Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a brilliant course on mobile learning. The course was run by Nicky Hockly of SEETA (South Eastern EuropeTeachers Associations) and was entitled mLearning: an introduction.
It was as well, the course was an introduction as I knew practically nothing about mLearning beforehand. If I'd had to guess, I would have said "learning by mobile phones". Thankfully, the course sorted out that misconception early. mLearning can involve any form of mobile devices. However, I had a couple of instances in my class where mobile phones were mentioned or used, in a constructive way. My previous post listed one, where a student asked if I could write an app to help them with revision. Before Nicky's course I would have laughed at the idea of writing my own app. Now I have the confidence to try to find out how I can learn to do so.
This wonderful and instructive course also came just in time to make me stop and think before acting in a way I might have done earlier.
One of my classes was doing a practical, investigating lenses. I spotted a couple of students using a mobile phone, so I wandered over to see how they were using it.. At first, they looked guilty as though I'd caught them doing something they shouldn't, but when I not only allowed them to continue, but also showed an interest in their novel use of the mobile phone, they were just so pleased, chatting freely and more animatedly than ever before.
In fact, they were simply using the phone screen as an object instead of the lamp I'd given them - hardly a ground-breaking idea, but hey, they thought of it first. It gave me an opportunity not just to listen to them talking about a subject they clearly knew more about than me, but I did also manage to squeeze a little Physics discussion in as well!
I think sometimes we need to remember the excitement of doing something different, something new, no matter how simple it may be. We also need to allow our students to be the "experts" at times, without fear of losing control. My students didn't respect me any less because I admitted knowing very little about their phones, in fact I gained respect by listening to their opinions and showing an interest in what excites them. We've enjoyed a much greater dialogue during the past week than ever before and the students seem to want to share their ideas more.
Allowing their technology into the classroom instead of banning it may bring unexpected rewards. I look forward to the challenge of exploring this further in the near future.
