Mobile phones in the classroom?

Walker, R. (2013) suggested that mobile phones are a useful learning resource. This is partly due to students using them to organise themselves but they can also give students access to a wider range of resources.

I've found my experience of encouraging students to use them in lessons to be mostly positive. Especially when the links and resources given to them are engaging and include variety.

I have started adding QR codes resources to worksheets in lessons. This allows for more interesting extension tasks, allows me to provide wider reading materials without spending the printing budget and the inclusion of videos and podcast in worksheets based lessons.

To do this.. use a free QR code generator and copy links to resources into the generator. Once you have the codes generated, copy them or screenshot them and add them to your worksheets. Students can access them by simply pointing their phones at the QR code to follow the link. Some older phones may require the students to download a QR code scanner so be aware of this.

If you try this... Let us know how it goes! Please comment below.

References

Walker, R. (2013) “I don't think I would be where I am right now". Pupil perspectives on using mobile devices for learning', Research in Learning Technology, vol. 21, pp. 1-12. DOI: