Mobile devices are everywhere on campus—cellphones, tablets, laptops, e-readers, mobile watches. The majority of university students rely on mobile devices to access information. Today’s students are not accustomed to relegating academic tasks to one physical desk or study space. Rather, students expect immediate answers to their questions and availability of course resources, as well as personal activities, on a range of mobile devices. Allowing those devices, and that reflex resort to connection, in the classroom has challenges as well as benefits, but given the ubiquity of mobile technology and its ability to connect students with information, it is worthwhile to consider the ways instructors can design their courses to take advantage of mobile technology in the classroom.
Weekly Ed-Tech Spotlight:
If you like having students comment on and annotate lecture slides, remember that both Perusall and Hypothesis will enable that kind of annotation. Both tools are available to UofM, via Canvas.
The positive implications of increasing accessibility for all learners is a strong argument to consider using mobile devices in the classroom. For students without access to a computer, a smart phone, tablet, or streaming computer such as a Chromebook may be the only tool available for accessing the LMS or collaboration files like Google Docs. Allowing students to access course content and tools from whatever device is available to them is a more equitable approach to using technology in the classroom, and many students take notes primarily with their laptops or devices. For students struggling with a particular concept, mobile devices also provide a way to immediately look up further explanations, allowing students to provide their own just-in-time learning. Building in pauses to do just that, and possibly report out the results, will encourage on-topic rather than distracting use of devices.
Access to devices also guarantees that each student has the opportunity to contribute to the classroom community. In larger courses, engaging with peers or the instructor using backchannel chat tools, remote polling, or online Q&A forums, may be the best opportunity for a student to connect with the classroom community. Even in smaller courses where it may appear that everyone has the opportunity to be heard without such tools, students with learning disabilities, second language learners, neurodivergent learners, and even students who are simply shy may find it difficult to participate orally. For these students, the option to provide written/typed responses during class via online discussion forums or chat forums provides access to class activities and interaction, and opportunities to be actively engaged. Just as many instructors found success using the chat feature when teaching on Zoom, making time during a face-to-face class to review the chat feed pulls the contributions of less vocal students into the learning space.
Another advantage of utilizing devices in class is increasing the scope of class activities. Many instructors are already using web based tools outside of class to encourage student engagement with course material. For example, some instructors use Perusall and Hypothesis to require thorough annotations of assigned readings in preparation for discussion-based class sessions. Other instructors use discussion tools like Yellowdig, Harmonize, and Canvas discussions to explore complex course topics in advance of a class session. Such activities are reinforced and made more integral by using these tools and materials during live class sessions, as well. For example, students can complete a Think-Write-Pair-Share activity where each student goes to the discussion tool and posts a response to a prompt before the pair-and-share part of the activity. If the students are then asked to return to the online discussion after class and expand or respond further based on what they discussed during sharing, the class activity continues seamlessly outside of class time and gains depth.
Of course, allowing mobile devices in the classroom comes with its challenges. One significant challenge is the potential for distraction. However, there are ways to mitigate these problems. Setting norms for tech use, such as phones face down when not in use or laptop screens angled down when not in use helps make explicit what is acceptable classroom behavior and what is not. In a room where you can move around, proximity to students will also help dissuade students from using devices for non-class activities. One of the best ways to ensure devices are used for academic purposes, though, is to intentionally design learning activities that engage students using devices. The more students are asked to contribute to shared slides or respond to an iClicker Cloud poll during a lecture, the more they will associate having a device open with classwork.
If you would like to discuss the best ways to include such activities in your course, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] or request a consultation here.
Resources
https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/spring-2016/smart-tech-use-for-equity
https://crlt.umich.edu/sites/default/files/resource_files/CRLT_no30.pdf
