A new UK Government took office on 11 May. As a result the content on this site may not reflect current Government policy.
All statutory guidance and legislation published on this site continues to reflect the current legal position unless indicated otherwise.

Access menu:
Skip to content, access key c
Local navigation, access key l
Schools menu, access key s
Becta menu, access key b

Research

Robust evidence is vital in informing the development of strategy and policy that will improve outcomes for learners and the system as a whole. We develop and disseminate robust evidence on the impact of ICT on education.

How mobile phones help learning in secondary schools


This study was commissioned by Becta through a research grant related to the UK Government's e-strategy "Harnessing Technology". What follows is a synopsis of the findings.

In spite of school policies banning mobile phones in class, teachers in three schools explored ways of using students' own phones and borrowed smart phones for learning. As a result, students had permission to use the mobiles for activities such as: timing experiments with the stopwatch; photographing apparatus, models, and experiments for reports; bluetoothing project material between group members; receiving SMS & email  reminders from teachers; synchronising timetables and setting reminders; connecting remotely to the school learning platform; accessing revision sites on the Internet; creating short narrative movies; downloading foreign language podcasts; using GPS to identify locations, and transferring files between school and home.

School heads and parents were supportive of the project.

In every case, other teachers became interested and involved, and the project teachers decided to continue using mobile phones. These champions of change have shown that, with good planning and anticipating class management and technical issues, using mobile phones can be a very productive way to augment access to tools for computing, communication and photography. As one student said 'It is good to use new technologies. It prepares us for the future as we will be using mobile phones more and more.'

Becta is aware that some schools are progressing use of this technology. Schools which have done so positively are carefully are:

Wolverhampton Local Authority E-services and Trinity C of E School

John Cabot Academy, Bristol

For Becta's advice on using mobile technology in school, visit the Schools website.

Copyright for this report resides with the University of Nottingham. For reuse permission please contact elizabeth.hartnell-young@nottingham.ac.uk

Download the report in Word (964KB) PDF (525KB) or ODT (848KB)

Printer friendly printer friendly version of this page Published: 04 July 2008
Last modified: 02 February 2009