What Is SWOT Analysis?
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| SOURCE: https://businessolutioncenter.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/what-is-swot-analysis/ |
SWOT
analysis is a structured practice used by an organization in advancing a
strategic plan for mission and goal accomplishment. SWOT analysis lies in
studying an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in its
organization environment.
You
can likewise think of SWOT analysis as the measure of asking four relevant
questions:
What moulds us strong?
What makes us weak?
What opportunities are in the marketplace by
which we can earn profit?
What type of threats out there that can
impair our organization, its mission and its goals?
SWOT
delves into two types of environments: the internal environment, which focuses
on strengths and weaknesses, and the external environment, which focuses on
opportunities and threats (Grimsley).
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| SOURCE: VSO International |
SMS STORY
Introduction
The proliferation of mobile
phone service into rural areas of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in recent years has
built a new medium of supporting workers based in such locations. The
innovative SMS Story project is a controlled testing in which teachers at
elementary schools receive resources via mobile phone text messages. These
resources comprise of daily short stories and complementary lesson plans
delineated to enhance the teaching of reading to students (Kaleebu, Gee, Maybanks,
Jones, Jauk, & Watson, 2013).
Mobile technology in
education in Papua New Guinea
Most of the teachers now own or utilise mobile phones. Baseline
evidence for this study showed that 91.9% of the teachers have mobile phones
and the technology has been utilised by many for some time –the average length
of time that teachers had possessed a phone was 2.7 years. Answering the
concerns about the effect of mobile phones on student learning (Watson, 2011),
a policy was made and launched to give guidance to schools (Department of
Education 2009). In previous years, many education and health development
projects have commenced to explore other mobile strategies like bulk text
messaging and free phone advice lines (Watson and Sabumei, 2013).
Executive Summary
According to Voluntary Service Overseas or
VSO (Kaleebu, Gee, Maybanks,
Jones, Jauk, & Watson, SMS Story Impact Assessment Report, 2013), the objective of
the SMS Story research project was to analyze if daily mobile phone text
message stories and lesson plans would progress children’s ability to read in
Papua New Guinea (PNG) elementary schools. The research was a controlled test
in which half of the teachers received text messages for five months and half
did not. The stories and lesson plans were tailored to introduce children to reading
English and followed elemental phonics and key word based methodology.
Teachers in the test received a cartoon
poster explaining how to utilise the daily text messages and received a total
of 100 text message stories and 100 relevant text message lessons for two
academic terms. They did not undergo any
in-service training. Research was held in rural elementary schools in two
provinces, Madang and Simbu, and has included a baseline reading assessment,
midpoint lesson and classroom assessments and an end-point reading evaluation.
SMS Story was sponsored by the Australian
Government, through a research grant from the Economic and Public Sector
Program. The project was designed and managed by Voluntary Services Overseas, in
partnership with the Department of Education.
Figure
1: SMS Story poster
The Story The lesson plan
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| SOURCE OF BOTH PICTURES ABOVE: VSO International |
Using software to send messages
to a mass audience
Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) is using a software programme
called FrontlineSMS to be able to send text messages. This software has thrived
in ensuring that 100% of active schools received all messages at the time frame
of the term 2 mid-point survey (40 days into the programme). FrontlineSMS is open source software and
utilise a modem to transmit text messages from a laptop to target groups of
users. It is software intended to utilise by nongovernment organisations and is
free-of-charge (the software is free, yet users must still shoulder the cost of
sending text messages). FrontlineSMS
shows advantages in its capacity to synchronise with Excel contact databases
and save and access past received and sent messages. The cost of transmitting
the messages is imposed by the SMS provider. The same SIM card is being used to
send the messages so that teachers can determine the number of the sender and
send responds by text message. The cost-benefit study of the trial is one of
its more innovative features (Kaleebu, Gee, Maybanks,
Jones, Jauk, & Watson, SMS Story Impact Assessment Report, 2013).
SWOT Analysis of SMS Story
STRENGTH:
·
Mobile
phone technology grants for quick approach to required resources, eradicating
the need to wait for arrival of books or the installation of media labs.
·
Mobile
technology could present learners with an interactive and personalise education.
·
Mobile
phones are handy and a natural fit for utilisation in the learning environment.
They encourage teachers/students to learn “anytime and anywhere.”
·
Everyday
text messages consisting of lesson plans and stories play as a cue to the
teachers of their duties to follow and teach an effective methodology. This daily admonition is better than resource
books transported towards the schools at one time that teachers may not consult
to at full length of the teaching term.
·
It is
effortless to send reading resources to teachers early to facilitate readiness
for lesson and classroom exercises. For
example, stories and lesson plans can be sent one day prior the scheduled
lesson. Sending SMSs in advance, like in
the afternoon the day before and provide teachers the time to prepare lesson
materials and probe the meaning of words.
