Improving University Education in Nigeria Through Mobile Academic Directory

Abstract

Improving the economy of third-world countries and revamping the falling standard of university education are among
the challenges of the current political administration in West African and Nigeria in particular. These are captured in the vision
2020 agenda for Nigeria. Mobile devices have gradually become part of our daily life and most Nigerians cannot live without
them. Devices that are compliant with Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) will enable software engineers to develop
applications that can run on multiple platforms and improve on the system's functionality. The functionality of mobile devices can
be improved to deliver any type of data to any user, anywhere in world and with the use of different programming languages.
This paper models a MIDlet application that adds additional functionalities in the use of our mobile devices. It designs an
academic directory that runs on any java-enabled mobile device, and provides increased access to academic information for
research purposes by presenting an ideal combination of two of the fastest growing technologies in the world today: the mobile
technology, and the computer network technology to build a J2ME-based mobile application. It will encourage effective university
administration and interaction among lecturers for research purposes. Consequently, the standard of educational can be
improved upon.