New Metaphors from Old Practices—Mobile Learning to Revitalize Education in Developing Regions of the World

By drawing on practices and metaphors familiar to children in the Indian school environment, we aim to develop mobile learning solutions that are grounded on the existing educational practices but have the potential of revitalizing the approach to learning technologies in a developing world context such as India. This paper outlines key findings of our user-centric research to the Indian educational setting, to come to conclusions about how we see mobile learning solutions playing a role in developing world countries such as India, where the focus is still on literacy and not learning. The study is multidimensional because it is aimed to provide inspiration for an empirically justified mobile learning product concept. Field observations and interviews revealed challenges associated with the current educational context in India. The school visits also led to identification of a design metaphor, namely the "Slate,¿ that is believed to provide the research team with an inspirational approach for the design of the eventual concept. A creative workshop was arranged with children, the purpose of which was to come up with design drivers for mobile learning solutions.