text messaging and by taking photographs of answers using mobile phones [10] [11] [12]. While people are worried about this “disruptive technology”, Attewell et al. [13] argue that this is only a myth and is not a significant issue to decrease the values of using mobile phones for teaching and learning. Another major implication of using mobile phones in mainstream schooling is that it could cause social problems. Hartnell-Young [14] quoted that mobile phone is regarded as a “potentially offensive weapon”. This is referred to cyber bullying issue. It has become a concern in schools, in addition to traditional bullying [10] [15]. With mobile phones, bullying might occur via three medium: Short Message Service (SMS); Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); and voice to voice message. Bullying might happen when someone sends an SMS to other people with messages which can be hurtful and threatening [16]. It might also happen when someone sends a recorded image or video through MMS that contains embarrassing moment of another person and distribute it to public [16]. Finally, it might also happen when someone send a harassing voice message to other [16]. Another concern with mobile phones use is health issues. Although it might be trivial, health issues pertaining to the use of mobile phones should not be ignored. One of the issues is the complication from exposure to electric and magnetic fields (EMF) generated by mobile phones [17]. However, as stated by Pownell and Bailey [17], there are contradicting findings between the studies of the impact of EMF on human. Some studies have found the correlation between exposure to EMF fields and cancer, while some studies have been inconclusive. Another health issue that should not be ignored is the effect of exposure to tiny screen for long hours. Staring at tiny screen for long hours could cause eyestrain [18] [19] [20]. Moreover, there are also physical problems related to repetitive use of keypad such as hand cramps and carpal tunnel [18] [19] [20]. Another issue related to mobile phones is associated with students’ obsession with SMS language. The implication of SMS language for students is that it might change the way students use formal

language. Since using SMS language is simpler than using formal language, students might be inclined to use it in academia or formal writing. A case where a student used SMS language in an exam is reported by BBC [21] [22]. The news implied the implication of SMS language towards students. It might be reasonable to use this language moderately to compensate space, time and money, but using it in academia should be discouraged. Without proper monitoring at home, domestic issue might also happen. Students might be distracted from learning and might become obsessed into non-educational activities such as playing games [23] [24] [25]. This would also attract students to use their credit limit unnecessarily which could also cause problem related to cost [26]. Since mobile phones are usually small and compact, these devices are also exposed to damage, loss and theft [25] [27]. However, some trial projects which deployed mobile technology in education reported that damage, loss and theft are rare [28] [29] [30]. On the other hand, when mobile phones were introduced, there were some incidents where school children who owned mobile phones were robbed and assaulted [31] [32] [33]. However, these incidents are unlikely to happen nowadays because most people own mobile phones [34]. Nevertheless, incidents such as damage, loss and theft, might discourage stakeholders such as teachers and parents to accept the idea of using mobile phones in education.

3

CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENT MOBILE LEARNING IN MALAYSIAN SCHOOLS

Malaysia faces several challenges to utilise mobile phones for teaching and learning – they are cultural and political in nature. First of all, it is based on the cultural norm in the mainstream education in Malaysia. Like in education worldwide, mobile phones are believed to cause various discipline issues among students [10] [11] [12]. In Malaysia, the pioneer of mobile technology deployment at school is E-book project, which is based in the State of Terengganu, located in the east of Peninsular Malaysia. According to Intel World Ahead Program official website [35]: This move is part of the state government’s ongoing effort to enhance the quality of education through direct ownership of portable devices and IT-based learning, thus injecting renewed enthusiasm for learning in the classroom and at home. However, the implementation of this project is not without issues. During the early phase of the implementation, there were problems with misuse. Students have been found downloading indecent material and accessing malicious content [36]. To address these issues, bespoke software is used to monitor students’ e-books [37]. Moreover, special technical personnel known as Executive Information Officer (EIO) are provided at each school to manage and maintain the devices as well as to monitor students [38]. It is a concern that the same problems might arise if mobile phones are used for educational purposes [10][11][12]. But with proper solutions, mobile phones could be used in mainstream schooling. These are by deploying acceptable use policies as exemplified by Notre Dame High School [39] and Otumoetai Intermediate School [40], as well as equipping schools with technology solutions which is deployed by E-book project in the State of Terengganu [37]. Other solutions are to introduce out of school hours learning activities, encouraging parents to monitor their children in using mobile phones and raising students’ awareness to use mobile phones productively [41] [26]. Another challenge is the political situation in the mainstream schooling. Based on the social problems caused by the use of mobile phones in schools, the Ministry of Education Malaysia in 2009 has distributed a circulation which prohibited the use of mobile phones [42]. The reasons include theft issues, students fighting with each other, malicious message disseminated among students and classroom distraction. These are parallel to the opinions that mobile phones are believed to be a disruptive technology at schools [43] [44] [45]. In the effort to introduce the use of mobile phones in education, a gradual approach ought to be taken to conform to the existing policy at schools. Kolb [26] stressed that because changing policies and perspective from school communities towards the use of mobile phones will take time, in the beginning, schools might consider deploying mobile phones in learning activities outside school hours. Mobile phones can be used for field trips and homework assignments [26]. This is a viable approach so that students do not have to bring the devices to school to eliminate classroom issues as well as

