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Cell Phones in the Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives

Cell Phones in the Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives. Dr. Kevin M. Thomas. SITE, 2012 Austin, TX. My Interest 2007 Blogging with high school students 2008 Texting with high school students 92% found the texts to be valuable Questions Additional Practice Reminders Absent

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Cell Phones in the Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives

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  1. Cell Phones in the Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives Dr. Kevin M. Thomas SITE, 2012 Austin, TX

  2. My Interest • 2007 Blogging with high school students • 2008 Texting with high school students • 92% found the texts to be valuable • Questions • Additional Practice • Reminders • Absent • When asked if other teachers should use texting she responded, “Of course! There is no reason not to.” • (Thomas & Orthober, 2010) Background

  3. Ban • 62% (Pew, 2010) of schools have a ban on cell phones in the classroom. • There is really no empirical evidence to support the ban. • Why now? • Cell Phones have changed dramatically. • I had a captive audience of over 100 K-12 teachers to survey. Background

  4. Research Questions • Do teachers support the integration of cell phones into the classroom? • If so, what classroom benefits do cell phones provide? • If not, what barriers do you perceive to allowing cell phones in the classroom? Research Questions

  5. Attendees 101 K-12 teachers at the Imagining the Future of Learning (IFL) conference held annually at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY. Participated 79 (78%) participated in the study by completing the cell phone survey Gender 53 (67.1%) female and 26 (32.9%) male Participants

  6. Grade Level • 30 (38%) elementary • 19 (24.1%) middle • 30 (38%) school • Teaching Experience • 16 (20.3%) had 1-5 years’ experience, • 16 (20.3%) had 6-10 years’ experience and • 47 (59.5) had 11+ years’ experience teaching. • All of the participants worked at schools with policies against the use of cell phones in the classroom. Participants

  7. What was gathered? • Basic demographic information • Beliefs regarding the appropriateness of cell phones in the classroom • Perceived benefits and barriers • Development of Survey • Potential barriers, benefits, and uses were identified in the review of literature on cell phones in education. • All survey data was coded as categorical. • Cronbach’s alpha • For the survey items was  = .73 suggesting that the survey is reliable because items have relatively high internal consistency. Survey

  8. Survey Development: Barriers • There are problems associated with using cell phones in the classroom. • 1st order barriers • Access/Cost • Time • Training • 2nd order barriers • Teachers’ Attitude • Disruption • Texting • Sexting • Cheating • Cyberbullying SURVEY

  9. Survey Development: Benefits • As cell phones have changed from “mobile phones” to small, inexpensive, portable computers, benefits have also emerged: • Engagement • Interaction • Motivation • Collaboration • Communication • Creativity • Bridging the Digital Divide • Anytime learning • Improved digital fluency • Assign and collect student work • Enter grades SURVEY

  10. Data Analysis • Differences between teacher responses on cell phone use in the classroom based on • gender, • grade level, • and years of experience, • and if so, whether the differences were statistically significant. • Frequencies • Pearson Chi-squares • Cross tabulations • Pearson Chi-squares • Kruskal-Wallis • Data were reported as frequencies, cross tabulations, Pearson Chi-squares, and Kruskal-Wallis Chi-squares. Data Analysis

  11. Questions 1: Do teachers support the use of cell phones in the classroom? 69.6% = Yes The Pearson Chi-square showed that the frequency pattern was statistically significant, X2 = 13.13, df = 1, p < .05. The cross tabulation showed that the association between gender and support use of cell phones in the classroom are not the same. Females support the use (74.5%) of cell phones over males (25.5%). Findings

  12. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? Findings

  13. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? #1 Lack of Access/Cost = 60.8% Findings

  14. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #1 Lack of Access/Cost • 85% of adults and • 75% of teens own a cell phone (Smith, 2010). • 82% of high school aged teens own a cell phone (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). • Teen ownership has increased by 40% since 2004 (Smith, 2010). Findings

