Mobile Phones in the Lecture Theatre - Using Wireless Technology as a Pedagogical Aid

 In most engineering colleges, giving lectures for 300 or 400 students is a practical necessity. Most lecture theatres are large and when filled up, they're intimidating to the average student and do not invite students to an active participation. They also restrict the teacher's opportunities to interact with the students. In this paper we describe a “proofof-concept” system developed at Oslo University College that expoits the use of mobile phones in the lecture theatre to enhance teacher student interaction and learning. Index Terms  lecturing technique, mobile computing, wireless technology, pervasive teaching environment. MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING The idea of incorporating mobile technology into the learning process is already an established thought [1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17]. Universities and colleges worldwide have invested in wireless campus networks allowing students to work freely, anywhere, anytime. Until recently, the main efforts in mobile learning have focussed on different ways of using laptop computers with wireless network connections [2, 3]. Students possess personal laptop computers that they carry around campus using them in the dormitory, the library etc for individual work, collaboration in groups or even to take notes electronically in the lecture theatre. However, laptop computers are large and cumbersome to carry and it takes some time to reactivate them once they are in sleep mode. Laptop computers therefore provide limited functionality. Another technical innovation is the PDA [25], the personal digital assistant. PDA's are small and easy to transport and are to some extent a fashion accessory, but many students use PDA's for note taking during lectures. As it takes a very short time to start them up, PDAs are suitable for quick, urgent and impulsive actions. Still, not all students are in the possession of PDAs due to their relatively high cost. One level further down the device hierarchy is the mobile phone. The obvious advantages of mobile phones are their low price and wide availability. Nearly all students own a mobile phone, and they use them actively. Mobile phones do have a potential as a pedagogical aid in learning. SMS (Short Messaging Service) has become a defacto lightweight means of asynchronous communication among youths. Students can exchange meaningful and subjectrelated messages during and outside of lectures. For example, engineering degree programmes frequently rely on group work involving meetings. At Oslo University College students frequently negotiate meeting place and time for these meetings via SMS [24]. However, mobile phones are generally viewed as a nuisance in the context of lectures and classroom presentations. Incoming calls with loud annoying ring-tones and students rushing out of the room to answer the call frequently disturb and draw attention away from lectures. Even if a humorous ring-tone may lighten up a monotonous lecture, it generally distracts the focus away from the lecture. Worse are students playing games with their handsets during lectures. The overall common attitude among teaching staff is that mobile phones should be banned from classrooms and lectures. So why then advocate the view that mobile phones may have a positive learning effect when used during lectures?