Using Cell Phones in Education

Lately I have heard a lot about using cell phones in education. I’ve seen it pop up all over, but I just recently started really reading about it. The concept is pretty simple, you have students use their phones which have more computing power than a 10 year old computer. These powerful machines are in the pockets of a lot of kids. They can be used to do research for projects, reading articles or books, polling questions or quizzes, education programs, or even by using the digital or video cameras that are on most phones. Students could take pictures of the board if they can’t get all the information down, they could send notes to a sick friend or email their parents a picture of a group project and get them more involved in what is going on at school. I do think there are definitely some benefits for using cell phones in the school setting, but if a program like this is to be established I think that the school has to provide the devices. Not every student and their family are going to have or be able to afford a cell phone, and you could risk really singling them out. I think that devices that can hook up to wifi would be the best to use, and then it is just the one time cost of buying the device.

In Johannesburg Africa where 10% of the population has internet access and there are very few computers in schools, students use their own money/minutes to use a social networking application that links them with a math or science tutor (all volunteers). I thought this was a really cool program, and it has been running since 2007 (article link).

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPAC) is the type of knowledge that teachers need to know when educating, and we are learning about how to do this in this class. Teachers need to know the content that they are teaching in order to teach it, pretty straight forward. Obviously it is important to be knowledgeable in whatever area you are teaching. It isn’t enough to just know the content, but you also need pedagogical knowledge, a deep understanding of the material, how to manage a classroom, and how students learn. That way you know how to teach and present the information to your students so that they can fully understand it. The technological knowledge is your understanding of the tools in which you present the information. This can be as simple as a pen and paper, or using an application on the computer. When you utilize all of this you can best teach your students.

Cell phones do have a lot of potential to help students learn. I think the main challenge would be making sure kids stay on task when working with them. It is also vital that you have a deep understanding of the applications on the phones that you will use while educating, and how to create lessons that kids can be involved and focused on the task at hand.