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Action research approach on mobile learning design for the underserved

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Abstract

This paper discusses an action research study focused on developing a mobile learning model of literacy development for underserved migrant indigenous children in Latin America. The research study incorporated a cyclical action model with four distinctive stages (Strategize, Apply, Evaluate, and Reflect) designed to guide constituencies involved in the study to design, test, and enhance a mobile learning model. The findings, to date, reveal some of the contextual phenomena that create both challenges and opportunities for a mobile learning model. From this, design strategies are evolving focused on sustained literacy exposure for extremely marginalized (economically, educationally, geographically, and technologically) migrant indigenous children who have no consistent access to a formal education system.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to Claudia Olaciregui of Colombia, Natalia de la Chica of Spain, Grace Hyunkyung Kim of Korea, Pablo Ohm, Alberto Gárate, Laura Carrillo and Teresita Higashi of Mexico, Talia Miranda, Alejandro Toledo and Ana Maria Romero-Lozada of Peru, and Luz María Camey of Guatemala for making this study possible. I also want to thank university colleagues such as Martin Carnoy and Claude Goldenberg of Stanford University, and Curtis Bonk of Indiana University as well as Chris Dede of Harvard University for reviewing this paper and sharing invaluable insights on relevant topics to this study. This Pocket School project has benefited tremendously from generous contributions made by organizations such as IFL (Innovations for Learning), Nokia, iRiver, KT, AT&T, CETYS Universidad, and many individual entrepreneurs.

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Correspondence to Paul H. Kim.

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Kim, P.H. Action research approach on mobile learning design for the underserved. Education Tech Research Dev 57, 415–435 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-008-9109-2

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