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1 Introduction

Southeast Asia is a diverse region consisting of both developed countries and developing countries. It is not only economically diverse but also culturally diverse, shaped by extremes of climate, a diversity of religions, politics at both ends of the spectrum, and a multitude of languages. Southeast Asia incorporates the archipelagos of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia with East Timor, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Given this diversity, it is unsurprising that the levels of infrastructure available for information and communication technologies also varies between countries, even between neighboring countries.

This chapter will first look at how access to internet and to mobile internet varies across the countries of Southeast Asia. Necessarily mobile learning requires access to mobile devices, so rates of ownership, affordability, and access across a number of countries in the region are detailed. Internet censorship is a significant factor, potentially impacting on mobile learning initiatives. How internet censorship varies between various Southeast Asian countries is briefly examined along with what is specifically censored in each case. The following part of the chapter focuses on a cross-section of Southeast Asian countries, looking at their own particular context and examining significant mobile learning initiatives that have been deployed. The chapter concludes with an examination of the barriers and enablers to mobile learning in Southeast Asia and a consideration of the future direction of mobile learning in the region.

2 Access to Internet and Mobile Internet in Southeast Asia

On May 16, 2011, the United Nations declared that access to the internet was a human right. That statement has implications for governments in terms of the provision of infrastructure, hardware, social access, and so on (La Rue 2011). In Southeast Asia, there are three distinct levels of broadband internet penetration (Deibert et al. 2012). In the first grouping are Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore which have high levels of mobile, broadband, and computer penetration. The second group is made up of the middle-income countries, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These countries have high levels of mobile penetration, but quite low levels of broadband internet and computer penetration. The third grouping includes Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, which have low levels of mobile, broadband internet, and computer penetration (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). Even though many do not have access to reliable broadband internet, the demand for internet and associated services is rapidly increasing (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). Counterintuitively, the number of internet users is growing more quickly than the number of internet subscriptions. Public access points, including internet cafes, account for this difference. For example, in Indonesia, around 7,500 “Warnets” short for “Warung Internets” supply affordable internet access to people in Java. Similarly, in the Philippines and Thailand, internet or cyber cafes provide affordable internet access to those who could not afford a connection in their home (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). Even with these constraints, the region has made remarkable progress in the last 10 years (So 2012).

Broadband internet penetration is restricted in most countries within Southeast Asia due to the poor infrastructure. This is mostly attributable to a lack of private investment coupled with the severely limited capacity of the people to pay for services (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). Singapore and Malaysia are the significant exceptions to this technological deficit. New investors have focused their resources on providing infrastructure for mobiles rather than for broadband internet (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). In addition, a lack of access to electricity in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos necessarily limits the uptake of computer technologies. This is especially true in rural regions in these countries where the demand is not high and the disposable income of the residents is lower (Jeroschewski et al. 2013).

In many developing countries, and those of Southeast Asia are no exception, mobile technologies have been adopted at greater rates, as compared to personal computers, also because tablets and smartphones are more affordable and easier to use (Zambrano et al. 2012). Even with the emphasis on supporting infrastructure for mobiles, there are three factors that hinder the penetration of mobile broadband. The first is lack of knowledge of potential users about the availability of mobile internet and the services it can facilitate (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). The second factor relates to affordability. The cost of buying a phone, a sim card, and any upfront fees associated with holding a mobile account can account for a large proportion of a person’s income (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). The third significant barrier is the lack of availability of internet-enabled phones, particularly smartphones in some areas. In most areas, feature phones are still the main kind of phone available (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). In some areas this is rapidly changing and one in four people own a smartphone as they become more affordable (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). Southeast Asia benefits from its relative proximity to China where many unbranded, affordable smartphones are being manufactured (Jeroschewski et al. 2013) with some being used for mobile learning (see Chap. 29, “Mobillizing the Middle Kingdom: Bringing M-Learning to High Schools”). Even so, in many countries in Southeast Asia, there is potentially a very large digital divide which often restricts access to education (Bandalaria 2005).

