Mobile phones may ring the changes in classroom

MOBILE phones could be used by teachers to help them learn on the job and share experiences with other colleagues according to a report by an academic.

Hull University’s Kevin Burden teamed up with the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, to investigate how mobile technologies impact on the classroom.

Their report says mobiles can be used as learning tools for both students and teachers who will be able to use devices to record moments in a classroom to analyse and discuss with others.

Instead of relaying an incident to colleagues in the staffroom teachers will be able to show how lessons are unfolding and share incidents with teachers around the country or beyond.

However, the report warns that use of mobiles in this way will raise ethical issues.

The report says: “Mobile technologies have the capacity to add new dimensions to teacher professional learning. Mobile learning provides an unrealised opportunity for the facilitation of observation, critique and sharing of activities in the classroom.”

The study found that some teachers were already using the technology in this way. One teacher used his mobile phone to video, audio record and photograph student role-plays in his science classes.

However, others interviewed for the report thought that this was unusual and that because most teachers see mobile phones as personal communication devices, their use in the classroom is “probably a generation away”.

Mr Burden who works for Hull University’s Centre for Educational Studies said: “Teachers could well be liberated by the technology. They could feel empowered by the partnership with students if they are prepared to work alongside them and allow them to use mobile phones as a learning tool rather than seeing them as subversive technologies.”