Mobile based learning for sustainable livelihoods: gender and pedagogy in the Life Long Learning for Farmers programme in India

摘要

Mobile phone, a modern communication tool, is becoming ubiquitous, plugging a large mass into a system of interactive communication. This results in people in lower socio-economic categories having independent access to information and a better communication network. Increasingly mobile phone has been used as a tool to deliver information to farmers, often without considering their learning mode and processes to convert the information into knowledge and then to practice. This paper intends to show how mobile phones can be used as an effective learning tool when appropriately placed in the social and livelihood context of the users. It further elaborates on how the pedagogy was planned to facilitate the learning process among women farmers to improve their livelihoods. The Life Long Learning for Farmers programme was started in 2009-10 in Theni, district of Tamil Nadu, India and this paper is based on the programme implemented in Theni district among dairy and goat rearing women farmers.