3 Internet Control and Censorship

Governments across Southeast Asia have to balance the increasing sophistication and availability of emerging ICTs on the one hand with social stability, cultural values, and security on the other (Deibert et al. 2012). In this region, there are some of the world’s most liberal societies and some of the world’s most restricted, all in close proximity (Deibert et al. 2012). Along with the growing dominance of mobile technologies in the marketplace, there is a corresponding increase in governments’ abilities to monitor and control access to the internet and all that can be retrieved with it. This monitoring generally manifests in the form of centralized filtering mechanisms, regulators to monitor content, and prosecutors to address transgressions (Deibert et al. 2012).

Myanmar and Vietnam are among the most restrictive regimes with a particular focus on the restriction of independent media, material that could be considered to be politically sensitive, pertaining to human rights or political reform (Deibert et al. 2012). A report by the Berkman Centre of the Internet and Society (2006) revealed that Vietnam has sophisticated and effective filtering systems that resemble those of China. It is important for educators to understand the extent to which internet censorship may impact on mobile learning in Vietnam. Social networks, for example, are often used in mobile learning scenarios to encourage collaboration and sharing of information. In Vietnam, however, local authorities partially or wholly block access to sites such as Facebook (Subramanian 2012). Only a third (33 %) of consumers in Vietnam over the age of 15 have a social media profile on a platform called Zing Me and 28 % have an active Facebook profile (Nielsen 2011). Though a previous investigation of internet censorship showed no active censoring of information in Indonesia, more recent investigations suggest that pornography, select political and blasphemous content, and internet-tool-related content are censored. In Thailand, content related to politically sensitive events is filtered. In 2009, 44,000 websites were actively blocked by the nation’s government (Deibert et al. 2012). By way of contrast, Singapore only censors a relatively small number of sites, generally of a pornographic nature (Deibert et al. 2012). There is no evidence of filtering in Malaysia or the Philippines (Deibert et al. 2012).

4 Ownership of Mobile Devices in South East Asia Countries

Data suggests, that in some regions, mobile devices are being purchased instead of computers. In countries such as Cambodia and Laos, people won’t have access to a PC, but they will have access to a mobile phone (So 2012). This popularity of mobile devices is reflected in rates of mobile subscriptions as compared to the population. Commonly across Southeast Asian countries, there are more mobile phone subscriptions than people. The level of mobile phone subscriptions in Singapore is 153 %, in Vietnam is 149 %, in Malaysia is 141 %, in Cambodia is 132 %, in Thailand is 120 %, in Indonesia is 115 %, in Brunei is 114 %, and in the Philippines is 107 %. Even in a relatively economically disadvantaged country such as Laos, there are still roughly as many subscriptions as people (102 %) (Greene 2013).

Smartphones have more affordances to be leveraged for mobile learning, though levels of smartphone ownership as compared to feature phones remains relatively low across most of Southeast Asia. Of mobile phone users, the percentage of those who own smartphones are 15 % in the Philippines, 23 % in Indonesia, 49 % in Thailand, 80 % in Malaysia, and 87 % in Singapore (Greene 2013). These figures are based on data collected by Nielsen Holdings who tend to concentrate their research on urban areas (Greene 2013). Those figures are generally lower for the countries overall. Data collected by Pew Research indicates that in Malaysia, 89 % own a mobile and 31 % own a smartphone; in Indonesia, 78 % own a mobile and 11 % own a smartphone; and in the Philippines, 71 % own a mobile and 17 % own a smartphone. Predictably, smartphone ownership tends to be higher in countries with higher per capita income (Pew Research Global Attitudes Project 2014).

