Evolution and prospects for the use of mobile technologies to improve education access and learning outcomes

This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of mobile devices and their uses in learning (m-learning), focusing especially on the fifteen-year period of the first Millennium Development Goals. Drawing on this experience, it highlights eight emerging good practices, and six significant policy implications. Four case studies drawn from different parts of the world and at different scales illustrate the considerable success that can be achieved through m-learning. However, the chapter also illustrates that unless very considerable efforts are made to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised people and communities have access to appropriate devices, connectivity and electricity, any increased attention on digital technologies is likely to increase inequalities rather than reduce them.