Teacher’s voice on mobile phones

I have conducted one teacher’s focus group on the use of mobile phones in school activities.
First reaction: I never thought about it.
However, as the discussion went on, some ideas came up: some mentioned the calculator and letting students look in their mobile for contacts numbers of their parents. This information matches student’s feedback on current school’s practices. I still have not posted detailed student’s focus group results (sorry but English writing is a difficult issue for me, as I am sure you may have already noticed :-)).
The experimental situation workshop was designed based on student and teacher’s focus group information

Some of the ideas shared on the focus group:

General considerations on mobile phones and youth
» There is no comparison in what technologies means for them and for us, they always lived with them, it is difficult for us to understand the importance of mobile phones in their life
» Mobile phones are very emotional, rather than the technology what is important is the emotional component
» They live in a network, they are always involved in communication or at least available to communicate, it is almost as if being accessible is an obligation
» Mobile phones are also a symbolic issue, mobile phones are like clothes, are power and status assertions
» We cannot forget about other things such as health; radiation are bad and some even sleep with them under the pillow, maybe we should not encourage them to spend more time with mobile phones

Mobile phones and classrooms
» Our school rules prohibits the use of mobile phones in the classroom, but I think it does not prohibit teachers who want to use it as a curricula resource, I think it just wants to avoid distraction
» Everyone knows that sometimes they use them, secretly of course
» There is some confusion between being allowed in the classroom and use it in classroom, the teacher should supervise when and how they use mobile phones
» Mobile phones must be switched off if the teacher is not using them for classrooms purposes
» More than anything they have to learn rules, realize that there are situations in which they can use and others they cannot
» Ban could be worse, the important thing is to realize in what situations they can use mobile phones
» The most important issue is not technology, the device; it is what they do with it, the activities, in what ways can it be useful

Advantages of mobile phones in curricula activities
» If I send content via SMS to students, they will not resist to see it
» If Internet was more accessible, if it was not so expensive, it would be easier to use it in the classroom, it could be very useful
» I could send and receive SMS with questions to students, but one of the problems is the SMS cost, they are only free of charge within the same operator
» It would be a way to get into their space
» It can be a working tool in various subjects, it is not an end in itself

Disadvantages of mobile phones in curricula activities
» We are riding the wave, I do not know if it is the best, they it like a lot, they use it a lot, and we will contribute further more to this dependence
» We are doing everything wrong, we are strengthening their dependence when we should help them find other ways to connect to the world
» The biggest problem is the number of students per class, they are too many so that teachers may have some control over the activities, and it makes everything more difficult
» For example, if I use the calculator at some point of the lesson, then I will have more difficulty controlling what they do with mobile phones

Preliminary conclusions
We may say that there were positive reactions to mobile phones in curricula activities, but at the end, no teacher expressed the will to try to use them.
Maybe this reality must be presented as a more familiar issue to teachers. Mobile phones are perceived as being student’s territory not theirs. This rouses resistance to adventure into an unknown territory.