Smartphones in the ESL classroom: How smart can they be?

 

Now, I just changed my old (but trustworthy) mobile to a brand new smartphone, which allows me to check my social network accounts and e-mail all day long, thanks to unlimited Internet access. To be honest, I was trying to avoid this latest technology, as I become sooo dependant on it (such as blogging, e-mailing, socializing, etc). But, at the end, when it was time to get a new mobile, every single model now has so amazing features that I got immediately hooked.

To make things worse, after the purchase, it became a part of me immediately, like an extension of my arm, and I started thinking on my dear students and their mobiles in the classroom. Oh! How I understand them now that I got one…smartphones are really addictive, and moreover, they are a quick gettaway from boredom (specially from our lessons).

This brand new little gadget has opened my mind and made me sympathize with all those teenagers whom I took their mobiles from…Oh! man!…I feel SO guilty now. I just found out that I did not took their devices, but ripped their arms off…

Anyway, it got me thinking…if you can’t fight ‘em, join’em…RIGHT?

I’ve been thinking, What are the main problems I have to face with my students everyday? Using mobile phones in the classroom and plagiarism (ie. overdose of Wikipedia), which have become real issues. But, How can we teach them to use it well, not abuse the technology and, moreover, learn to discriminate information? (not everything on the Internet is true, you know?)

Well, the only thing that I’ve come up with is using their gadgets in webquests. You probably know that it’s not always easy to take the whole bunch into the computing lab, and how frustrating can be scheduling it beforehand. So think of the endless possibilities we have at the very reach of our hands!   You can even give your students a text full of mistakes. They can be the editors of a newspaper who have to verify the information that you just gave them (“and do it quickly, before the printing starts”….just to add some pressure and excitement to the task).

Maybe this can be the beginning of a good experience…What do YOU think?