It is spectacular to imagine a room filled with on-task and motivated learners using their mobile devices to engage with the content and access individualized learning. Unfortunately, this does not reflect my past experience. As I am currently on sabbatical, the following account is a little out of date and I truly hope the situation will have improved when I return.
If asked to describe my school in regards to 21st century skills, I would have to place it in the turn of the 20th century. In spite of the presence of SmartBoards in every class, my department mirrors very closely the institutionalized mass schooling of early industrial society as described Kalantzis and Cope (2010); classroom desks are in rows, learning is teacher-centered based on facts and memorization and students are quite passive in their learning. Within the department I was known for my bizarre open-ended projects, interestingly arranged desks and lack of control on my students for although not off-task they were not perfectly silent.
As such it is not hard to conclude that we are nowhere near the situation described by Ciampa (2013), and therefore, nowhere near helping students in the development of 21st century skills. The in-class use of cell phones or mobile devices by students is forbidden unless part of subject-specific (English, French, Dance) educational activities, such as filming in English class or selecting music for a project. We are to send any student caught using a mobile device to the administrators. We are no longer allowed to confiscate devices out of fear of loss, theft or damage. The reasons provided to the students for the ban on electronic devices include: the possibility of using the devices for bullying and/or filming others without their consent, the fear of theft and damage to devices and the possibility of peer pressure to have the most recent model of electronic device.
Interestingly enough, I believe that incorporating mobile devices in the classroom and modelling how technology should be used could alleviate many of these issues. Having the students realize that their devices are more than entertainment tools but can be used in a working environment would be a huge step towards the proper management of electronics. I believe that the true reason electronics are banned at my school is not because this technology is inherently distracting or that the students do not know how to use it, but that the teachers in general are uncertain on how to consistently and properly implement the technology in order to increase the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of students described by Ciampa (2013).
References:
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: an investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82-96.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2010). The teacher as designer: Pedagogy in the new media age. E-learning and Digital Media, 7(3), 200-222.