In addition, smartphones tend to be owned by people under 30 (Hussin et al. 2012). In Malaysia, 49 % of 18–29 year olds own a smartphone, 30 % of 30–49 year olds, 11 % of 50+ year olds (Pew Research Global Attitudes Project 2014). In the Philippines, 24 % of 18–29 year olds own a smartphone, 18 % of 30–49 year olds, and 9 % of 50+ year olds. In Indonesia, 18 % of 18–29 year olds own a smartphone, 9 % of 30–49 year olds, and 3 % of 50+ year olds. This creates some opportunity for mobile learning with higher levels of smartphone ownership among the demographic that are most likely to engage in formal learning.

Tablets are a low cost, flexible alternative to laptop and desktop computers, suitable for learning due to their ability to leverage mobile apps and their portability. They are suited to collaboration and are able to capture data (Johnson et al. 2012). Tablet ownership and penetration among mobile users in a cross section of Southeast Asian countries is rapidly increasing: there are 47 % in Singapore, 42 % in Malaysia, 16 % in Thailand, 5 % in Indonesia and 5 % in the Philippines. These figures are as a percentage of mobile phone users in urban areas (Greene 2013). Though these figures are increasing, the overall penetration rates remain too low to leverage ownership for mobile learning. This would indicate that mobile learning initiatives designed for use in most Southeast Asian countries should be designed with smartphones in mind, and to ensure high levels of adoption, with feature phones in mind.

In order to maximize the benefits of BYOD policies in educational institutions, any mobile learning intervention should leverage the affordances of mobile devices and users’ familiarity with those devices. It is therefore useful to consider how people in this region are using their mobile phones. The most popular use of mobile phones, after making phone calls, is texting (Pew Research Global Attitudes Project 2014). This is probably due to the very low cost of texting as compared to calling. In Malaysia, 89 % own a mobile phone and 89 % (of mobile phone owners) text, 51 % take pictures or video, and 27 % access social media. In Indonesia, 78 % own a mobile phone, 96 % of those people text, 46 % take pictures or video, and 23 % access social media. In the Philippines, 71 % own a mobile phone, and of those 99 % text, 54 % take pictures or video, and 17 % access social media (Pew Research Global Attitudes Project 2014). These figures should be kept in mind when designing mobile learning interventions. If the educator is going to ask students to use their phones in a way that is unfamiliar to them, sufficient training must be supplied in order to ensure the efficacy of the intervention.

5 E-Learning and Mobile Learning in Southeast Asia

Due to the poor access to broadband internet, and in some cases even electricity, there has been a marked lack of success with e-learning in many parts of Southeast Asia. Recent data suggests that prices for mobile phones and internet access have dropped substantially, opening the door for mobile learning initiatives in these poorer countries (So 2012). Even though mobile devices and subscriptions may still provide a significant cost for many people, mobile technologies are more affordable than both broadband internet and desktop or laptop computers. In addition, mobile learning provides study options to learners who are geographically remote from physical campuses and allowing them to fit study around their work or carer commitments (Chun and Tsui 2010). This flexibility is being demanded by learners, who want to learn wherever and whenever they want (Johnson et al. 2012). Mobile learning allows for both formal and informal learning (see Chap. 46, “Moving Towards the Effective Evaluation of Mobile Learning Initiatives in Higher Education Institutions”). In using their own devices, students are beginning to learn how to use their networks for more than just texting, allowing them to learn to “just in time” in response to emerging questions or problems. It also supports “discovered” learning where students discover the relevance of information for themselves, apt for their particular learning context (Johnson et al. 2012). There is also a move away from traditional didactic methods towards challenge-based and active learning, leveraging the affordances of mobile technologies to allow learning in real-world situations (Johnson et al. 2012).

Mobile learning affords flexibility in open and distance learning institutions (Hussin et al. 2012), allowing those in rural areas greater access to education (Clothey 2010; So 2012; Jambulingam and Sorooshian 2013). Students are more and more wanting to use their own mobile technologies for learning. Mobile phones and tablets are viewed as an extension of an individual’s personality and learning style. Learners are familiar with using the devices in their personal lives and educators can leverage that familiarity to allow students to use these devices for learning (Valk et al. 2010; Johnson et al. 2012). For example, in 2010 researchers in Malaysia surveyed university students with some 84 % of them wanting to participate in mobile learning activities. However, most did not want to incur data usage charges as part of that participation. Interestingly, less than half (46 %) thought that their institution was ready for such a step (Hussin et al. 2012). In the Philippines, learners’ familiarity with their own mobile devices was one of the reasons the University of the Philippines Open University decided to use mobile learning. No expensive training was required as people were already familiar with how to use their own devices (Bandalaria 2005).

As a consequence, institutions are increasingly adopting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies. Students can use their own devices for learning and well as in their personal lives (Johnson et al. 2012). By adopting these policies, institutions can spend less money on mobile learning overall. Though they do have to provide infrastructure to support a variety of devices, it is still less expensive than also buying the technology (Johnson et al. 2012). There is no longer any expectation for universities to provide technology directly to students. Since older students are likely to possess their own mobile devices, universities can take advantage of existing devices to encourage mobile learning activities, without having to purchase mobile devices for students (So 2012).

Even though rates of mobile ownership are high in many parts of Asia (Chun and Tsui 2010), a survey of mobile learning articles in five prominent educational technology journals revealed that only one Southeast Asian country appeared in the list of the top 22 contributing countries – that country was Singapore (Hwang and Tsai 2011). Though there could be a number of reasons for this, including English not being the first language of educators, it is potentially indicative of the small numbers of mobile learning initiatives occurring in this region.

6 Technology Trends Impacting on Mobile Learning in Southeast Asia

There are a number of global technology trend that are also impacting on mobile learning in Southeast Asia. The impact of these trends are most evident in the more developed countries such as Singapore or Malaysia. These trends include cloud computing, social networking, and mobile applications or “apps”.

In 2012, cloud computing was heralded by technology in education forecasters, the New Media Consortium (NMC), to be adopted within a year or two within K-12 in schools in Singapore. Though Singapore is a wealthy country with good access to both technology and ubiquitous connectivity, cloud computing is expected to make an impact in education on most countries across Southeast Asia. It allows for a shared pool of learning courses, digital assets, and resources to be accessed by educators and students. The cloud can be accessed via computers or laptops but also by a range of mobile devices (Teal et al. 2014). The learner is able to plug into this cloud anywhere and at any time using a mobile device (Teal et al. 2014). The cloud is especially useful in mobile learning as it removes the necessity for storing resources on the phone or tablet which have a necessarily restricted storage capacity.

Social networking is increasingly being used by educators to promote interactivity in classrooms and to enhance collaborative opportunities. Interestingly, people in Southeast Asia are some of the world’s most frequent users of popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In 2010, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore were among the top ten Twitter users in the world. Similarly, the Philippines and Indonesia are among the top ten markets of unique Facebook users, ranking third and fourth respectively. Though these social networking sites are popular, they are not always accessed by mobile devices. Once people are online, they are very often using social media. In the Philippines, once online, 86 % of people are using social media. In Indonesia, this number is 84 % and in Malaysia, 76 % (Jeroschewski et al. 2013). With these numbers, it allows the features of social networking such as discussion boards, the ability to broadcast announcements to select groups, share photos and videos, and so on to be leveraged for mobile learning. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that groups of students frequently form Facebook groups to offer mutual support and discussion opportunities in specific courses and programs. The use of web 2.0 tools to collaborate is becoming increasingly popular in Asia (Tsai and Hwang 2013), including Southeast Asia.

In 2012, mobile apps or “applications” were predicted to be adopted in 1–2 years in Singapore. Mobile apps are low cost software extensions to smart phones that challenge the dominance of large, integrated software suites such as Microsoft Office (Johnson et al. 2012). Apps frequently have social functions that can allow sharing of content and discussion between users. Augmented reality apps can allow for exploration of historical sites with just-in-time information. Apps can also allow for creation of content, leveraging the features of the smartphone such as camera and sound recording features (Johnson et al. 2012). The literature indicates that discipline-specific mobile apps will become more popular. For example, there are large numbers of apps for foreign language students including dictionaries and flash cards. For almost every discipline, there are a number of apps available for both Android and iOS devices (Oz 2013).

