Cell-phone & Education

Mobile Learning

Using Cell Phones as an Instructional Device for education.

One area of education technology that we do not focus on enough is the ability for technology to aid teachers in assessing and tracking management in the classroom.
Over the last few years a great number of mobile apps have emerged to aid in the process of tracking student management and making it transparent education.
A great free app that tracks and manages student's behavior.
In addition to focusing on behavior it also works as a learning management system (LMS), where it includes grades, attendance and evaluation of activities. You can use your mobile device to assign behaviors and see over time how the behavior correlates with the classroom grades. It includes seating charts and customizable behavior options. There are also graphical reports for students and parents to view.
Using cell phone in the classroom brings a lot of benefits to both students and teachers. Especially when it comes to flipped classroom, the possibilities of real-time communication, brainstorming, and note-taking will be the huge advantages what technology brings to education.

But there are always concerns about distractions it might bring along with the benefits, as a significant number of followers here already mentioned. Young students are very fast to play with the smartphones (or even with cellphones), so it might be challenging for teachers control the student's personal usage during the class. Regardless of the concerns and worries, we cannot think smart phone, as a representative of cell phones in classroom, to be excluded in education when it has already being used in our daily lives. As Scott mentioned below, we need to keep pursuing the ways of how to make our students to use smart phones (or cell phones) academically rather than personally.
Cell phone use by students while at school has been a particularly controversial topic. Many educators, tutors and teachers argue that cell phones are a distraction and should be banned. As recently as a few years ago, high schools around the country prohibited them entirely. Today, a more moderate philosophy prevails, and most high schools allow cell phone use in the halls between classes. (Middle schools still generally ban them.) It seems school administrators have accepted that mobile communication is an integral part of our society and that teachers should educate students on appropriate cell phone conduct rather than try to eliminate cell phones entirely.According to a recent study by the CTIA Wireless Association, over 90% of the US population now subscribes to cell phone service. Even young children are joining the wireless revolution; over 20% of 6-9 year olds and 60% of 10-14 year olds own a cell phone according to C&R Research.

This trend will only increase, and it's up to parents and teachers to balance the pros and cons of using cell phones as part of the learning process. While there is no single solution, perhaps there are lessons to be learned from the early internet era. The internet was at first seen as a new frontier with dangers lurking behind each click, whereas today schools and parents have universally embraced the web as a medium for research, education and efficient communication. With appropriate safeguards and reasonable policies, perhaps cell phones and web-enabled smart phones can run a similar course.