Mobile technology is everywhere. Today kids are learning to surf the web on iPhones and iPads before they learn that 9 comes after 8. It's even more astounding to me because after managing to get my first phone, at about 8 years old, I immediately locked myself out of it by forgetting the password. Because of the advancements in handheld tech, mobile technology has become far more accessible to the majority of people. It is indeed the case that a lot of people will choose a tablet over a desktop PC and it is for these reasons that mobile technology has found a place in education.
But what of my experiences?
Well apart from my initial mishap I have adapted quickly to any new device of mobile technology I have come across. As I have mentioned I have been using mobile phones since around 8 and I believe I got my first 'smart' phone at the end of Year 10 of Comprehensive. I use the term 'smart' as although it had access to the internet enabled, that internet access was run off a pay-as-you-go contract and cost an arm, a leg and six ribs to load a single page. Even though this might take away from what most people consider mobile technology these days I still consider these early phones in the same bracket. Before these comparatively small phones (my first phone could only be described as an antenna strapped to a boulder), the only way you could communicate to your mum that you'd be late home because you were defending your honour on the FIFA pitch was either through a land-line or carrier pigeon. It was amazing that you could speak to people anywhere in the world using a device that would fit (eventually) into your pocket.
My first modern mobile phone came in the form of an iPhone 4S. I was slightly late onto the iPhone train but was hooked the minute I stepped aboard. The sheer amount of data and applications that could be stored on a device as thin as a pack of paper was, and still is mind blowing. I never really considered an iPhone as a tool for us in education. Since learning about ICT methods of teaching in University however I can really see the benefits. So much so in fact that I incorporated the use of mobile phones into a lesson I taught. As part of a task students were challenged to answer a set of questions using their mobiles to conduct research. This experience went very well and I feel that I will be using it a lot more in future. The use of mobile phones to answer questions or research arguments allows for students to be more detailed an thorough in their work in an environment away from computers. For this reason I am an advocate of their use.
Away from mobile phones I have experiences with a number of other devices. Most notable would be MP3 players and a short period using tablets. As my experiences with tablets have been very limited the only other piece of mobile technology that I have used which is related to education are laptops. Throughout University I constantly brought my laptop to lectures and seminars to not only record notes but to quickly do further research into topics. One problem I found with this usage however is that my mind tends to wander...
This would mean that I would occasionally stray to Sky Sports or Facebook during lectures and although this (believe it or not) helps me listen, it was not long before I wandered further afield. This was the point at which I tried to play Football Manager during a lesson. My laptop, being a few years old, decided it was not happy with a worldly existence and wanted to join the birds in the sky. To achieve this it kicked its fan into overdrive and tried to take flight, the noise this created was rather distracting and I quickly closed the game and listened intently to the rest of the lesson. Despite its facilitation of procrastination a laptop is an unbelievably useful tool of mobile technology. During seminars if I didn't know the answer to a question coming up I'd be able to quickly research the answer and interact with the class. Also, using a laptop to take notes means all notes are well presented, organised and in little danger of going missing.
So those are my experiences, a decade or so of forgotten passwords, procrastination and, most importantly, learning.
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