Kids should be allowed to take their mobile phone to school
03 June, 2011
2 years ago the Telegraph published some findings by the charity Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG) which found that the average UK child gets their first mobile phone at age 8 and also that 75% of 7 – 15 year olds own at least one mobile phone.
Over the past few years my personal use of mobile devices has grown immeasurably, mainly due to the purchase of a smartphone.
This has changed the way I socialise and work. Previously my commute to work was spent reading the paper and listening to music. Nowadays I catch up on news and reports relevant to my work, socialise with friends on Facebook and IM services such as Skype, keep up to date with my Linkedin groups and sometimes get stuck into some internet shopping. I now have time for many of the things that were previously put off in my life. I still read the news but it is just that the news is selected by me and tailored to my interests. I am sure that because of the smartphone I have become more productive both socially and professionally. I now only buy a newspaper at weekends.
With this in mind; isn’t it possible for children to benefit educationally from their mobile devices and shouldn’t parents and schools be embracing the new opportunities for learning? Of course the implementation of these technologies by teachers, parents and school administrators is key to ensuring children’s safety and equality.
In some areas of the world these technologies are already in use: In the U.S.A Project Tomorrow carried out two surveys on “mobile learning”. The first of which looked into the views of Children and parents and the second focused o more on the views of teachers, aschool librarians and school administrators. They surveyed 299,677 teenage students along with 26,000 parents and 38,000 teachers from 5,700 different schools across the United States. The survey was conducted at 97% state schools and 3% private. Over half the schools has students living below the poverty line and also 42% of schools had a population of 50% or more of ethnic minorities.
In summary they found that:
• Since 2006 smartphone ownership amongst children has tripled
• Students no longer view their school’s Internet filters as a primary barrier to using technology at school; but rather, the primary barrier is the inability to use their own devices.
• The use of mobile learning devices for productivity, organization, collabouration and learning is highly personal and extremely customizable. Unlike typical innovations, mobile learning implementations require greater flexibility and often times are directed by the students’ or parents’ preferences. For the first time, educators have an opportunity to help students learn more effectively and deeply by leveraging students’ preferred learning tools and strategies.
• 62 percent of responding parents reported that if their child's school allowed devices to be used for educational purposes, they would likely purchase a mobile device for their child.
• 90 percent of the Mobile Learning Explorer administrators state that mobile computers increase students' potential for success, as compared to 59 percent of the non-Mobile Learning Explorer administrators.
Mobile learning can be defined as:
“Learning a variety of content and skills anytime, anyplace with a small device light enough to be carried in one hand.”
Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies,
Harvard University
Some of the benefits of mobile learning are:
Learning is seen as fun: Children now use mobile technologies for fun in their personal lives and therefore making educational games can transform even the least popular subjects into enjoyable ones.
Collabourative and interactive: Children become more engaged and learn faster when it is on their terms; mobile technologies allow children to continue studying on the subjects that interest them outside of the classroom therefore breaking down the in school/out of school boundaries. The study also found that when mobile technologies are used by students in and out of the classroom communication with the teacher improves.
Individualized instructions and learning: Different children have varying learning styles that can be catered for by the flexibility of mobile technology. Most mobile programs adapt to the individual learner's strengths, this means that kids who have a weakness can work through it in the privacy of their own device and also children with strengths can pursue them much further than the traditional curriculum constrains.
Discipline issues rapidly decline: Discipline issues went down by 90 percent after the Rowan-Salisbury School Systems implemented a mobile learning project, according to Phil Hardin, executive director of technology. This is because students were more engaged on learning activities on the trip to school on the bus and didn’t suffer from boredom.
Class attendance increases: If mobile devices are set up with online content filtering technology to protect the content children view then this means that there is no need for absences due to bad weather or any other reason. Students can attend class and submit homework from any location with devices that have a two-camera system that allows collabouration and participation. This has particular relevance for disadvantaged and special needs students.
Money Saving: Areas with a lack of funding were particularly attracted to mobile learning technology as a way to save money over the long term. The iSchool Initiative estimates each $150 iPod touch would save at least $600 per student per year. In addition the costs of school materials is reduced when digital rather than paper copies are used.
Inexpensive lessons and materials: Ebooks for ereaders and other online educational tools like mobile apps are less expensive to produce than traditional textbooks and will save money. Some online materials, such as OpenTextbook, are free. Amazon recently introduced a new ad-supported e-ink Kindle at a reduced rate (less than half of a comparable tablet). Whether schools will allow ad-supported technology in the classroom remains to be seen. Ebooks shouldn't be seen as a separate device like an ereader, but as a free application that exists on almost every platform. The ebook learning experience can be enjoyed anywhere for free. Today, a student can read a free textbook on her school PC, continue reading on her BlackBerry smartphone during the bus ride home and then open the reading app on her iPad to the exact point where she stopped reading on her phone. Any notes she made on any platform would be saved automatically. This content and extra portability cost the student and the school nothing.
A separate study that was published in May 2011, also from Project Tomorrow:
“The New 3 E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged, Empowered - How Today’s Educators are Advancing a New Vision for Teaching and Learning” that focused on the views of teachers and school administrators, this study found that there is an unequivocal belief that mobile learning will aid and help children’s learning. However, before this can be implemented there are a number of concerns to overcome:
“While our teachers are leveraging many different technologies to different degrees of depth and complexity to engage students in learning, our administrators who have the responsibility of empowering schools with such technology face some formidable challenges. Besides the ongoing funding issues associated with acquiring, implementing and maintaining the technology infrastructure, both principals and district administrators also report these as top challenges: staff professional development (48 percent), technology support (30 percent), digital equity issues (30 percent), student safety online (19 percent) and they also mentioned theft as a concern.”
It will obviously not be easy to overcome these concerns but it is now becoming an inevitable and necessary shift in order to keep our schools relevant to today’s society and to prepare children for life beyond education. There are significant opportunities for learning with these technologies and there are existing solutions to all of the problems, it is the planning and implementation of these solutions that will be the tricky part.