Electronic publishing is making a significant impact on education across the world, often through large publishing companies such as Pearson or Wiley. Publishing in this manner allows for infinite reproduction at low cost while incorporating rich media and publishing to a number of platforms, including mobile (Johnson et al. 2012). The distribution of electronic publications becomes particularly easy through distribution channels such as iTunesU. In 2012, it was said by the NMC to be adopted within 2–3 years in Singapore (Johnson et al. 2012). Enhanced electronic textbooks that can be accessed on mobile devices, particularly tablets, are being used instead of hard-copy textbooks in some countries. These electronic textbooks boast more interactivity and a range of multimedia (Johnson et al. 2012).

Gamification is the incorporation of gaming or gaming elements into educational experiences. Games have been proven effective for learning skills and beneficial in cognitive development (Johnson et al. 2012), and are increasingly featuring in the literature pertaining to global education. Consequently, gamification has been used increasingly in education in Asia for the past 10 years (Tsai and Hwang 2013). Games used for learning across a variety of disciplines are generally goal-oriented, have strong social components, and simulate some real-world experience (Johnson et al. 2012). The NMC predicted in 2012 that gamification would be adopted in 2–3 years in K-12 education in Singapore (Johnson et al. 2012).

As indicated earlier, the most common use of mobile phones, after making phone calls, is texting. There are numerous examples of mobile learning initiatives that have relied on text (Chun and Tsui 2010). Mobile learning initiatives that use texting are very useful as all phones as both smartphones and feature phones can be used for texting. Examples of this kind of learning would include SMS quizzes, where students would receive immediate feedback on their scores. Only in exceptional cases would students need to communicate directly with lecturers or teachers (Mohamad and Woollard 2010). The benefits of immediate feedback are well-documented (e.g., see Peck et al. (2013)), encouraging students to become independent learners (Mohamad and Woollard 2010). Though this is hardly a new trend, texting being widely available for many years, it remains significant, particularly in the developing countries of Southeast Asia.

7 Mobile Learning in Particular Southeast Asian Countries

As previously indicated, the countries of Southeast Asia are economically, culturally, and politically diverse. The best way to explore this diversity and its impact on mobile learning is to investigate the status of mobile learning in a cross-section of countries, including government policy and particular mobile learning initiatives.

7.1 East Timor

It is very difficult to find information about mobile phone use and about mobile learning initiatives in East Timor. It is likely that this is in part with the amount of resources expended by East Timor to gain independence from Indonesia which finally occurred in 2002 (Marques et al. 2013). Now that independence has been achieved, the government can focus its efforts on reconstructing the country, particularly its struggling education system (Marques et al. 2013). One of the implications of independence from Indonesia was the resulting lack of teachers. Most teachers were Indonesian and subsequently returned to Indonesia after independence (Marques et al. 2013). It has been a struggle for the government and NGOs to make headway in a country where enrolment in school is just 70 % of school age children and literacy rates remain very low (Marques et al. 2013).

Only in recent times has the one-company monopoly over the supply of mobile phones been broken. Mobile phone ownership is now rapidly increasing (Cochrane 2012), though lags far behind other Southeast Asian countries. Though UNESCO has recommended that ICTs and in particular mobile technologies be employed (Capelo et al. 2014), there is little evidence that this has happened. A project whereby SMS messages were sent to new or expectant mothers to give them information about their particular stage of pregnancy or infant development appropriate to them has been trialed. If successful it will be rolled out more extensively (Cochrane 2012). This was the only mobile initiative that the authors could discover.

7.2 Indonesia

There have been significant improvements to Indonesia’s education system over the past 40 years. The government has worked to decentralize education and thus improve access in rural areas and significant work has been done to improve teacher education (Suharti 2013). Indonesia’s population is spread across 13,000 islands, making the provision of education challenging (Bahar 2009). Consequently, much education is delivered at a distance (Soekartawi and Librero 2002). Originally, teacher education was the focus of distance education as most teachers, especially those in rural areas, had low levels of competency (Soekartawi and Librero 2002).

