Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

At a recent international training session, I was interested to hear from one teacher in Bavaria that mobiles had to be switched off in the federal state’s schools by law. Previously mobile phones had been banned from use in lessons. This ban was now extended to breaks. The ban has been brought in following concerns over pornographic videos and clips glorifying violence being found on mobile phones of pupils in Bavaria. Teachers are allowed to grant exceptions, such as a pupil being ill, a lesson being cancelled or a school bus being late.

This week, The education ministry in Greece have gone one stage further by banning children from taking mobile phones to school at all. This follows the rape of a 16 year old girl reportedly being videoed by other students on their mobile phones. The teachers are expected to lead by example and they too could face disciplinary action if their phones are not switched off.

Mobile phones are the most ubiquitous form of information and communications technology hardware in schools. Although not used widely by teachers in education they provide a ready resource for learning. Martin Owen, Director of FutureLab in convinced that mobile phones have the potential to transform the way many schools approach teaching and learning.

“The notion that you’ve got this tool which can be a camera, a cine-camera, a television, a computer and a calculator as well as something you use for talking to other people in your pocket all the time means that you’re armed with a very powerful learning tool.”

While John Traxler, Research Fellow for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wolverhampton has stated that one of the most important qualities a mobile phone can offer is its context-awareness:

“You can have a far more personal spontaneous informal learning experience that can be situated somewhere more relevant than in a classroom. Rather than talking about flora and fauna by looking at slides, you can actually get out there and do natural history, and all the material you need can be with you while you’re in that environment. … Mobile learning is an easy way in for e-learning, working on a small unthreatening device and working up to a larger more powerful computer eases people back into formal learning.”

Learning and Teaching Scotland provides advice on using Mobile phones in the classroom particularly in Modern Foreign Languages, while only yesterday the BBC ran a news story on how Year 8 pupils at Lilian Baylis Technology School in Lambeth have been using their mobile phones to create news stories. Here are the reports:

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The UK of course is not immune from ‘happy slapping’ incidents in schools, and some have banned mobiles from premises as a result. Last year one MP called for mobile phone blocking technology to be introduced in schools. History shows that simply banning technology never produces the result intended. Banning devices from schools does not mean that such incidents will suddenly disappear, educating appropriate use is of course the only action possible, passing laws into statute makes this all the more difficult.

Image credit:
Duane Romanell

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