not to violate the existing policy. Mobile phones are expected to be deployed gradually until mobile phones are accepted as a common learning tool: While the eventual aim could be to replace policies that involve blanket bans on device, we do not recommend whole-school change at the outset, rather a gradual adoption as attitudes and behaviours align with purposeful learning, until the school (and the community) reaches the tipping point, and mobile phone use is as natural as using any other technology in school [30]. To embrace the benefits of mobile phones for teaching and learning at Malaysian schools, there is a need to address the challenges in terms of school culture and political nature. Possible solutions are to utilise an Acceptable Use Policies (AUP), to equip schools with filtering technology, to introduce out of school hours learning activities, to encourage parents to monitor the children in using mobile phones and to raise student awareness to use mobile phones productively [46] [20] [29] [47] [37] [26] [41] [44]. With regard to political nature, it is important to conform to the existing policy at schools. As a gradual approach, it would be appropriate to utilise mobile phones in learning activities outside school hours [26].

4

IMPLEMENTATION

The main objective of the study is to gather opinion from the experts in education regarding the development of the implementation strategy to support mobile phones deployment in Malaysian schools. However, besides the evaluation, respondents’ perspectives towards the emerging issues in deploying mobile phones are also explored. The research design is based on the Educational Research and Development (ER&D) approach by Borg and Gall [48]. The 8 steps applied are research and information gathering, planning, developing the product in preliminary form, preliminary field testing or formative evaluation, main product revision, main field testing or summative evaluation, final product revision as well as dissemination and distribution. This study gathered opinion from the experts in education who were identified through a purposeful sampling strategy. The experts in education consulted are English subject leaders, ICT subject leaders, stakeholders from the school management such as head teachers and deputy head teachers from the United Kingdom and Malaysia as well as officers from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia were individually interviewed to capture the respondents’ perspective and to obtain additional or better idea towards the development of the implementation strategy. In addition, the interviews also gathered the respondents’ perspectives about the emerging issues in implementing mobile learning. The study used HyperTRANSCRIBE, QSR NVivo and Inspiration based on the 3 Cs of analysis: coding to categorising to concepts, to identify the themes through text analysis and visualisations of the concepts.

5

DISCUSSION

The study establishes that there are issues and challenges to implement mobile learning in Malaysia. The themes arising from the responses are misuse, current educational policy, management and maintenance, stakeholders’ attitude, digital divide and personal space invasion. However, solutions are suggested by the respondents to address the challenges. Respondents believe that misuse is a major challenge that needs to be addressed to implement mobile learning. For them, misuse might discourage the government to support the use of mobile phones in education. There are possibility of misuse via MMS and Bluetooth. It is also possible that cyber bullying will occur through mobile phones. Respondents also have a concern about the teachers’ workload to handle misuse. However, as a solution, the respondents suggest to use mobile phones which have limited function to eliminate misuse through MMS. They also suggest introducing mobile learning only to students who show their interest to use mobile learning. This is to eliminate misuse by students who have less interest. Another solution is to use specific mobile phones which have parental features to guide students. For the respondents, policy is another challenge to implement mobile learning. The policy which prohibits the use of mobile phones at schools will be the challenge to implement mobile learning. Only with changes in the policy, mobile learning could be implemented in Malaysian schools. However, the respondents also believe that there is a possibility of change in the policy which would support the use of mobile phones in teaching and learning.

