Don't Turn off Their Cell Phones, Use Them

I truly believe that the saying, "If you can't beat them, join them," certainly has its place in the mind of an Instructional Designer. One of the biggest challenges I hear from educators, especially those who are in the classroom or lecture hall, is the ubiquity of cell phones and other electronic devices such as iPads, iPods, Kindles, and so on.

Most of what I hear is in the form of making sure students turn them off, put them away, and pay attention. What if our students were engaged in the subject matter at the same level they are in texting and other uses of their mobile devices?

Jim Leligdon proposes this very thing in his post, "3 Ways to Incorporate Cell Phones in the Classroom" on the Langevin Blog. Imagine students texting to each other and friends about today's subject right in class. The trick would be to connect today's lesson with meaningful information the students already know. Meaningful information is retained because of these connections (Ormond 2009 p. 84). A history teacher could have students text their parents asking where they were the day Kennedy was shot. A botony unit could include exercises where students receive image on their phones of plants that then need to identify. What if groups of students discussed today's lesson via texting long after the class was over?

I find the Langevin Blog very friendly and positive. It's easy to read and his insights are valuable as a starting point in finding and perusing new instructional design ideas. This blog is a marketing tool of Langevin Learning Services, a company that offers training to Instructional Designers.

One of the uses of cell phones in classrooms is as part of an audience response system (ARS). The instructor asks a question and the students use their devices to submit answers. Usually the members of the audience are given devices called, clickers, to give their responses. This particular use of cell phones in classrooms was part of a study conducted in Canada by Eric Tremblay. One of the observations of the study was that, "... most students often renewed their interest in the lecture material after conducting and ARS activity (Tremblay 2010 p. 223).

Tremblay's article about the study, "Educating the Mobile Generation," was published in the Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching. I was at first skeptical of the potential of using students' cell phones to engage them in the classroom, so I searched for professional journal articles on the subject. Tremblay proposes that the idea is supported by Constructivism Learning Theory (p. 218) in that it increases or creates students' "active interaction with the subject matter."

I believe the concept warrants consideration and perhaps some experimentation. Since I'm not a live instructor very often, I'll be looking for ways to incorporate cell phones and other communication devices into the Internet-based training I create.

What ideas do you have to integrate cell phones into your instructional design?

References

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.

Tremblay, E. (2010). Educating the Mobile Generation – using personal cell phones as audience response systems in post-secondary science teaching. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching. 29 (2), pp. 217-227. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.