mobiles in the classroom

According to a Unicef, State of the children report, 2009 94% of teenagers in NZ own a mobile phone, according to a 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley, UK 2009 99% of teenagers in the UK have a mobile phone and in the US it is 71% of teenagers according to Pew Internet & American Life Project 2009.  The age of mobile technology has well and truly gripped us, so to speak.

There I was taking a stroll through Victoria's Way in County Wicklow, Ireland a few months ago and was feeling very zen as I meandered amongst the Indian statues in Victor Langheld's Sculpture Park.  Victor or Victoria as he prefers to be known, left Dresden, Germany when he was 5, lived in India 20 years later and studied and practiced for many years before becoming a Buddist monk.  Victoria designed these remarkable sculptures and had them handcrafted in India before being shipped over to Ireland.

Much to my surprise, loe and behold, one sculpture known as the Dark night of the Soul and described as...

"This unique 14ft 6ins bronze is a copy of a 2ft stone Gandhara (roman provincial) period sculpture carved in the 1^st century AD in what is now Pakistan. It represents the future Buddha practicing severest suppression of the urge to life (and rebirth) in order to end his personal stress (Pali: dukkha). This attempt failed. He then decided to take a rational, scientific approach to the problem, eventually understanding that “Whatever is subject to arising is subject to cessation.” To wit|: “Nothing lasts.” “If you attach to that which doesn’t last you’re going to get stressed out, and suffer”. So, “Detach! Back off!” and stay cool and happy." 

...is perhaps a true representation of a future Buddha with a nokia phone tucked in his robe!

For those of you teaching in and around Dublin and County Wicklow, Victoria's Way is well worth a drive and meditative stroll as you take a few deep breaths and release the stresses of day to day life, you may even bump into Victoria himself who will no doubt keep you engaged for a while with his welcoming smile and friendly words.

The general trend around the world is to ban mobile phones, however, we as teachers need to find ways in which we can embrace the use of the mobile phone in the classroom.  The mobile phone, is not longer a toy but an essential piece of communication.

"It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today." says Dan Domevech, executive director of the non profit American Association of School Administrators.  "The kids are much more motivated to use their cellphone in an educational manner."

These days mobile phones are the equivalent of mini computers, one can check email, browse the internet, record images, video, audio.  We should take advantage of the fact that there has been and continues to be a significant rise in the number of young people buying mobile phones as opposed to computers.

There are the usual concerns that mobiles in the classroom encourage bullying.  Personally, I don't believe that mobiles phones encourage bullying as such, but are unfortunately another avenue through with bullies can operate.  The hard fact of life is that bullying does happen and will continue to happen in the classroom as it does in many workplaces, one doesn't need a mobile phone to become a bully or a victim of one.  If anything, equipped with a mobile phone one can record, film and store evidence of a bully's cruel and cowardly words/actions and pass that information onto school managers, parents and if needs be the police.  One can also call for help from a friend, adult or counseling service with the aid of a mobile.

My students have been using their mobile phones in class for a few years now, only on odd occasions when they need to do a quick calculation or use the stopwatch for an experiment.  I'm fine with that and am clear with the expectation that it'll be put away after wards and so far that privilege hasn't been abused.  However, this year I've been trying out a few new things....recording audio, taking photos, recording video clips and will explore whatever other options are out there for the benefit of students in an educational environment.

So far this year, my Year 11's (15 years old), a high ability Chemistry class have used their phones to take photos of experiments which they have sent to their laptops via bluetooth, then edited the images using Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop and uploaded them in sequential order to a Microsoft Powerpoint where they explained the process at each stage of the experiment.  In the future, I'll look at the option of them making a video using Microsoft Movie Maker and adding audio, that has been edited and put together using Audacity.  One of my students in that class is allergic to sulfur so when I carried out a couple of demos in the fume cupboard on sulfur (producing SO2 and observing the low mp of sulfur molecules), she gave her mobile to another student who filmed the demo and I passed the phone back to her a few mins later as she was working quietly in another room, safely away from the fumes of the sulfur.  She was really pleased not to have missed out on the class demo.

My other Year 11 class have taken photos of models that they have made of DNA replication, mitosis and meiosis (made using plastercine, straws, pipecleaners, basically anything at hand) and edited them as above to make a picture storyboard.  Because there are students in those classes who don't have bluetooth on their mobile, I usually suggest that they work in pairs or threes so lack of bluetooth isn't an issue.

I would like to make more use of the fact that a mobile phone as it is a key tool for communication amongst young people.  I'd like to explore the option of texting them any last minute plans to extra-curricular sports such as cancellation or change of time.  I have the option of using my own phone but for privacy reasons would prefer to use the school mobile.  I'll also see if there is a possibility of students texting to free polls for the purposes of surveys eg continuous and discontinuous variation amongst a class of students while studying genetics and voting eg winner in a class competition or votes for class representatives.  Free test voting is available in the UK and Australia through http://www.smspoll.net but as far as I know there isn't a similar option available in New Zealand.  However, I have used the online survey http://www.surveymonkey.com

For additional guidelines on using a mobile in the classroom Liz Kolb book "From Toys to Tools", 2007, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)is worth a read.  Click here for excerpts from her book which is available to purchase online.

I recommend reading this article which was published in the TES (Times Education Supplement) a year ago titled "Lecturers see the benefits of mobiles in the classroom", it provides an overview of a Molenet project that was carried out in 2007 to '08 and involved 10,000 students, all the statistics reflect positive thoughts from both the students and teachers regarding use of mobiles in the classroom.

And, another detailed article in the TES in Nov '09 discussing both sides of the story, titled "Friend or Foe?"  Basically, the articles suggests that volunteer teachers who are willing to experiment with the use of mobiles in the classroom should be allowed to do so.  Ollie Bray, who is a National Advisor for Learning and Technologies in Scotland suggests in his blog that

"we teach and work with our children to use these tools safely and responsibly."

It's that easy.  Pull your phone out of your pocket, move with the times, lead by example and lets embrace the use of mobiles for educational purposes in our lessons while at the same time giving our students responsibility for their actions.

Are Apple pleased with the huge popularity of mobiles phones and in particular their iPhone, you bet they are!  Accoring to MacWorld, Aug 2009 The "iPhone is now the teacher's pet".  Some recommended top iPhone application are here

In 2008, Toni Twiss carried out a research project for the Minstry of Education.  She states in an article "Mobile phones in the classroom", Aug 2009 in the Education Review that

"It seems somewhat ironic that while schools try to find extra funding to increase student and teacher access to ICT, the tool that many students already have in their pockets is overlooked and its use actively denied through restrictive school policy."

Yes, it is a little ironic, isn't it!

Well that's enough from me, it's St Patrick's day, Beannachtai na Feile Padraig!  I'm off to slip into a green jersey and sink a few jars of Guinness in a tacky Irish pub while having some craic and listening to a load of blarney.