Smartphones empower Illiterate individuals with education: BIDS study

Illiterate individuals in rural areas of the country are harnessing the power of smartphones to acquire education, according to a study by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Mohammad Golam Nabi Mozumder, a research fellow at the BIDS, conducted the study titled "Mobile Phone: Skill, Communication, and Sociation" and revealed the findings at a seminar at the BIDS conference room on Sunday.

The study involved interviews with 240 participants, aged between 18 and 35, who lacked any formal educational background. And 130 of the respondents were women. The participants were questioned about their experiences with using smartphones for educational purposes.

The study uncovered a fascinating trend among the participants. These individuals, who were deprived of traditional education, were harnessing the potential of smartphones for various educational activities.

They utilise the devices as tools for learning alphabets, mastering new languages, voice-to-text applications for typing messages, converting text to speech for auditory learning, and even creating and uploading educational videos on platforms such as TikTok, it adds.

The research fellow at the BIDS emphasised the paramount role that smartphones had come to play in the lives of these participants, asserting that their reliance on smartphones had become an essential lifeline.

"It seems that mobile is their life. Without mobile phones, they cannot survive," Mohammad Golam Nabi remarked, underscoring the integral nature of smartphones in their daily existence. He also emphasised the need to recognise the burgeoning importance of mobile phones in society at large.

However, some attendees of the seminar raised concerns over the research's limitations. They pointed out the absence of any discussion regarding the potential downsides of smartphone usage and questioned the methodology employed during the study.

Binayak Sen, the director general of BIDS, praised the pioneering nature of this research, highlighting that it marked the first instance of such an exploration into mobile phone usage within the country. He also acknowledged the necessity for further research in this field and proposed the consideration of an awareness campaign to address the potential misuse of smartphones.

The study findings have unveiled a remarkable new facet of smartphones as tools for education, particularly for illiterate individuals in rural areas.