The convergence of mobile and social media and their role for education and learning. A pluri-methodological study from health care providers in marginalized settings.

BackgroundMobile phones have transformed the ways in which people communicate, work, and learn unlike any other technology before. In particular the increasing use of social media on mobile phones provides new affordances for learning and education. This emerging convergence is deemed to be very relevant to empower learners and communities in marginalized areas in developing countries. Goals and scopeThe proposed research is aimed at the development of a theoretical framework that addresses the role of mobile social media as a means to facilitate work-related learning in marginalised settings. As a post-doctoral visiting researcher of the Colombia University, New York, and of the Institute of Education, University of London, the applicant will work with community health workers in two rural areas in Ghana, thus making reference to the health-related Millennium/Post-2015 Development Goals.Questions, Approach & MethodsA semi-grounded case study approach will be used for theory building, i.e., the research will draw on existing a priori constructs. The comparative, pluri-method and multi-site case study design will comprise two different sites in Ghana. Data gathering is organized in two main phases: Firstly, to address the question of whether and how the informal, day by day usage of mobile social media by health workers is resulting in effective forms of work-related learning, field studies will be performed. In a next step, using the methods of design research, it will be examined whether, and if so, how, mobile social media can be applied more systematically and formally to facilitate work-related learning. For this purposes, health workers will be invited to interact in a mobile social media space with peers and tutors. Data analyses will be finalized at the Institute of Education, University of London and at The Earth Institute - Columbia University, New York. The emerging framework will be validated by the comparison with extant literature, and by means of expert and respondent validation. Peer-reviewed contributions will be written together with some of the world's leading experts in the fields of technology-enhanced learning and public health, respectively. Expected outcomesThe findings of the research will be disseminated into academia by means of peer-reviewed publications in renowned journals in the fields of social and learning sciences. Moreover, the results will be directly integrated in the on-going development of education programs of the Millennium Villages thus having a relevant and potentially scalable impact.