Teachers and Students Poised to Use Mobile Phones in the Classroom

This study examined the perceptions of 15 teachers and 103 middle school students at a progressive private school located in Mumbai, India to determine their support for the use of mobile phones in the classroom, their perceptions of the mobile phone features that are beneficial for school-related work, and the instructional benefits and barriers to mobile phone use prior to beginning a mobile phone pilot program. The results indicated that most teachers (86%) and students (92%) supported the use of mobile phones in the classroom while those remaining voiced uncertainties. The participants perceived many mobile phone features as being useful in the classroom, but the teachers and students significantly differed in their views. Participant responses revealed little concern about most of the barriers reported in the literature; both teachers and students were least concerned about the use of mobile phones causing a disruption to learning.