This entry is an activity for Teach-Now while working towards a teaching certificate. Specific goals and requirements had to be met by this entry and is by no means designed to be an independent feature.
The Learner and the Learning in a Digital Age by Mobile Learning
“Mobile learning is a new and untapped territory for many educators with little research available on its effectiveness on student learning and achievement.” — Dan Roggenkamp, Teach-Now
General knowledge reminds the public that schools do not always have the budget to provide every student a laptop or a computer in every room. A computer lab may be a moderate solution, but the transfer from the classroom to the lab room wastes productive learning time. Yet a growing population of teens own a mobile device with the right technology to access the Internet. One way to keep students – especially teens — more engaged in learning means using the phone in class.
Observe a typical teenage landscape and you will notice a vast majority plugged in and focused to their portable linked-in devices. A blur of thumbs fills the air above the screens while their focus is engaged in their multiple chats, email reads, and searches for the next pop song. A phone-less classroom is more than likely impossible. So why not use a tool that interests a student so much.
To maintain an order and focus to the lesson or educational activity, we will need to decide and create a cell phone policy. The best way to create a smart relationship with students is to co-create the policy or allow them to be involved in the discipline and management of appropriate in-class cell phone use. One teacher, Shaun McMillan, established what he calls a
“…mobile device game. If I take up your phone you then have the right to find the next student using their phone inappropriately. If you call them out and I take up their phone then the student who called them out get’s their phone back, so that I’m only holding one student’s phone at any given time. If you want to play, feel free to keep using your mobile device.”
(comment for Johnson, June 2015).
That management seems to be a bit extreme, but any policy needs to be in place to create an environment of respect for each student digital citizen.
So, I created the respectful mobile learning environment; now what? Well, I should supplement the lesson with activities supported by the mobile device. The day could start off with a warm-up. Students could be notified before entering the classroom that the lesson will start with some gained knowledge relevant to the topic. In my case, we could be studying an art technique, an art era, or an artist. Students should have acquired at least three unique topics from their digital research where they can reply to the notification which I digitally collect. These become topics of discussion for the class activity essentially provided by the students – holes will be expected and all relevant information will be prepared to fill in the gaps.
When the students enter, their phones still need to be awake so we can tally who found what topic allowing that group to elaborate further with the rest of the class. Now that we have some group information, let’s find some more and this could be a research game where the first three students to find qualifying answers to a topic question can provide potential drawing exercises for the day.
At this point, phones should go away and drawing tools come out for doodle and sketching exercises. A few minutes of these physical activities should provide enough tactile readiness for the next exercise.
Again, phones out to find an inspirational theme to explore and motivate each student into their own artwork that could last for the remaining of the class time and, depending on the complexity, over the next few days. Since this exploration may take some time, my responsibility should be that each student is researching for inspiration and not digitally wandering; I do that by roaming around and conversing with students.
“It’s harder to do the negative behaviors when the phones are out and the teacher is walking around… (Graham, n.d.).”
Students could share their own inspirations if other students have difficulties finding a theme or are simply taking too long by not critically evaluating the mass of links they can explore. So they found their inspirational resources and it is time to produce. One teacher according to Edward Graham (n.d.) found that students are more focused when they are allowed to listen to their own music from their devices. A musical background may foster the environment for flow allowing the students to be more engaged with their project. A key checkpoint, I make sure the music level is not too loud to disturb their neighbors as well as destroy their own hearing.
It is getting near the end of class time, students are encouraged to shut off the music. We take this time to reflect on the projects in process. If this was the project’s last day, students would be posting to the classroom gallery for everybody to review at their own time and provide comments to each other’s work; the gallery may even be shared with other classes or the next day’s guest artist. Any closing comments or future assignments are exchanged by a social channel notifying the students what to expect for the next day.
According to 2015 research of 1,060 American teens age 13 to 17 by the Pew Research Center (Lenhart, April 2015), 88% have access to a mobile phone; more specifically, 73% of these teens have smartphones.
“A smartphone combines a cellphone with e-mail and Web, music and movie player, camera and camcorder, GPS navigation, voice dictation for messaging and a voice search for asking questions about anything… A lot more personal than a personal computer, a smartphone is generally within reach no matter where you are (PC Mag, n.d.).”
Mobile learning will only work with a smartphone, and 77% of the polled teens who have smartphones live in families that earn more than $50,000 a year (Lenhart). The remaining polled teens come from families earning less than $50,000 creating an unequal learning access. To ensure an equal experience if not an adaptive learning style, the educational system needs to provide access to smartphones for everyone. Mobile learning may not be a near-future or even achievable education technique because this inequality will always exist. But here’s to hoping.
Mobile Learning
Tim Carrier
June 2015 Cohort 1
M3U5A1
Works Cited / References
Global Digital Citizen Foundation. (n.d.). Digital Citizenship School Program. http://globaldigitalcitizen.org/digital-citizenship-school-program
Graham, Edward. (n.d.). National Education Association. Using Smartphones in the Classroom. http://www.nea.org/tools/56274.htm
Johnson, Ben. (June 17, 2015). Edutopia. How to Manage Cell Phones in the Classroom. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-manage-cell-phones-classroom-ben-johnson
Lenhart, Amanda. (April 9, 2015). Pew Research Center. A Majority of American Teens Report Access to a Computer, Game Console, Smartphone and a Tablet. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/a-majority-of-american-teens-report-access-to-a-computer-game-console-smartphone-and-a-tablet/
PC Mag. (n.d.). Encyclopedia. Definition of: Smartphone. http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/51537/smartphone
Ormiston, Meg. (n.d). TeachHub.com. How to Use Cell Phones as Learning Tools. http://www.teachhub.com/how-use-cell-phones-learning-tools