Jenny Aker. Can SMS be used as a tool to promote literacy in Africa?

Dear all,

With the clouds moving faster over the roof of the New School this morning, I can see the summer come to an end.
Suddenly, students are back and many of you will have had a productive and restful few months. I would like
to thank Nancy White, Stephen Downes, and George Siemens for their various interventions in June and
July. (To revisit their contributions please see the links at end of this post.) 

This is also a good time to mention that we started working on "Mobility Shifts: An International Future of
Learning Summit," which will be a year-long program of discussions, publications, curriculum
development, podcasts, video interviews, performances, and other collaborative projects
culminating in the conference in the fall of 2011. So, stay tuned-- more information will follow very
soon. 

Today, I'm extremely excited to be able to introduce you to Jenny Aker who is involved in a project that I
admire: Frontline SMS (http://www.frontlinesms.com/). Jenny's research aligns with the questions
that the Mobility Shifts Summit will ask. Her focus is on the impact of information technologies
--especially mobile phones-- on development outcomes, mainly agriculture, education, and health.
Jenny Aker is a professor of Economics at the Fletcher School Department of Economics at Tufts
University. She has conducted field work in many countries in West and Central Africa, including Benin,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique,
Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Sudan, as well as Haiti and Guatemala.

One of Jenny's projects focuses on mobile phones, literacy, and market information in Niger.
Specifically, the study seeks to assess the impact of mobile phones on literacy and agricultural
marketing outcomes in two regions of Niger. She asks if SMS can be used as a tool to promote literacy in
Africa. 

Please welcome Jenny Aker.

best,
Trebor
=
R. Trebor Scholz

===============
From the summer conversation:

Getting started: Equity or utility in the future of learning? (George Siemens)
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004306.html
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004310.html
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004329.html

Alternative models for education (George Siemens)
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004334.html
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004338.html

iCollege (Trebor Scholz)
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/thread.html#4339

The future of learning institutions (George Siemens)
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-July/004374.html

Nancy White
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004308.html

Stephen Downes
https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2010-June/004316.html