WEAKNESSES:
·
This
process is greatly dependent on the teacher who gets the daily SMSs. So, in the instance that the teacher is away,
the students may not be receive the reading resource. Furthermore, if one day is missed, there is a
glaring possibility that missing out on part of a successive serialised story
will happen to the students.
·
The design
is on the basis of a one-way communication model which diminishes the
participation of schools and teachers in the planning process. School events and activities are not taken
into consideration. Hence, at times text messages may not be coached because
schools students and teachers are occupied with special events of school and
stories might not accord the “themes” that are components of elementary teachers’ medium
term outlining.
·
Teachers
were not given with ways of hearing sounds and figuring out the meaning of words
utilised in the stories. Therefore, teachers are not acquainted with the sounds
and words adopted in text messages; they may send inaccurate information to children,
by possibly not correctly pronouncing words.
·
No other
call from teachers for the text messages to be in any alternative language but English.
OPPORTUNITIES:
·
It is easy
to send reading resources to students/teachers via mobile phone text messaging,
rather than using courier services, postal or other ways to deliver books into
schools.
·
SMS Story
is expandable and extremely cost effective.
Increasing the number of teachers is quick and simple. In the actual
setting, teachers could be persuaded to share and forward messages. Parents likewise
could have access to better reading at home.
·
Text
messages can be accessed on any mobile phone, even the basic handset. A project
that includes text messaging does not desire participants to adopt a specific
type, make or brand of mobile phone.
·
Text messages
which cannot be conveyed to the recipient will usually be remained in the mobile
phone provider of networks for the duration of around 24 hours. Meaning that if a teacher’s mobile handset has
run out of battery, or is turned off, the text message will come across once
the phone is switched on, if such occurs in the 24 hours receiving of the text message.
·
Receipt of messages
does not use a great amount of battery power. This is essential and valuable in
contexts wherein teachers have restricted access to electricity for recharging batteries
of mobile phone handset.
·
Receipt of
text messages does not amount the user any money for mobile phone credit.
·
Sending text
messages is ultimately cost effective.
THREATS:
·
FrontlineSMS
may not function effectively with a massive number of teachers. This is for the
reason that as the number of recipients increase, it entails more and more time
for text messages to crossover to recipients. For projects comprising of a very large number
of recipients, other engagement of a network provider or software options will
be necessary to be considered.
·
FrontlineSMS
does not permit for pre-programming of text messages, for instance a week or a month
prior. Therefore, messages have to be transmitted at the appointed time. This staffing issue may be answered by
automation technology.
·
There are
no possibilities for outright feedback. Whereas FrontlineSMS permits teachers
to text back with queries, it is impossible for teachers to generate a phone
call to the same number for urgent questions.
·
The
distribution of the resources to the school counts on the mobile phone network.
If there are instances of network failure, resources will not arrive to the
school as planned. In many rural
provinces in PNG, there is no mains electricity supply yet. Teachers may have restrained
access to electricity; it means that it is sometimes hard for them to recharge
their mobile phone handset batteries. In other cases, teachers need to shell
out money to recharge their batteries at nearby trade stores. This was the only
cost involved to using the SMS Story service, and had no effect on the levels of
participation amongst the teachers in the active group.
·
The project
restricted the length of lesson plans and stories to one text message that naturally
constrains content. The dependability of phones to “stitch together” several
text messages was a concern and so several text message length stories were not
used.
RECOMMENDATION:
·
Providing
‘free’ phone numbers to permit teachers (and students) to hear songs, stories,
new sounds and words;
·
Reporting and
collecting basic education data and student assessment outputs;
·
Loading
content (such as songs, stories or sounds) onto teachers’ mobile phones;
·
Employing
software applications running in smartphones for student assessment or
diagnostics of special educational needs;
·
Community or
student reporting of teacher absenteeism; and
·
Using complementary daily stories and activities this
time, for adult literacy
FURTHER READINGS:
http://articles.bplans.com/how-to-perform-swot-analysis/
WORKS CITED
Grimsley, S.
(n.d.). External Opportunities & Threats in SWOT Analysis: Examples &
Definition. Retrieved October 16, 2015, from
http://study.com/academy/lesson/external-opportunities-threats-in-swot-analysis-examples-definition-quiz.html
Kaleebu, N., Gee, A., Maybanks, N., Jones, R., Jauk, M.,
& Watson, A. H. (2013). SMS Story Impact Assessment Report. VSO,
Papua New Guinea.
Kaleebu, N., Gee, A., Maybanks, N., Jones, R., Jauk, M.,
& Watson, A. H. (2013). SMS story: Early results of an innovative
education trial. Contemporary PNG Studies , 19.
