ILEX Course 5 – 2021-1
READING STATION ONE.
The pros and cons of mobile phones in classrooms.
In the pandemic era, it seems that phones have become a must in every educational or academic
context. For example, most ILEX courses at Universidad Tecnologica de Pereira require
students to use their phones to do several activities in class. However, using mobile phones in
classrooms tend to be a controversial topic among educators as these devices bring about some
drawbacks that both teachers and students have to face in their lessons.
First of all, using mobile phones in the classroom provides many advantages. Clearly,
information about many topics can be found and downloaded from the Internet with just a few
steps. Also, both class documents and assignments can be designed with a phone. For
example, when a student is writing a text in English such as a story, she can use her phone to
write a draft of the text that she can later edit. Another advantage is that class activities can be
done with phones and this facilitates the submission of these activities or tasks on time without
using papers and helping the environment. For instance, when quizzes are done using online
platforms results can be given more quickly and paper is not used for the process.
However, mobile phones in the classroom also have many drawbacks. Firstly, students can get
distracted during class and this can affect their attention, note-taking and the general learning
process. Secondly, a really big problem is that when all the information about class is saved on
a mobile phone and all the activities are done using these devices, students’ active learning and
cognitive development can be impacted and, what is more, they can only think well and
participate in class when they use their phones. Finally, the biggest problem is that books and
libraries are being replaced by phones because now most information that you need about any
topic can be found online. Perhaps all printed versions of books will even be replaced by PDF
documents in the future.
The fact is that mobile phones are used in education to facilitate teaching and learning
processes more than ever. Despite the disadvantages, the learning experience can be
maximized with the use of mobile phones if these devices are effectively and purposefully used
to support students’ learning and critical and creative thinking skills.
Written by: ILEX teacher | Universidad Tecnologica de Pereira | 2020.
Mark true or false in statements 1-5.
1. ____ Phones require a lot of actions to download files from the web.
2. ____ One of the advantages of using phones in class is that students can access to the
tests’ results more quickly.
3. ____ Students can concentrate more easily in class when they use their phones.
4. ____ According to the writer, the biggest problem about using phones in classrooms is
that they always hinder students’ highest thinking capabilities.
ILEX Course 5 – 2021-1
5. ____ No matter how many negative sides there are on the use of phones in classrooms,
they’re definitely a tool that teachers can use to their students’ benefit.
