Regulation of the Use of Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Part I.

My original research question was “what is the overall effect of mobile device regulations in the classroom?”  Realizing this was covering too broad a scope, I narrowed it down to look specifically at student preference in relation to various classroom policies related to mobile device use.

This question has been in the back of my mind since my time as a Pre-Professional.  What first struck me was simply the classroom management issue.  In a few of the classrooms I observed there was a fair amount of flexibility about mobile device use.  For example, students could use their devices during work time to listen to music or they could enter the classroom using them during passing period.  This flexibility meant that managing mobile device use was significantly more difficult.  Of course some students pretended to “check what playlist they wanted to listen to” while they were in actuality, texting.  Not only did this feel like a difficult situation for the teacher, it meant that students could more easily get themselves in trouble because the policy was ambiguous.   

My first placement as a Student Teacher was at a junior high where there was absolutely no cell phone (implied any personal mobile device) use during the school day (including passing periods and lunch).  This simplified matters significantly.  Classroom management was easier and there was zero ambiguity, so students knew exactly what to expect if they used their devices.  At the time, I thought this system was the ideal set up.

Then I went to a high school that had no school-wide policy, so I got to see many different classroom policies.  This was very similar to what I had observed as a Pre-Professional, but I now had a new perspective.  I was beginning to think about it with a wider mindset than classroom management and was beginning to feel skeptical.  It felt extremely artificial to reject all use of mobile devices.  As I told students repeatedly to put their phones away, I felt increasingly hypocritical. 

I am very tied to my own use of technology.  I use my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro constantly.  I understand that there are times to not use my devices, but in most situations, I would think it was very strange if someone told me I could not use my phone to look up a quick Google search, put a reminder on my To Do list, take a photo, or add something to my calendar.  Mobile devices have become so much more than social devices and it seems increasingly silly to ignore their existence.  Further, I feel that it is important to teach students how and when to use their devices properly.  However, this does complicate things and I have seen many classrooms where mobile device use is rampant and far from educative.    

I decided to find out what students thought about all of this, so I conducted a survey of my AVID students (all seniors).  I’ve compiled their responses into the following figures.  All of the results should be considered with the surveyed students in mind.  AVID seniors while part of a specific group, are remarkably varied and represent a good cross-section of the school population.  However, as long-term members of AVID, they do have a specific mindset that I am sure played into their responses.  On the flip side, I would guess that it also means their answers are relatively honest. 

This blew me away.  While I know students use their devices often I did not think that “every period” would be so far ahead of “once a day.” 

This did not surprise me very much and, sadly, I think it is pretty accurate.  Teachers’ eyes can only be in so many places at once.  I would like to say that I wish that this graph would change, not because teachers get better at “catching” students, but because a better balance is found, such that teachers increase the amount of time students can use their devices and students decrease their amount of off-task time on their devices.  However, this is clearly overly idealistic and, unfortunately, I do not think this will change even with changes in policy.

This graph pleasantly surprises me because I would have expected “Rarely” to surpass “Sometimes.”    

I chose to ask this question for two reasons.  First, if students are using their devices frequently without teacher permission, how often are their caught and reprimanded?  I was curious to see if teachers are choosing to turn a blind eye to mobile device use.  Second, I was interested to see if students would resent this punishment and therefore, if that would affect the following questions.  This question was specifically related to the idea that when rules are more ambiguous, students may in fact be more likely to be punished than in a classroom that prohibits mobile device use in general.  I find it interesting that the two options are so closely matched. 