  15. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #1 Lack of Access/Cost • Teens from low socio-economic homes often use their cell phones to go online. • 41% of teens from homes earning less than $30,000 per year say they use their cell phones to access the internet (Lenhart, Ling, Campbell, Purcell, 2010). • More African Americans, 44%, and Hispanics, 35%, teens use their cell phones to go online more than their Caucasian counterparts, 21% (Lenhart, Ling, Campbell, Purcell, 2010). Findings

  16. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? #2 Class Disruption = 50.6% A ringing phone that interrupts instruction can negatively impacts student performance when being tested on the material being covered (Shelton, Elliott, Lynn and Exner, 2011). Participants in the ringing condition performance was significantly worse on the disrupted test items (End, Worthman, Mathews, Wetterau, 2010). Findings

  17. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? #3 Students accessing inappropriate content off the internet = 46.8% Findings

  18. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? #4 Cyberbullying = 38% #5 Cheating = 34% #6 Texting = 25.3% #7 Sexting = 25% Findings

  19. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #4 Cyberbullying • 26% of teens have been harassed through their mobile phone either by calls or text messages • (Lenhart et al., 2010) Findings

  20. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #5 Cheating • 1/3 high school students admitted cheat with cell phones • 65% reports classmates use their phones to cheat • 26% store information on their phones to retrieve during a test • 25% text a friend about test answers • 17% take pictures of tests to send their friends • 20% search the internet for answers during a test • (CommonSense Media, 2010; Lenhart, Ling, Campbell and Purcell, 2010) Findings

  21. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? #5 Cheating 1980: 75% of students reported cheating in school (Baird, 1980). 2005: 74% of students reported cheating in school (Pickett & Thomas, 2006) Findings

  22. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #6 Texting • Students code switch • Textese is not harmful to students’ ability to write. • Texting did NOT negatively affect students’ writing skills. • Data supported exactly the opposite conclusion: students who texted more often wrote more and had better writing and spelling skills than their peers who texted less • (Plester et al., 2008) Findings

  23. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #6 Texting • 16 or more texts in a 30-minute period—student performance was only slightly worse than those receiving no texts or a few texts. • Moderate Text group, which sent and received 8 texts in 30 minutes, did not do any worse than those who got essentially no texts. (p. 173) (Rosen, Lim, Carrier, and Cheever, 2011) Findings

  24. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? • #7 Sexting • 4% of teens have reported sending a sexual image of themselves in a text • 15% report having received a sexual image via text message. • 44% of both teen girls and teen boys acknowledge that it is common for sexually suggestive text messages to be shared with people other than the intended recipient. • National Campaign, 2009 Findings

  25. Questions 2: What barriers to Cell Phone Use Do Teachers Perceive? #7 Sexting There is no empirical evidence to support the claim that cell phones increase incidents of students talking or writing about sex. Nor is there anything inherent in the technology that supports aberrant behavior. Findings

  26. Questions 3: What benefits to cell phone use do teachers see? 70% (n=56) are already using cell phones for school/class related work. Findings

  27. Questions 3: What benefits to cell phone use do teachers see? #1 Communication with colleagues, students, parents = 35.4% #2 Collaborate with other teachers = 30.4% #3 To remind myself, colleagues or students of deadlines, tasks = 27.8% Findings

  28. Questions 3: What benefits to cell phone use do teachers see? Findings

  29. Questions 3: What benefits to cell phone use do teachers see? Increased Engagement = 58% Increased Motivation = 25% Findings

  30. Questions 3: What benefits to cell phone use do teachers see? • What types of phones did participants use? • What were their technology skill levels? • What was the age of the participants? • Why did women support use of cell phones more than men • Why was there not a difference in the number of elementary and secondary teachers who rated access as a problem? Findings

  31. 2001 Newburg Road Louisville, KY 40205 502.272.8409 kthomas@bellarmine.edu drkthomas.wikispaces.com Kevin M. Thomas, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Bellarmine University Frazier School of Education Questions

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