Mobile phones Wiki

Ah huh! The second week, something new and interesting came out again. Wiki? The first thing came up in my mind was wikipedia, but here it is not. Wiki here is actually wikispaces, yes it is a space, just like MSN Space, another new place to blog. (http://www.wikispaces.com/) I then followed the instructions and applied for my own Wikispaces. In other words, a wiki is an online space where users and guests can edit, modify, add, remove information with intuitive editing tools.

In this week's activity we participated in the school group's Wiki on mobile phones issue - should mobile phones be used in the classroom? It's like a debate. And we were using de Bono's six thinking hats, and I found it very helpful for me to understand issues.

The de Bono Hats system (also known as "Six Hats" or "Thinking hats") is a thinking tool for group discussion and individual thinking. Combined with the idea of parallel thinking which is associated with it, it provides a means for groups to think together more effectively, and a means to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. For mobile phones using in the classroom, these are what my thoughts are:

The question of whether mobile phones should be allowed in schools has been hotly debated over the years. Most school administrations regard cell phone use as disruptive and distracting, and have implemented policies that prohibit using them on school grounds. In fact, the real decision regarding cell phones lies with parents. Short of checking each and every backpack, school officials can only enforce cell phone bans if they catch a student with a prohibited device.

Personally speaking, the idea of using mobile phones in the classroom is not wise enough. Before any negative factors are fixed properly it is hard to manage everything, it's hard for both teachers and students.

Using mobile phone in the classroom in many cases will make students not focused in their studies, for example they can be easily disturbed by some other applications like games, chats, messages from their mobile phones other than using studying resources, even through some of students can control themselves properly, the situation is that students can effect each other, therefore eventually there will not be a good studying hemisphere in the classroom. Since most schools already have enough computers to support the students then mobile phones are kind of useless.

This is the logical positive. There are lots of appliactions can be used in mobile phone, some of them are useful. For example students may need dictionary in the class sometimes. Other applications such calculator, google map and videos etc.

My suggestions for making good use of mobile phones for students to use in the classroom is that schools should provide these facilities to students rather than letting each student have their own. By doing this schools can put only whatever is needed for student in class to make sure each application students are using is for their study not for other purpose. However it is a big cost for schools.

I think nowadays mobile phones are just started to be used a lot in education, for example many students in the US now start using IPADs in their classroom, however since the cost of these things are still quite high, therefore it is hard for each school to have those tools for each students in the classroom.