A model for teaching mobile application development for social changes: Implementation and lessons learned in senegal

Africa is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. The portfolio of available mobile phone applications that impact the populations of the continent is however limited in number and scope. Future African graduates will be the main vectors for the development of mobile applications. In this paper we present a model of teaching mobile application development for social changes emphasizing software engineering practices. The innovation is that students develop and deploy applications for people of their local communities. This model has been used successfully in Senegal. Applications for craft workers and young children have been developed. Findings, lessons learned and guidelines for instructors interested in similar initiatives are presented.