Embarking on a Wiki

There are many different arguments over the question of implementing mobile phones into the classroom. After reading the wikispace where the question was posted for the thoughts and views of everyone enrolled into this course, it gave me many different things to think about. Positive and negative points were added onto this page and all views were extremely valid. Each of the responses to the questions were placed under each of De Bono’s thinking hats so the statements were easy to understand. I placed my views under the red hat which is the intuitive hat where the thoughts and feelings of the question are recorded.

My thoughts on whether mobile phones should be implemented into schools:

I feel that there are many advantages and disadvantages to this question. Mobile phones could definitely benefit in the classroom if they are used correctly and monitored to make sure the students are using them for the best of their advantages. Small things that could help students could be the calendar and calculator to apps that could be downloaded onto the newer smart phones like word apps, musical apps, iBooks, maths and many other different types. The keypads on any phones could also benefit the young students for many different reasons from the positioning of the numbers to the letters that correspond with the number on each key. The internet could also be a very good tool for students to use with the different educational games and search engines that can be used.
Although there are advantages there are many disadvantages as well. If the phones are owned by the students (mainly teenagers) there may be many different issues that could arise. During my teenage years at high school, there was an instance where inappropriate photos were sent to nearly the whole senior grade of the school. The internet could also help the students to find illegal photos or even videos on youtube that they would have no restriction to due to the fact that the phone is their own. Texting in class could also be an issue where the students are distracted by their friends and even social networking.