Q: Why should a teacher be prepared to allow or require students to use mobile devices to achieve learning objectives?
Students—along with the more larger, generalized population—consider mobile technology an integral part of their daily lives. In this Information Age, teachers should capitalize on the importance of this device in school as equally as the students consider it an important component of their lives outside of school. These Digital Natives, and for some Digital Immigrants, the way our hands and minds have become accustomed to navigating these devices develop into important skills. Students now can pick up the skills to use these tools with great effectiveness but what is important to consider is the learning objectives and creation of meaningful content. With clear goals, guidelines, and respectful policies, teachers shouldn’t shy away from using the technology within their classrooms with the overarching fear of distractions. If students are engaged within the dynamic learning activity, it minimizes the risk of wandering eyes. The collaboration with other students is an important component of developing social, research and critical-thinking skills. A specific anecdote I can relate to this question was from an interview I did with Robert Butcher (2016), a high school English Language Program Leader, regarding the use of technology in the classroom. In the following excerpt from the interview:
“[T]he students have amazing access to information. Especially on texts that have been taught for years. They can go out and find annotations on things that I have taught like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. There was a moment in class at one point where a student was messing around on his cellphone and I said, “Hey, what are you doing on your phone? You have to put that down.” He said, “No, I’m looking at A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Look—here is my text.” And not only did he have the text but he had the electronic text with annotations on particular words with the symbolic meaning on it. It was amazing information because whoever annotated it was a scholar and knew what they were talking about. In that way it was powerful.”
Accessibility and flexibility is one of the major advantages of learning today considering time, money, and location. While students may not necessarily have access to libraries or other resources, students have the freedom to gather information on the Web. With digital literacy skills development, students can practice retrieving significant information by harnessing the technology. Mobile technology integrates the opportunity to learn within dynamically contextual modes; no longer are we subjected to having the only option of reading lengthy, wordy passages to understand concepts. Gipple and Lord (n.d.) illustrate that the new tools of GPS systems, content-sharing and creating, recording capabilities, messaging services, and multimedia are but some of the tools that can achieve learning objectives.
References
Butcher, R. (2016, April 26). Mobile Learning Interview [Personal interview].
Gipple, J., & Lord, E. (n.d.). Understanding Mobile Learning and Best Practices. Retrieved May 7, 2016, from http://www.icslearninggroup.com/sharedResources/Documents/ICS Whitepaper Understanding Mobile Learning.pdf
Gipple, J., & Lord, E. (n.d.). Understanding Mobile Learning and Best Practices. Retrieved May 7, 2016, from http://www.icslearninggroup.com/sharedResources/Documents/ICS Whitepaper Understanding Mobile Learning.pdf