Online learning teacher tools include the use of mobile phone technology. However, there are pros and cons to using this technology in the classroom. Some teachers have found constructive ways of incorporating the use of mobile phones in their lesson plans. Other teachers have not and have a strict classroom management policy of not allowing mobile phones during classroom instructional time at all.
Research conducted by communication experts Finn and Ledbetter recommend that teachers develop a classroom policy regarding mobile phone usage in class. Students should be given instructions when mobile phone use in the classroom during instructional time is appropriate and when it is not. Online learning teacher tools can be an asset to traditional classroom learning when students use them only for educational purposes.
The ideal situation is that teachers develop ways to incorporate mobile phone usage into routine classroom instruction. Students will learn to use their mobile phone devices to enhance the quality of their education. They might learn that mobile phone technology can be useful for mastering their lessons instead of used to fill in classroom time by texting or playing Internet games.
Teachers should have the support from administration when establishing classroom policy regarding mobile phone usage. Otherwise, repeat offenders might be sent to the office for discipline regarding disobeying the teacher’s mobile phone usage classroom policy.
On the first day of school, the classroom mobile phone policy should be explained to the class. After that, students will need constant reminders of the mobile phone policy restrictions posted on classroom walls and at other times.
Teachers could find ways to incorporate constructive uses of mobile phones in the classroom as part of the daily lesson plans. Teachers can help students use their mobile phones as online learning teacher tools. Students will be able to have access to online information that will help them understand the subjects they are required to master in school.
Mobile phone technology is here to stay. As long as parents are buying mobile phones for their young children, it will be a challenge to keep these devices out of the classroom altogether. Students will continue to bring, and most likely, use their mobile phones during class times. It will be a challenge for both the teacher and the substitute teacher filling in when the regular classroom teacher is out, to constantly enforce the no mobile phone usage in class policy.
Mobile phones are part of the information age and the ever-changing technological landscape of today. Mobile phones have become a part of our culture. Administrators, teachers and parents should work together to develop an educational policy that will include the use of mobile phones as effective online learning teacher tools.