“My school” in SMS

The initial practical activity proposed to students was: Reportage "My School". But as the results came out it became clear that the functionalities students use in this task are: sound and movie recorder, and camera. Although SMS is the most used mobile phones feature (see post “Frequency and use of mobile phones”), the way the task was designed did not facilitate its use. Since one of our main objectives is to explore ways in which young people actually use mobile phones, we introduced a variant to the initial task, and know present: “My school” in SMS.

Mission: to describe their school to other city students, using SMS.

1st step:
Presentation of the activity

2nd step:
They may go out of the office and walk around in school. They must produce the reportage as if it was live (as if the other students are reading the SMS at the same time that they send it).
Rules:
· 4 students compose the group
· They will go out in pairs
· Each pair has one mobile phone
· They have 30 minutes to accomplish the task
· The pairs should not send similar information (they should communicate between them to fulfil this rule)
· My mobile phone will be the receptor of the SMS, as if it belonged to the other city students.
· All the SMS must be sent to me, including those exchanged between them must be forwarded to me
· They make take some pictures, but only as a SMS illustration

3rd step:
Check if all SMS have been sent to my mobile phone
Transfer taken photos to my mobile phone
Discussion with students about the task - difficulties, facilitators, adventures, ...

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.

Student’s mobile productions

I have done three workshops with students and I must say that I am quite satisfied with the results.

First, they did not have any difficulty to understand the proposed activity. To use mobile phones to do reportage about their school seemed natural and familiar, as if I had asked them to write a text or other familiar school activity.

The first idea was always about the use of camera or videos. These were the features used to produce the reportage. Some also added some sound records.

The script was a useful tool. They all mentioned that it was important to take the script with them. It would help them to record all the intended situations and not forget anything important.

The videos produced are more than simple recording of the school building and surroundings; they all have an explicit concern to reflect upon on some school issues, for instance school safety.

To manage the recorded files in each mobile phone was an easy task for them. Bluetooth seems to be an everyday tool they use for exchange of photos, music and videos; that is why they are quite familiar with it.

They suggested that it would be possible to have a better result if they could edit their videos and photos on a computer.
Their enthusiasm and ability to produce the reportage gave me the confidence that there is a real possibility to use mobile phones in curricular activities.

Snapshots of videos produced by students with their mobile phones: student's shadows while recording a video and student demonstrating school’s lack of security

Experimental situation - workshop

Based on the information of students and teacher’s focus group, an experimental situation was designed.
Each group that performs this experimental situation has 4 students (2 female, 2 male).
I will be doing this experimental situation with 6 groups (2 of 7th, 8th and 9th grades).

Reportage "My School"
Challenge students to make a reportage about their school in order to present to students of other city.
The reportage can only be done using mobile phones and must be held within the prearranged time.

Steps:
1 - Developing a script (outline of the story): what they intend to do, how they record and produce, and how they organize tasks distribution. This step is conducted in my office and recorded on video. (maximum 20 ')
2 – Reportage production – students can leave the office to make records. Everybody can take their phones or use only one per group, according to what was decided in the script. (maximum 30 ')
3 - Final assembly of reportage (selection and arrangement of the various records). This step is conducted in my office and recorded on video. The final result must be displayed in one mobile phone and sent to mine (as they choose: Bluetooth, SMS, infrared, etc..) (maximum 20 ')
4 - Conversation group for analysis and discussion of the reportage - difficulties, facilitators, adventures, ... (maximum 20 ')

Today was my first experimental situation group. Soon I will give some feed-back on results.