Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Phones and tablets are tools of daily living in this century. This is even truer for the younger generation. When entertainment, shopping, dating, politics, and everything else are increasingly done through mobile apps and browsing, why should education be left behind?

The answer: teachers don’t know how to use mobile technology in their work. Decades older than our students, most of us have smartphones in our pockets, but fail to realize the full potential of this technology.

When we use the latest tech, most of us are stuck doing old things in new ways. We use mobile technology for messaging, social media, reference, research, and content-specific apps- things we’re already familiar with and comfortable doing on a PC.

Conversely, our younger students are at home with their phones and tablets, but less so with desktops and laptops. When I first taught elementary-age kids in Thailand, I was surprised these so-called digital natives couldn’t type, save, and publish an MS Word document. It only shows my age, however, that I think digital technology is about writing papers more efficiently. These kids play on tablets at home- they are native swipers, not typers.

A teacher trying to incorporate mobile technology should:

• ·         Provide 1 device per student or implement a BYOD policy.
• ·         Find out how students already use their devices and expand on that.
• ·         Not rely on content-specific apps. The big deal about mobile technology is that it delivers interactivity, collaboration, and creativity.
• ·         Exploit multimedia capabilities of mobile devices.
• ·         Make sure students understand the difference between computers and mobile devices.
• ·         Teach digital citizenship
• ·         Explore the diverse uses of mobile technology. Apps can be classified, for example, between Consumption, Creation, Communication, Games, and Utilities.

Sample mobile activities:

• ·         Have students collaborate on a virtual space as an alternative to a poster or other physical project. Various apps will allow them to assemble images, recorded voice, and other media collaboratively.
• Flip the classroom- mobile style. While students watch the video lesson at home, they can tweet questions and comments to the teacher, who can prepare for the next day’s class accordingly.