Oct
24

Mobiles – the tool of the future?

Filed Under (Reactions) by madhu on 24-10-2008



I just read Sue Waters’ blog on whether mobiles are THE tool of the future.  

While I was on prac recently, I was conducting a Jeopardy style game involving maths questions for a Year 8 class and I asked for a volunteer for a timekeeper (time allowed for each question was 1 minute). The student who volunteered for the role took out her mobile phone to use as a watch.  I didnt see any problem with this.  After all, the phone was being used to aid with the lesson.  (Also, I myself do not wear a watch and use my mobile phone as my timekeeping device).  So I was quite surprised when I got told off (albeit mildly) at the end of the lesson for allowing the student to use a mobile phone in class in violation of school policy!!!

Mobile Phone Addict by *keng.

Image: ‘Mobile Phone Addict’. Made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence. Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kengz/61892067/ 

A large proportion of students in our secondary classrooms already own and use mobile phones. It is up to schools to rethink their blanket ban policy on the use of mobile phones in classrooms, so educators can tap into the potential of this technology.  We as beginning teachers need to be leading this change by lobbying and influencing decision makers.
 
 
 

 

 

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2 Responses to “Mobiles – the tool of the future?”

  1.   Sue Waters Says:
      October 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Unfortunately this doesn’t surprise me. In Western Australia they would like to ban mobile devices in all public schools. Most schools now have policies that prevent their use mainly because of concerns of inappropriate usage.

    This isn’t an issue for Australia alone. Many countries in the World have the same attitude towards their use. Which is a shame because there is so much potential for how they could be used.

  2.   madhu Says:
      October 25th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    I agree. The same concerns could also apply to computers (IM, email etc could be considered inappropriate use within the school)…

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