Another major issue which is raised by the respondents is related to the management and maintenance. Respondents are concern with the cost in deploying mobile phones for teaching and learning. In addition to the cost related to SMS, they also raise the issue related to the cost in using MMS. A respondent has a concern that the cost in using mobile phones would bring pressure to parents. Another respondent believes that the organisation of mobile learning is time consuming and preferred to use e-learning rather than mobile learning. The respondent believes that mobile learning would not bring significant benefit compared to e-learning. In addition, a respondent also believes that while it would be possible to obtain funding from the government, it might be a challenge to maintain the facilities. Other concerns relate to the management and maintenance raised by the respondents are technical issue, theft, loss and health hazard. Moreover, respondents also believed that the stakeholders’ attitude might be a challenge to implement mobile learning. The challenges might arise from the students, teachers, parents and the community. The respondents believed that the attitude of the people in a developing country such as Malaysia bring the challenge to implement mobile learning. A respondent explained: “Our environment and culture compared to developed countries are not the same. They are more responsible, for example towards public facilities. For our community, we can see there are lots of public facilities being damaged. Compared to them, we are far from them. It is our attitude. It is possibly a huge challenge.” (ICT subject leader 8 from Malaysia) The respondents also believe that it is a challenge to address the students’ attitudes. This is particularly true with the students who have a negative attitude towards learning. However, a respondent believes that students will be interested in mobile learning if they believe that it will bring advantages to them and would be relevant to their future. Respondents also express their concern with regard to the teachers’ attitude. Some respondents believe that while most teachers would accept the use of mobile phones for educational purpose, it might be possible that minority of them would show their resistance. Teachers would show their resistance because they might have concerns about the extra workload in implementing mobile learning. On the other hand, a respondent believed that teachers would have positive attitude with the use of technology if it is necessary and relevant to them. The respondents also believe that on-going support, monitoring and the enforcement from the authority is essential to raise positive attitude. The issue with regard to the parents’ attitude was also raised by the respondents. The parents’ status as digital immigrants would be the challenge to introduce the use of mobile phones for learning activities. Parents might be bemused with the idea of using mobile phones in education because it is just used to communicate between students. Parents would also be bemused with the changes in the school’s policy as most schools currently prohibit the use of mobile phones. Digital divide is another issue raised by the respondents. Although the use of mobile phones is cost effective, it might lead to a digital divide as the result of possible cost issues: accessibility; parental permission; and people’s attitudes. A respondent implies: “It has the potential, but we have wide digital divide. The digital divide is very wide even for Klang Valley. Not all students can use or buy mobile phones. It is because our socio economic patterns are different. There are poor people, there are rich people. Even the poorest people live here. You’ll be surprised when there are some families in Kuala Lumpur living under the bridges” (Officer 2 from Malaysia) The final challenge highlighted by the respondents is associated with personal space invasion. For students, they would expect that their mobile phones are personal things. Therefore, students would be bemused with the concepts of using their mobile phones for educational purposes.

6

CONCLUSIONS

The challenges to utilise mobile phones in mainstream schooling have been discussed in the academic literature. The issues related to mobile phones are classroom management, cyber bullying, health, communication, domestic, damage, loss and theft. This paper also highlights the challenges that are faced by Malaysian schools to utilise mobile phones in terms of school culture and the political nature. This was established from the literature. To deal with the cultural norm, solutions that should be considered are: utilising Acceptable Use Policies (AUP); equipping schools with filtering technology; introducing out of school hours learning activities; encouraging parents to monitor their children in using mobile phones; and raising students’ awareness to use mobile phones productively.

With regard to political nature, there is a need to conform to the existing policy at schools. As a gradual approach, it would be appropriate to utilise mobile phone for the use of learning activities outside school hours, so that the use of mobile phones will not violate the existing policy. This paper also identifies the challenges of implementation of mobile learning in Malaysia schools. The major challenge is to deal with misuse. The findings support previous study regarding the issue of misuse in using mobile technology [10] [11] [12]. Another issue which also needs to be addressed is the current policy in schools. This finding agrees with the opinion by Kolb [26], Quinn [15] and Pachler et al. [49]. The policies which prohibit the use of mobile phones in schools might be a challenge to implementing mobile learning. The study also establishes the challenge associated with the management and maintenance of the devices, namely cost issue, technical issue and the potential health hazard. These issues are confirmed by Mifsud [22], Mifsud [23], Jackson [25], Gimbert and Zembal-Saul [50], Bauer and Ulrich [44], Pownell and Bailey [17] and Quinn [15]. The findings also establish a concern with regard to the stakeholders’ attitude including teachers, students and parents. It might be a challenge to deal with the stakeholders who are less receptive towards the use of mobile phones for educational purpose. This was in line with the opinion by Read and Druin [51], Pownell and Bailey [17] and Vavoula et al. [52] who stress the resistance of change towards technology integration. Moreover, the study also establishes that the use of mobile phones does not only reduce the digital divide, but it will also lead to the digital divide. This study agrees with the findings by Ariffin [53] and Adesope et al. [54] regarding the challenge to deal with cost in implementing mobile learning. Finally, the findings also establish that using students’ own mobile phones in mobile learning implementation could cause personal space invasion. With regard to this issue, the study mirrors the findings of Vavoula et al. [52]. In summary, although the Malaysian schools have the potential to implement mobile learning, various challenges need to be addressed in making it a reality. There is a need for a proper solution to handle the issues of misuse and digital divide as well as the management and maintenance to support the implementation. It is also important to win stakeholders’ hearts and minds so that they can see the benefits of using mobile phones in educational activities. Finally, it is also necessary for the changes in the existing educational policy so that mobile phones will no longer be regarded as a forbidden device in schools.

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