"Effect of ban on phones adds up to equivalent of extra week
of classes over a pupil’s school year" (Doward, 2015)
But, they’re not troubling for the obvious reason presented
in the story. The premise of the story (and the research on which it was based)
was that mobile devices are distracting students to the level of significant
lost instructional time. And if schools want to see better test scores, then
they had better start banning mobile devices. No. This is not the problem.
A blanket ban on mobile devices because they distract
learners is just the latest in a centuries-old trend of resisting technological
change out of fear of the unknown. Steve Howard (2012, July 14) pointed out
that as far back as 1815 a school principal fought against the introduction of
paper and ink, and lamented that:
Students today depend on
paper too much. They don’t know how to write on a slate without getting
chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t clean a slate properly.
What will they do when they run out of paper?
If we want to leverage new technologies to enhance learning
experiences and bridge current inequities in the classroom, then we cannot
succumb to knee-jerk reactions to alarmist statistics. As Homer Simpson once
said:
 |
| (Source: METTL, 2015) |
What IS troubling with this story (and research) are the
questions that were NOT asked. The research shows an increase in achievement
across ALL schools that have banned mobile devices versus ALL schools that
allow them. BUT, no attempt is made to look at schools that actually plan for
mobile technology integration. It could be that the majority of the schools
polled have no such plans, in which case the argument that mobile devices only
serve to distract students is likely true. But what of schools that have coordinated
their technological infrastructure and pedagogical strategies to leverage
mobile devices within the curriculum?
I have predicated my mobile learning research to date on the
problem that teachers and schools are the barriers to effective integration of
mobile technologies because they lack confidence in the technology. The problem
is NOT that mobile devices are allowed into schools. The problem is that we are
not preparing teachers and schools for an environment of ubiquitous access to
technology. From my dissertation (Power, 2015, p. 11):
Ally (2014) noted that teacher
training continues to be based on an outdated education system model that does
not adequately prepare teachers to integrate mobile technologies into teaching
practice. Lack of training in the pedagogical considerations for the
integration of a specific type of technology can have a negative impact upon
teachers’ perceptions of self-efficacy (Kenny et al, 2010).
Technology will never replace good teachers. But technology
can make good teachers better. Better teacher (and school) preparation will
enable educators to make instructional design decisions that incorporate
technology, and increase student engagement and access to learning
opportunities and resources. My research has shown that professional
development focused on scaffolding technology integration in the context of
desired learning outcomes and appropriate pedagogical decisions does increase
teachers’ interest and confidence in using educational technology. If teachers
are interested, and plan how they will leverage technology in the classroom,
then distraction will decrease and learning will improve.
However, preparing teachers to leverage educational
technology is not enough. We must also prepare students. Yes, if you let
students who have had no guidance access mobile devices, then there is huge
potential for them to be distracted. But, if you teach them digital citizenship
and responsible use, there is less likelihood of distraction. And they will be
better prepared for a world with near universal technology permeation. You
cannot teach digital citizenship or responsible technology use with black and
white policies of either banning all devices, or letting them all in.
Unfortunately, the information technology support departments (and bureaucracies)
of too many school systems (and higher education institutions) still operate with
Acceptable Use Policies, which explicitly detail what is permissible and what
is not. In contrast, Responsible Use Policies focus on making appropriate
decisions about when and how to use technology. (Joe Countryman, Mary-Ann
Vardakas & Melissa Taffe did a presentation on this, and prepared a
wikipage about it for a Problem-Based Learning activity in the
Digital Tools for Knowledge Construction course I teach at
University of Ontario Institute of Technology.)
Before policy makers, or the public at large, jump to the
conclusion that the statistics presented in the Guardian (and also on CNN)
point to the need for an outright ban on mobile devices in education, a number
of questions should be considered:
- How do students perform at schools that have planned for
mobile technology integration?
- How do students perform in classes where teachers have been
prepared to make effective educational technology integration choices?
- What factors are creating barriers to effectively leveraging
mobile technologies in the schools polled in this research? And what can be
done to overcome those barriers?
I do not think that the key to improving learning in schools
is to ban access to technology, as the Guardian story would lead readers to
conclude. Rather, I see the issues raised by this story (and research) as
lending support to the need for more research and funding to support planned
approaches to educational technology integration. To solve these problems, and
the issues raised in the Guardian story, we need to:
- Better prepare teachers to integrate technology in teaching
and learning practice
- Teach digital literacy and digital citizenship
- Adopt Responsible Use policies
References
Ally, M. &
Prieto-Blázquez, J. (2014). What is the future of mobile learning in education?
Mobile Learning Applications in Higher
Education [Special Section]. Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento
(RUSC), 11(1), 142-151. doi
http://doi.dx.org/10.7238/rusc.v11i1.2033
Kenny, R.F., Park,
C.L., Van Neste-Kenny, J.M.C., & Burton, P.A. (2010). Mobile self-efficacy
in Canadian nursing education programs. In M. Montebello, V. Camilleri and A.
Dingli (Eds.), Proceedings of mLearn
2010, the 9th World Conference on Mobile Learning, Valletta, Malta.
Power, R.
(2015). A framework for promoting teacher
self-efficacy with mobile reusable learning objects (Doctoral dissertation,
Athabasca University). Available from http://hdl.handle.net/10791/63
