Cell Phones in Education

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Comment by Diana Nicaj on July 26, 2011 at 10:29am

I found that article interesting that Kiwi Commons posted about high school students hesistations of using cell phones in the classroom.  I found this surprising, but after taking a survey on Facebook the majority of students said they would not want to use cell phones in the classroom because they would find it distracting.  I thought they would be excited about using this device in school.  I wonder if there's a way to limit the distractions by purchasing cell phones that don't allow access to certain cell phone features?  Also, I wonder if they would change their mind after trying it out?

Comment by adelina moura on June 23, 2011 at 12:58pm

Welcome Kiwi. It was a pleasure to shere my work with all. Follow my
http://www.scoop.it/t/mobile-learning-21

Comment by Kiwi Commons on June 23, 2011 at 11:03am

Wow Adelina, thanks for all the info! Your blog looks fantastic. I've added it to my bookmarks!

Comment by adelina moura on June 14, 2011 at 4:32am

I share with you the abstract of my thesis research about using students mobile phones as a learning tool in classroom. The most part of my students don't see cellphones as a distracting devices because they give them an educational value. Take a look to my blog about Mobile Learning 21 http://moblearn21.blogspot.com/

Mobile devices, such as mobile phone, PDA, Pocket PC or Tablet PC, have been used as tools for learning. The emergence of new educational scenarios has led us to conduct this research to understand the challenges and opportunities of integrating mobile phone, into teaching and learning.

It was proposed a framework based on constructivist approaches, in Activity Theory and ARCS Model, which underlies the study. The study analysed how students appropriated mobile phones as a learning tool, assessed the mobile phone as a mediation tool in learning activities and discussed the potentials and limitations of their integration in teaching and learning process. To achieve these objectives we have established a variety of curricular activities mediated by students' mobile phones and developed in the Portuguese and French school subjects.

It is a qualitative research with multiple study cases (four), but with one unit of analysis only. Sixty-eight students from two urbans schools, one a State secondary school and the other a semi-private vocational school, attended this study. This is an exploratory study, due to the scarcity of studies in the area, because it is the integration of new technology, such as the mobile phone, into teaching. The data collection techniques used were inquiry and observation. We developed and validated four questionnaires and two guidelines (one for individual interviews and the other for a focus group). The first questionnaire aimed to characterise the participants, the second questionnaire collected students’ reactions to the use of podcasts for content review and improvement of reading and pronunciation in French, the third questionnaire analysed students’ reactions to SMS activities and the fourth questionnaire studied students’ opinions about using the mobile phone as a learning tool, both inside and outside the classroom. Individual interviews allowed  to get participants' feedback concerning the use of the mobile phone as a tool for learning and understanding the interaction and communication established during the study development. The focus group allowed to collect additional information from mobile phone use as a mediation tool.

The data analysis showed that despite the novelty of integrating mobile devices as tools to support learning activities, the students accepted to use their own mobile phones, which naturally incorporated it in their study practices, exploring several features on different curricular activities, both inside and outside the classroom, individually and collaboratively. The mobile phone used as a mediating tool for learning, allowed to ask questions, learn at a when it is most convenient, be in  permanent contact with the curriculum contents, increased students’ motivation for the school subject and promoted the improvement of foreign language pronunciation. The data also showed the students’ great satisfaction in performing tasks that made the process of learning and teaching more attractive, and they recognized the educational potential of mobile phone to support the school study.

This research is a contribution towards the integration of mobile devices into education and an alert about the new learning opportunities that are offered by mobile learning.

 

Comment by Kiwi Commons on June 13, 2011 at 11:43am

Earlier this year, there was an interesting debate about the use of cell phones in the classroom. A survey showed that the majority of students in Ontario actually did not want the use of mobile phones in the classroom. 

 

You can find the article here -- http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110224/tor-students...

 

I was quite surprised by this article. Have any other educators found a similar outcome in their own classrooms?

Comment by Joe Fatheree on June 13, 2011 at 10:03am

Cell phones have become an integral part of the classroom environment in my Multimedia class.  The following video was shot and edited on a mobile device:  http://www.viddler.com/explore/jfatheree/videos/70/

Most students carry technology that used to cost a school district thousands of dollars to provide.  

-joe

Comment by Willyn Webb on June 13, 2011 at 7:52am

For all of you wanting to address policy in your districts and learn more about the wealth of tools available for using cell phones for learning I am teaching an online class, perfect for your summer professional development.  It is called "Teaching Generation Text" and you can check it out here:

 

 http://www.mesastate.edu/online/gentext.html

 

It will take you through the steps of addressing policy, creating classroom procedures, the tools, research-based teaching strategies supported and enhanced by cell phones, and more.  It is ongoing, open enrollment and 2 semester credit hours.  Check it out!

 

Comment by Scott Hudson on June 12, 2011 at 5:58pm

I'm interested in the management of the phones.  Do you give the kids phones the day they step in the door of the school?  Are they handled by individual classrooms?  What do you do to prevent inappropriate use of the phones, and if a kid is found to have been sexting or the like, what is the punishment?  My vision is that the phones would get damaged or stolen.  Are those of you who are using the phones in class finding this to be an issue?

Comment by Mary Wever on June 12, 2011 at 2:54pm

After reading all these posts, I'm getting a little worried that I don't even know my district's policy on cellphones in the classroom.  Yikes!  I'm on the district technology committee and I'm the "go-to" person for tech in my building.  So if I don't know, I'm sure others don't either.  That could be partly because I teach 4th grade, and we haven't had an issue with kids bringing their cell phones to school (not yet anyway).  I'm assuming the middle and high school teachers are more informed.  I'll just add that to my to-do list: find out district's cell phone policy.

One thing that I am entirely interested in is using iPods in the classroom.  If a child in my classroom has his/her own iPod Touch (and the parents don't mind if it's brought to school), I would love to incorporate them into their learning.  That way, learning can be extended by having them brought back and forth.  I can see the iPod Touch to a kid as my iPhone is to me; an all encompassing device that can be used for home and school.  Does anyone else use iPod Touches in the classroom?

Comment by Scott Hudson on June 12, 2011 at 1:56pm

My school district is still so 20th century.  The powers that be are so paranoid about privacy issues.  I look forward to when a new administration comes in so we can move into the 21st century.

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