Cell Phones in the : Bane or Boon in the Classroom

Cell Phones in the : Bane or Boon in the Classroom

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  By: Nyms M.Docdocil Teacher I- San Roque Elementary School Department of Education (Philippines) Division of Malaybalay City It cannot be denied that cell phone is a common thing among elementary grade pupils. As observed, young school children have more time manipulating their cell phones rather than reading their books and answering their assignments. According to some teachers, cell phones can bring great disruptions in the classroom. From replying text messages moving across the rooms, to lessons interjected by rack-music ringtones, peeping phones just to share non-sense jokes to classmates, these gadgets are responsible for nationwide frustration among Philippine educators. Exacerbate, pupils have utilized their cellular phones to engage cheating during examinations and annoy other pupils, even during class hours. These disturbances are certainly a nuisance in ensuring teaching and learning in the effective way. The usage of cellular phones inside the classroom has been a hot issue in many educational debates. Most of us think that it is really an unsuitable utilization of technology, since it has a greater percentage to be used by pupils in wrong ways. In contrary, there is a rising concept among education catalysts, education leaders, and innovators that cell phones just do not bring disadvantages but there seemed to be a prospective concept to use these small handsets to be of good use in education. In this article, I would like to share some ways and instances that the use of cellular phones is of great potential in the classroom. These ways will let you see that cell phones are not threats to education but they become a teaching tool. Cell phones allow users to take photos and capture videos. These features of cell phones can be used effectively some teaching strategies in Science lessons. Take this as an example, a teacher can let the pupils take pictures of their data found in a biological nature walk, or record a video that they have faithfully conducted the instructed activities. During the group presentation, their data could be transferred to a computer and would be projected by a monitor. Reporting is done differently from a typical way. Meaningful learning takes place on the part of the learner and monitoring by the teacher is made easier. This is very timely, since most schools in the Division of Malaybalay have received their ICT equipment. Introduced smart phones nowadays are able to download applications on the web. Educational friendly Apps like Webster dictionaries with pronunciation guide, Math Interactive games, Math Lab, Science E-lab and even Bible App are available and easy to download in the net. These applications will provide much better learning environment without sacrificing any of the key educational tools necessary to provide a quality learning environment. Being connected to the World Wide Web is an edge for schools to extend leaning outside the four walls of the classroom. Cell phones can connect to the internet using a Wi-Fi system. This would allow children to surf the net with their assignments, projects and answers to their ultimate questions about class lessons using their phones. This will bring them big improvement to their capabilities. Although cell phone is not the best device to be used in surfing but, it can be the most portable school gadget to access information from the net quickly. Cell phones are amazing tools that our pupils already have in their possessions. Let us try to strategize worthwhile things from an existing problem. When used properly, and with the proper safeguards, cell phone can be teachers’ partner in carrying out all classroom tasks. A normative standard must be set by the school to be strictly followed. You may invent and design your own way of utilizing cell phones in educational instruction.