TITLE:
Appropriation and Educational Uses of Mobile Phones by Students and Teachers at a Public University in Mexico
AUTHORS:
Javier Organista-Sandoval, Arturo Serrano-Santoyo
KEYWORDS:
Technology Integration, Educational Trends
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.5 No.12,
June
26,
2014
ABSTRACT:
This article
presents a study on appropriation and educational uses of cell phones. For the
research, a random sample of 954 students and 246 teachers was selected,
representing respectively 12% and 24% of the total population in two facilities
of UABC in Ensenada, Mexico. Our survey showed that 97% of teachers or students
have some kind of cell phone or smartphone. However, we observed that one of
every four interactions with the mobile device had a concrete educational
purpose. We also found that in general the educational use of the cell phone is
mainly aimed to establish communication between the students and to access
information via Internet. However, in spite of its limitations, our results
show that the cell phone is a technological tool with great pedagogical
potential. We suggest that institutional policies are necessary in order to tap
that the cell phone potential to adequately support the teaching-learning
process.