High mobile phone penetration in Indonesia makes it an ideal place for mobile learning (Alamsyah and Ramantoko 2012). One of the issues with mobile learning in Indonesia is that reliability and quality of connection is frequently compromised due to too many concurrent users on the networks (Alamsyah and Ramantoko 2012). One way to overcome this would be to have students come to campus and access the university’s internet via Wi-Fi (Alamsyah and Ramantoko 2012). Though this will enable connectivity, it negates many of the positives associated with mobile learning such as access from geographically remote locations and the potential for contextual learning.

In Indonesia, teachers’ participation in training is limited due to training location, time, cost, and opportunity (Yusri and Goodwin 2013). Despite various ICT training programs being conducted for teachers’ professional development, the ICT skill level of teachers in Indonesia is still quite low as shown by the National Examination of Teachers’ Competency which was conducted online in 2011 and 2012. Many failed simply because of their low basic ICT skill level. They did not know how to use a mouse and keyboard, how to open the examination applications, and how to answer the online examination (Yusri and Goodwin 2013). If teachers have low levels of competency in ICTs, it is nearly impossible for them to design and deliver mobile learning initiatives effectively. Much work remains to be done in this area.

7.3 Malaysia

High levels of ownership of mobile devices indicate that Malaysia may be ripe for mobile learning (Mohamad and Woollard 2010). Malaysians are also among the most prolific users of their smartphones, spending nearly 6½ h per week using them (NST-Business Times 2013). A number of mobile learning initiatives has been developed in Malaysia already, both in schools and in higher education settings (Mohamad and Woollard 2010). Other affirmative developments include the formation of the Mobile Learning Association of Malaysia (MLAM), which was officially registered on 21 January 2011; as well as the first International Conference on Mobile Learning, Application and Services (mobilcase2012) that was held in September 2012 (Song et al. 2013). In 2014, a Mobile Learning Symposium was held at the Multimedia University in Cyberjaya which attracted educators and postgraduate students from across Malaysia (Farley 2014).

The National Higher Education Plan (PSPTN) developed by the Ministry of Higher Education is a document that indicates the direction of national higher education in Malaysia. Its purpose is to realize the country’s aspirations to become a developed, prosperous, and competitive nation. The implementation of the National Higher Education Plan is to be deployed in set phases and the Ministry of Higher Education has developed 21 Critical Agenda Projects to help achieve this. Mobile learning has been identified as one of the Critical Agenda Projects of the Ministry of Higher Education. The potential of mobile learning initiatives often remain unrealized in Malaysia due to a lack of access, bandwidth, and high cost to students (Embi et al. 2013).

There are a number of groups in the Malaysian higher education sector who are actively implementing and researching mobile learning initiatives in Malaysia (Song et al. 2013). But even though mobile learning research has been steadily increasing in Malaysia, the deployment of mobile learning in higher education courses and programs has not been widespread (Embi and Nordin 2013).

7.4 The Philippines

It is difficult to implement distance education strategies in the Philippines due to the fact it is an archipelago of 7,107 islands which makes providing infrastructure difficult (Bandalaria 2005; Marques et al. 2013). Even so, there have been a number of successful mobile learning initiatives deployed in the last several years. By 2010, almost all of the courses and programs offered by the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) used some degree of mobile learning (Bandalaria 2005). The university has a mandate to provide high quality education to people no matter where they are and no matter what their circumstances. The university made a strategic decision to go fully online and in doing so inadvertently excluded large parts of the population from participating. The use of mobile learning helped to alleviate this disconnect to a certain extent (Bandalaria 2005).

