Mobile phones in class, why not?
If students are properly guided and monitored,
mobile phones can also be used as a learning tool
By Raheela S. Zafar
If students are properly guided and monitored,
mobile phones can also be used as a learning tool
By Raheela S. Zafar
A couple of weeks back, in biology class, a student took her mobile phone and started clicking it from various angles. Standing at a distance, I remained a bit surprised.
Cell phones are banned in the college where I work, so needless to say that everyone has them in her bag and a rare courage is required to display them openly. How comes the girl student is using it so boldly in my class?
I approached her and found her to be taking pictures of the dissected frog lying in front of her from varying angles and sending them to others who were a bit less daring to do it in front of the teacher. I smiled at her and she regained her confidence.
“Madam it is helpful. When I get home, I will show it to my brother who is not ready to believe that I can hold a live frog let alone dissect it, and I will save the pictures in my computer to get help during my exams.” No doubt, I was impressed.
A couple of days afterwards, my sister sent me a lot of photographs of her only daughter studying in Dubai, from her classroom, where she was seen involved in various sort of activities. Well! How did you manage to take them, do they allow you to visit the class room so frequently?
No, its just that the teachers of the junior classes take pictures quite on regular basis with their cell phones and they send pictures to the parents to keep them informed about the activities of their wards in the class room and administration keep observing that a child should not be seen timid, shocked, frightened, untidy, etc, etc.
A controversy, regarding the use of mobile phones in teaching institutions is going on all over the world.
A few days back, in an examination centre a shawl-clad student was constantly moving her fingers inside her shawl. Invigilator was confused but could not catch her without an obvious proof, but eventually a mobile phone was found that was used for texting questions to the helper sitting outside the examination hall. During college functions parents complained that photographs of their daughters in improper drama costumes were taken by fellow students and pasted on facebook.
The breach of privacy is another woe of mobile phone users as teachers are reluctant to give their phone numbers to every student fearful of their misuse.
It is not at all surprising that mobiles remained banned in secondary and higher secondary schools in most countries of the world as technology is an unlucky maid and seldom accepted immediately. But In 2009, certain research based studies were carried out to find out the practical applications of mobile devices, particularly mobile phones, as most students have them.
A project, TACCLE PROJECT, particularly studied the use of mobiles as a learning tool in classrooms for the students of secondary and intermediate classes. What distinguishes their work is that they went for the practical research, observed and interviewed teachers and students in the institutions where mobiles are allowed.
We can even suggest some ways of computer use in certain Pakistani schools for the purpose of study. We consider those mobile phones only with camera, camcorder and internet access. I-phones, tablets, and blackberries, etc, have been deliberately excluded as these devices are not affordable for a big number.
The use of mobile phones will be cost effective for schools.
Mobile phones with simple devices such as camera and recorders can be very useful in the life science classes used for field trips, botanical and zoological gardens, simple lab experiments related to growth and development.
Mobile phones can also be used to enhance creativity of the young minds by formulating best SMSs, twitter messages, text blogs and picture blogs.
Students can build their confidence by asking those questions which they find difficult or they are embarrassed to ask in the class publicly.Through SMS polling, students can send immediate message to teachers for formative assessment.
Can be used as a dictionary; spell checker, thesaurus and encyclopedic in linguistics.A teacher can ask students to take a picture with their phone around a particular theme or can send everyone in the class a picture she wants them to study/talk about.
Students can make up jingles for a particular topic, key dates for a history test, a poem to be learned for a literature test, a foreign language phrase and lists of chemical elements in a particular group in the Periodic Table!
Use sites like gabcast or evoca to make ‘instant’ podcasts straight from a mobile that can be accessed from a mobile (and you only have to be over 13 to use them) without having to use podcasting software.
Creating mini-documentaries using the camera in their phone. Recording field trips using photos or voices or texting back observations to other pupils.Working on the same project while being at different places and talking via instant-messaging.
Recording science experiments and including the pictures/video with their written reports.Using twitter. If students are properly guided and monitored, mobile phones can also be used as a learning tool and that will also reduce the distraction problem. They can be taught the ways of avoiding the abuse of mobile devices such as net safety, phony identities, cyber crimes and protocols.
The writer is a lecturer-
Published in "The News" on Sunday April 29, 2012
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