The final two questions were the crux of the survey.  This is how they were worded:

Rank the following classroom types in order of preference: (1 = best, 5 = worst)

_____Classes where students can always use their mobile devices for anything

_____Classes where students can sometimes use their mobile devices for anything

_____Classes where students can use their mobile devices for schoolwork only

_____Classes where mobile devices are never allowed

Rank the following classroom types in the order in which you feel you learn the most: (1 = most learning, 5 = least learning)

_____Classes where students can always use their mobile devices for anything

_____Classes where students can sometimes use their mobile devices for anything

_____Classes where students can use their mobile devices for schoolwork only

_____Classes where mobile devices are never allowed

Students interpreted the ranking system in a variety of ways and this was compounded by the fact that I accidentally put 5 as least learning instead of 4.  All students correctly understood that lower numbers were better, so I tallied up the totals for each classroom type for the purposes of comparison.  This is expressed in the following graphs.

I was not very surprised by the responses to the first question about general preference, particularly since three of the classroom types were so closely matched.  I expected most responses to be in the two middle categories.  I was a little surprised that “Classes where students can always use their mobile devices for anything” was as highly ranked, particularly after looking at the second graph.

Students reported that “Classes where students can always use their mobile devices for anything” were the classes where they felt they learned the least and yet they prefer them over “Classes where students can use their mobile devices for schoolwork only.”  This is despite the fact that the latter classroom type was ranked as the environment most conducive for learning.  I would guess that a large proportion of this is based on the weakness of surveys: they show what people think they think rather than what they actually think.  However, I still believe it is a telling discrepancy and that it hints at the truth, which is, simplistically, that they want to be able to use mobile devices in the classroom, but realize they should be primarily (though maybe not always) for schoolwork.

The good news is that students are relatively self-aware about their use of mobile devices.  They understand that using them indiscriminately is unwise, but they also understand that they can be useful devices and that eliminating them from the classroom is unrealistic and strongly disliked.  I tend to believe that we, as teachers, should listen to this.  While, I find it a daunting challenge, I think it is my job (at least when working at a school without a school wide policy) to find a way to allow mobile devices without letting them become a classroom management problem.  I am unsure how to do this specifically, but I think that a big part of this is dependent on acknowledging the use of the devices and teaching how and when it is appropriate to use them, so there is no ambiguity.

Part II.

In order to get at what I have learned over the course of this course, I looked back at my first blog post.  I agree with everything I wrote, but I think there is a lot more involved beyond what I included in that post.  Technology in the classroom means so much more than iPads and Internet resources.  It includes deciding how and when to use students’ personal devices (as I’ve discussed in the first portion of this blog post).  It includes teaching how to use technology effectively.  It includes using technology to communicate with other classrooms.  It includes connecting the classroom to current culture.  In short, technology in the classroom encompasses a lot and I would tend to agree with Caitlin’s claim that “with respect totechnology in education, … it is about time to ‘reinvent the wheel’.”

A lot of what we learned in this class has scared and intimidated me, and very little of it has seemed easy.  However, who am I to think that reinventing the wheel could ever be easy?!  Thankfully, some has seemed inspiring and exciting, so I will hold on to that.  Most importantly, I think my mind has been opened to the ways in which technology can in fact increase collaboration and student involvement in learning.  I think the immediate image of technology in the classroom is a room full of students staring at screens (which is not entirely inaccurate).  However, positive spins on technology in the classroom can create quite a different image.  These include using technology to set up flipped classrooms, to facilitate collaboration outside of the classroom, or even to increase live participation in the classroom! 

Overall, I would say that my vision of technology in education has changed significantly primarily because I see many more opportunities for including technology in the classroom.  That being said, as I mentioned, little of this is easy to implement, so I am concerned that I may not put these ideas into action for a while.  My original vision of technology is much simpler to implement, so I must continue to push myself to move beyond my comfort zone. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog post when answering the question: “when should technology be used in the classroom?” the key is that technology is used “to achieve the learning objective.”  I still firmly believe this, but in addition have come to realize that a major learning objective is comfort with technology itself.  Students need to learn how to use these tools academically and, despite the claim that they are all “digital natives,” few students I have worked with are innately comfortable with academic uses of technology.  This is a crucial skill for our world and one that I think we must take on as part of our responsibility as teachers of the next generation.