There are relatively high levels of mobile penetration in the Philippines and the population are enthusiastic texters, mostly because it is far less costly to text than to call (Bandalaria 2005). As people are using their mobile phones as part of their everyday lives, no expensive training was required in order to teach people how to use their mobile phones for learning (Bandalaria 2005; Clothey 2010). In addition, the learning became almost synchronous as educators could take a few moments to answer a student’s query whenever a text arrived. The educator could be traveling on public transport or waiting for an appointment (Bandalaria 2005). The UPOU used mobile phones for learning in a number of ways: to deliver short bites of course content to learners via their phones (in the early days, via feature phones); tutorial support or student consultation with educators; administrative support for learners; notification of results; and dissemination of information about other programs (Bandalaria 2005).

The Text-2-Teach project in the Philippines is an example of a successful large-scale project that used mobile technologies to deliver educational content to a diversity of schools. Since its launch in 2004, the Text-2-Teach project has provided schools with mobile learning resources in English, mathematics, and science (Natividad 2007). Students could readily download audio and video resources using their mobile phones. Teachers could also send SMS requests for educational resources to be delivered via satellite to a school television. The project was scaled up, reaching approximately 4,000 students in over 500 schools in the Philippines in 2011 (Ayala Foundation 2011). Similar projects have emerged elsewhere in the developing world where access to internet and computer technologies is limited (see Chap. 27, “Increasing Learning Outcomes in Developing Countries by Engaging Students Out of the Classroom Using SMS and Voice Mobile Technology”).

7.5 Singapore

As one of the wealthiest countries in Southeast Asia, Singapore has systemic nationwide planning in ICT. The project FutureSchools@Singapore, launched in 2007, is the government’s initiative to build a new model for education by exploring innovative pedagogical approaches to the integration of ICT into school curricula (Koh and Lee 2008). Schools identified as “future schools” were awarded funding to transform their learning environments by deploying activities using ICT into the school’s curricula. The Singapore Ministry of Education expected to spread the pedagogical innovations developed in “future schools” to other nonparticipating schools in Singapore (Tsinakos 2013).

While the use of mobile technology was not specifically mandated in the plan for FutureSchools@Singapore, some participating schools have already started exploring the potential of mobile learning through pilot projects. By way of example, Crescent Girls’ School, one of the original “future schools,” is making extensive use of tablets in the curriculum. All enrolled students have tablets preloaded with interactive digital textbooks. Nan Chiau Primary School, featured as a “future school” in 2011, has been trialing the deployment of mobile technologies into the curricula through various mobile learning initiatives since 2005 (So 2012).

7.6 Thailand

Students in Thai universities are ready and willing to trial mobile learning, yet mobile learning initiatives in these higher education institutions are relatively rare (Jairak et al. 2009). Research has shown that the price of mobile subscriptions, handset price, poor network coverage, and low disposable incomes of both educators and students hinder the uptake of mobile learning (Jiranantanagorn et al. 2012).

There have been some mobile learning initiatives in Thai higher education institutions, however. A mobile learning initiative was deployed at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in North Bangkok. In this project, questions were displayed on a screen and the answers were texted using SMS (Librero et al. 2007). In this study, students were using feature phones with small screens and did express concern at trying to learn with such a small screen size (Valk et al. 2010). As smartphones gain more market share, this concern is likely to be less of a problem. Even so, 90 % of the participating students owned their own mobile phones (Motlik 2008).

8 Future Trends

A noteworthy feature of mobile learning in Asia, and more particularly, Southeast Asia, is the movement toward designing learning environments that are future focused. These spaces are typically enriched by technology whereby some or the entirety of the learning experience takes place virtually. As would be expected, this move is more evident in wealthier countries with strong ICT infrastructure including Malaysia and Singapore. In these countries, the government’s focus is on designing technology-enhanced environments that satisfy the needs of contemporary, tech-savvy learners. Mobile learning, while not specifically discussed at a policy level, is subsumed under broader ICT plans to build future learning environments (So 2012), and is likely to result in more, wide scale mobile learning initiatives.

