The use of mobile technology has increased exponentially across the world over the past few years owing to the globalization. The smart phones have become an integral part of everybody’s lifestyle and the primary source of communication.
Due to the global proliferation, more students are bringing cell phones to class too. The reality is that neither the parents nor the school system can stop students from bringing phones to classroom. In fact teachers are too increasingly using mobile phones to reach out to students at all levels as they are becoming the easier and fastest way of communication.
The various studies show that students check their cell phones on an average of more than 12 times in a day within their classroom. This can lead to a lot of time loss which is ideally to be spent in the class studying, this means a lot of distraction leading to school work and knowledge loss. The distracted students often become more stressed out, frustrated and lead to social stress for everyone.
The students are seen to spend up to 20% of their in-class time that is for studying in texting, emailing, and checking social media. The debate of whether the use of cell phones is adding to the distraction or is useful as a learning tool is a lively topic and a hot topic of discussion for educationists, parents and assignment help across the globe.
How Cell phones Can Be Used as A Learning Tool in The Classroom Effectively
Cell phones can be an excellent learning tools in the classroom for children if used properly. The proper management of cell phones are the key towards judicial use of the gadgets as a great learning resource. Some of the pros of allowing cell phones in school are:
- Use of educational learning apps
These days a lot of learning apps are available through cell phones. Giving the access to smart phones the students can explore the learning opportunities and myassignmenthelp through them and stay on the top of their class work and excel. These mobile applications also help the students in incorporating better study habits, like time management and organization skills which are important as a life skill as well.
- Incorporating the digital platforms into lessons and curriculum
Social media these days is a great way to keep the interest level of students in the class at peak and also helps in encouraging them to participate in discussions at a larger scale. In some school districts the teachers have started using twitter handles and online message boards as a platform for classroom discussions for sharing of ideas. This is spreading as wildfire with more and more teachers and schools adopting this very interactive and interesting tool for keeping the students engaged. This has been seen to be especially helpful for the students who are not very active in classroom and not comfortable in speaking.
- Digital materials as a substitute for lessons and chapters
Cell phones can be a very helpful tool for teachers to be used for finding more resources and information about a topic than sticking to a single chapter book. Teachers can explore more online available resources for a particular topic to provide more in depth knowledge to students. Furthermore, the students can be provided with these links for their reference and future revisions. These various resources can be in the form of videos, news stories, online discussion forums, etc. Giving the students with these resources access can encourage them to participate more in the class room discussions.
- Provides easy access to more information
Cell phones are a great tool for information access to students. The research for more information is easier through cellphone use.
What are the disadvantages of cell phones in classroom?
Though cell phones are a great learning tools, an unchecked use by students can easily make their use very challenging and off track. The cell phone use can easily change from an interactive learning tool to a major classroom distraction.
The various cons of cell phones use in school are:
- Leads to distractions and interruptions
Sometimes students use the cell phones more for checking their social media and messaging their friends. This leads to even more distractions for the students as well as the peers. This easily causes a chain reaction of disruptions in the class.
- Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is a major concern caused by the increased use of cell phone in school premises. Cyberbullying can be comparatively not evident visually when compared to other forms of bullying. This makes it even more difficult for teachers to identify this and tackle it before things get worse.
- Cheating
Cell phones though are a helpful learning tool in class, but sometimes students take undue advantage of them while taking a test and lead to cheating. This is not only wrong on the moral and ethical grounds but also unfair to the peers who are attempting the tests fairly.
- Disconnection from physical and social activities
While cell phones are a great way to encourage participation of students in discussions, this might lead to fewer physical discussions and lesser learning opportunities as a result. It is important for students to learn to work with others as a part of life skills. Too much time is lost working on cell phones that it might impact the skills of interacting with people and have a physical conversation.
The cell phones can be used both as a learning tool but also might pose as a distraction in classroom. The key is with the students to use the cell phones judicially as a learning tool and control its use to avoid any distractions. This also means that teachers must also have a better regulation and control over the use of cell phones by students in the class room. The controlled use of these gadgets with some set ground rules in school premises with a close watch can have a better impact of cell phones and other electronic gadgets.
