A group of sixth-grade students watches a video about geology – in particular, how a volcano erupts. After discussing what they have seen, they step outside their classroom to make clay models of volcanoes, and, with the guidance of their teacher, make use of wax and similar materials to imitate a volcano eruption, and the flowing of lava following it.

A common, even clichéd, occurrence in most schools in metropolitan places like Manila or Cebu, this would seem even childish to many students who have regular access to the Internet. But for the students of a rural village in the outskirts of Cotabato City in Mindanao, the southern island of the Philippines, this is a completely novel experience – one that allows them to learn sans the use of outdated charts or badly done cardboard drawings, but places them close to, if not yet at par, the learning processes of their contemporaries in the big cities.
This relatively modern learning experience is the result of the program of mobile technology giant Nokia called Bridgeit, an “innovative education program seeking to bridge the digital divide to bring interactive multimedia learning materials and enhanced teaching skills into the classrooms of the world’s most needy schools.”

Social responsibility

The pilot application of Bridgeit was done in the Philippines in May 2003. Locally called as text2teach, the initiative equips 5th and 6th grade science teachers with educational resources focusing on space, ecology, geology, and human anatomy, which are subjects fully integrated into the country’s formal science curriculum – all with the use of SMS, or locally better known as texting.

“Before the launch of the Bridgeit program, extensive (research) was done in several countries to assess the technological infrastructure, educational need, and institutional readiness for such a project. The Philippines emerged as an ideal country for a project pilot because it met all these criteria,” Mitul Shah, Bridgeit program manager, says. “The Philippines has strong focus on education and it has well-established mobile telecommunications infrastructure. Also, Filipinos have a good command of the English language.”

Shah adds that the Philippines also presents “interesting geographic challenges, enabling Bridgeit to effectively test technology and technical assistance solutions, as well as the content, training, and specific learning and evaluation outcomes.”

The implementation of the project is simple enough. Teachers participating in text2teach use mobile phones supplied by Nokia to access a library of more than 120 KnowledgeBox science videos provided by Pearson Foundation. The selected video is downloaded via satellite to a Nokia Mediamaster, a digital satellite TV receiver with a video recorder function, which is connected to a television set in the classroom. The teacher then plays the video as part of the text2teach lesson plan, providing an alternative way of teaching, and, subsequently, learning for the students.

According to Nokia, the ability to offer their students videos from a customized library of timely, engaging and dynamic educational material is text2teach’s first and best benefit. However, the company stresses that the Bridgeit initiative “does not replace the need for traditional learning tools, such as textbooks, nor is a critical mass of textbooks necessary for it to be effective. Its specific value is as a supplementary educational tool able to make teachers more effective purveyors of knowledge, as well as aiding in the retention of that knowledge by young people.”

As the initial catalyst for Bridgeit, Nokia provided not only the initial vision and coordination for the program, but also the bulk of the initial investment. With Bridgeit now in use, Nokia coordinates the technical delivery of the hardware and software necessary for content sorting, delivery, and storage and playback, and works with local and regional providers of the required bandwidth and support, whether through a wireless operator via mobile wireless (GPRS/UMTS) connectivity, or through a satellite network operator via satellite broadcasts.

“As a leading technology company, we expect to help bridge the digital divide,” Veli Sundback, Nokia executive vice president, says. “Bridgeit places advanced digital communications in service of education, showing that advanced digital communications technologies have a role to play in developing societies, and that communications technologies and networks already in place can be leveraged for a lot of new purposes.”

Other program collaborators include the International Youth Foundation (IYF) for the project deployment in each country, the Pearson Foundation for the development of the educational content used in Bridgeit, and the United Nations Development Programme for coordination with national governments, as well as documentation for the replication of the program in other communities worldwide.

Philippine context

“Bridgeit in the Philippines takes advantage of familiar mobile technologies already in place, making it immediately accessible to teachers across the country. And because each teacher has access to the same learning materials… students can explore the same state-of-the-art educational programs regardless of the school’s location or budget,” says Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, president and CEO of Ayala Corporation, which plays the lead coordinating role of the project in the Philippines.

The text2teach pilot project also integrates the efforts of the Department of Education, which defines the curriculum-based objectives of the program, the Southeast Asian Ministries of Education Organization, which is the primary local training coordinator and project manager, and the likes of Globe Telecom, PMSI-Dream Broadcasting and Chikka Asia, which provide the technical infrastructure and support needed to introduce the program locally.
Bridgeit started with 40 schools across the Philippines, reaching over 13,000 primary students from Batangas to Laguna. The project has since been expanded to 83 schools. Also, over 160 teachers have been trained in utilizing the technology and new curriculum materials, in order for them to be comfortable using the new approach to teaching.

Overall, the total cost of the pilot was well in excess of US$1.5 million, covering significant start-up costs. But according to Kimmo Lipponen, Nokia community involvement director, “We do not measure the level of the activities by financial aid or dollar amount of donations, but try to focus on the societal outcomes of the strategic initiatives. In (this) approach, we believe that we have been successful in creating excellent practices both for youth development and digital bridging.”

The effectivity of Bridgeit was noted in the 2003 evaluation of the Philippines National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development, which cited text2teach to have “significantly raised students’ performance, and generated more positive attitudes toward science and technology. It also improved teachers’ competence in, and attitude toward using technology in teaching.” Going beyond the four corners of the classroom, the project was also said to have inspired and motivated school officials, parents, and even the community leaders.

Bridgeit received two Communication Management awards at the 2004 Gold Quill Awards, sponsored by the International Association of Business Communicators.

Going worldwide

Serving as a blueprint for the worldwide implementation of Bridgeit, the Philippine experience accomplished the three key principles that guided the project from the start, to wit: sustainability, scalability, and replicability.

Sustainability refers to the local relevance and ownership, as well as affordability of the project to the community that uses it. “Local ownership and buy-in from the local and regional departments of education is critical to the project’s success and long-term sustainability,” Lipponen says, stressing that people tend to care for what is theirs.

With the success of the program, the country is, in fact, already looking at the expansion of the program (scalability). Through the Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance, USAID, IYF and five Philippine-based NGOs that aim to improve the education and employment prospects of young people in Mindanao, an expansion of text2teach is already under way, to be used in 120 new schools in Mindanao, reaching over 100,000 students. A total of 720 additional teachers have also already participated in the text2teach training.

“Without the initial investment from Nokia, and the ongoing programmatic and technical support, all these achievements could not be realized today,” Lipponen says.
Bridgeit is currently being replicated in Brazil, Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), and India, aiming to reach the estimated 215 million students in developing countries, aged 13 to 14 years old, who are without digital technology and the information it provides.

“The Bridgeit program brings together the public sector, civil society, and the private sector in meaningful cooperation. We hope our example stimulates others to search for mobile solutions that can deliver content and services to people who might not otherwise have access to them,” Sundback says.