There are a number of special considerations that need to be kept in mind when designing mobile learning initiatives in Southeast Asia. The experience of participants with mobile learning or even with mobile phones may be highly variable; the access to and affordability of devices may be problematic; or internet searching, research, and access to social media may be impacted by internet censorship (Murphy et al. 2014).

Pedagogical theories need to be re-examined and modified by educators, taking into account the devices used and their affordances. Linking theories to technology will enable educators to better leverage those affordances, allowing them to make best use of the technological context (Embi et al. 2013; Tsai and Hwang 2013). However, the pedagogy must remain the primary concern above the technology (Bandalaria 2005). Deploying mobile learning becomes a balance of leveraging the affordances of mobile devices while not disenfranchising those learners who are unable to afford the latest models.

When designing mobile learning initiatives in developing countries, the rules and roles of the social relationships in the mobile learning space must be made explicit. Also, when designing mobile learning initiatives across cultural boundaries, special care must be taken to accommodate the cultural differences between designer and learner (Teal et al. 2014). Regional factors must be considered when designing for the learning behaviors of students. Each country has its own unique economic, political, and cultural context which may impact on how students can learn (Tsai and Hwang 2013). Instead of just using mobile devices for generic learning activities, as far as possible cultural learning and recognition must be incorporated into activities. For example, use mobile learning for cultural or social studies programs (Tsai and Hwang 2013).

Cost remains a barrier and must be taken into account when designing and delivering mobile learning programs. There can be significant costs associated with buying a mobile device and then buying internet access or phone subscriptions (Bandalaria 2005). This is obviously going to be a more significant issue in those countries when the per capita income is lower (Tsinakos 2013). However, some consider mobile learning to alleviate the costs associated with some modes of study, face-to-face for example. Mobile learning enables learners to study remotely without the need to travel to a physical campus (Valk et al. 2010).

Vigorous research is needed to establish the benefits of mobile learning in Southeast Asia. Large-scale initiatives need to be instigated so that good, reliable quantitative data can be collected to inform both future research and the future deployment of mobile learning (Tsai and Hwang 2013). There is an urgent need to measure the effectiveness and the efficiency of mobile learning systems (Bandalaria 2005). Additionally, good quality research can influence policy initiatives around technology-enhanced learning and inform the planning and resourcing of mobile learning initiatives (Hwang and Tsai 2011).

9 Future Directions

In 2012, UNESCO released a report which, among other things, looked at the enablers and barriers to mobile learning in Asia generally. The report named the following enablers: initiatives at the government and ministry levels; research in higher education institutions; and accessibility, connectivity, and affordability of mobile devices (So 2012). The governments of both Malaysia and Singapore have policy related to the deployment of ICTs in education which also includes mobile learning; it is unsurprising then, that a number of effective mobile learning initiatives have been deployed in those countries. Effective research is also being conducted in those countries. A number of academic groups are specifically researching mobile learning in Malaysia (Song et al. 2013); there are a significant numbers of academic papers being authored by Singaporean academics (Hwang and Tsai 2011).

The same report also identified a number of barriers to the adoption of mobile learning. Some of these are fairly unsurprising including the cost of mobile devices and subscriptions. Others indicate a lack of available information about the affordances of mobile devices and the benefits of mobile learning, as well as general concerns around mobile phone use. These barriers include concerns about the misuse of mobile phones; teachers’ and parents’ mindsets and attitudes; health-related issues (especially fear of radiation); lack of teacher training and support; and lack of high-quality educational content (So 2012). Lack of teacher support is often identified as a barrier to mobile learning and, for example, is the reason given for the low number of mobile learning initiatives in Indonesia (Yusri and Goodwin 2013).

It follows then that critical success factors include: a high market penetration of mobile phones; adequate technological infrastructure (wireless network and mobile applications); and specific professional development on mobile learning for teachers (So 2012). Educators need to address the blending of formal and informal learning. In many areas of Southeast Asia, traditional modes of didactic delivery are still dominant (Johnson et al. 2012).

10 Cross-References