For some girls in Kenya traveling to school and tutoring on a regular basis is unrealistic; girls are more likely to be kept back from school to assist with household duties. Additionally, girls sometimes face safety threats when traveling alone and are prohibited from going to school when menstruating and while pregnant.

For girls who cannot make it to the classroom, Ronda Zelezny-Green, a 2013 graduate of the Instructional Design Program and US Fulbright Scholar, is currently working with the Kenyan government to increase young girls’ access to education through mobile learning. Mobile learning, or mLearning, facilitates access to educational information through devices such as handheld computers, MP3 players, mobile phones and tablets.  Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, mobile learning can respond to the specific needs of individual students and the hand-held devices they have access to.

“There is a misconception that real learning only happens in the classroom and mobile learning by contrast is inconsequential,” Ronda says. “We are able to become a part of the girls’ learning continuum by showing them how they can access and use mobile-based educational tools to learn outside of the classroom or school.”

During her studies, Ronda focused on designing for mobile learning platforms, and as part of her capstone project she created a mobile learning app to be used for tourism-employee training in Tanzania. “I was a teacher by training, so was used to designing instruction through lesson plans,” she says. “The Instructional Design Program helped me translate these skills to an electronic format. I am now able to bridge the gap between instructional design for information communications technology (ICT) devices and teaching.”

Today, Ronda is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.  She is accepting unlocked used mobile phones and chargers for her program in Kenya.  Please visit www.rondazg.com to learn more about Ronda’s pioneering work and to help further the education continuum of young girls in Africa by making a mobile phone donation!