The Use Of Mobile Phones In Education

In a rapidly changing world in which technology proliferates, it seems as though the global village is shrinking and people in all corners of the world are increasingly using technology for their everyday tasks, from instant communication, to shopping. “Foreign ideals and culture are easily spread and adapted by indigenous people in all corners of the globe via radio, television and now especially, computers and the internet” (Jagne et al, 2004, p. 2). Despite the fact that this digitization of the world seems to make things easier, educators are still struggling with how best to use technology (and which technologies to use) to improve teaching and learning. Teachers deserve credit for trying to relate to their students by infusing the latest and greatest technologies into their classrooms, however, the fact that they are being used does not necessarily mean that they are improving learning. Part of the problem lies with the useability of technologies in …show more content…
We know that students use mobile phones for everything from instant communication to entertaining themselves, so why is it that they have not ‘caught on’ as learning tools? I have often pondered this question when I am designing units of learning for my students, and I think the answer lies in the technology’s multimedia and interface design. Both Ting (2012), and Tan et al (2012) see the greater difficulty in reading text on a mobile phone (as a result of its small screen size) as well as the lack of mouse and keyboard as major limitations to the use of mobile phones in learning. They also point out the graphical limitations of mobile phones in displaying pictures and images as further barriers. It would seem that mobile phones are great for on-the-go, instant communication but not necessarily good to enhance learning…at least not