Literature Review: "Twenty Ideas For Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom"

The article I chose to review is entitled: "Twenty Ideas For Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom" by Hayo Reinders. It appeared in the journal, English Teaching Forum,  v48 n3 p20-25, 33 2010. The link to the article is: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=shapiro&db=eric&AN=EJ914893&site=ehost-live.
This article was a great example of how to incorporate an existing technology into the curriculum that students both enjoy and are familiar with. We have talked a lot in class about school budgetary concerns when it comes to technology integration. Using mobile phones as a learning tool that students already own is a novel way to avoid some of these concerns.
It can even enhance student's learning in a number of ways, as Mr. Reinders states in his article: "Learners have a tendency to tune out when a classroom lesson is over; this activity helps circumvent that problem by breaking the boundary between class time and daily activities." (p. 21). Instead of just sitting in a classroom, students can be engaged in authentic tasks while learning.
There are two ideas for using mobile phones in particular that Mr. Reinders presents that I find quite interesting.The first is to, "Use text messaging to reinforce vocabulary learning" (p. 22).  The idea behind this is to repeatedly text lists of vocabulary words to students throughout the day to reinforce the words. By doing this numerous times it almost forces the students to learn. Even if they just want to delete the text, they're going to have to at least skim over it to see what it is and this could increase a students chance for retention.
The other idea that I think could be of great use is to, "use the text messaging feature for circular writing" (p. 22). In this activity, students use their phones to collectively create a story or other writing assignment. This is an ingenious way to get students to participate in writing activities that they would normally find boring or tedious if it was done in the classroom setting.
Even though these examples I've mentioned are primarily language based, the possibilities for using mobile phones to teach in other areas, such as math and science, also seem limitless. However, opportunities for problems can arise, as well. Even when used with the best of intentions, mobile phones can still be a source of disruption and distraction  for students. To address this, Mr. Reinders suggests setting clear rules and boundaries about "when and how phones should be used" (p. 25) and making sure students abide by them. If they do not, one solution could be to take away a student's privileges for using the phone in class activities and force them to do an assignment in the traditional manner. Making the student to go back to the old way, while everyone else is still using their phone could be a good way to get that student back on track.
 Even though I've only mentioned two of the ideas Mr. Reinders wrote about in his article, he presented many other innovative and creative suggestions for the use of mobile phones as learning tools. As more advanced phones are introduced and new applications are created, more opportunities to use these devices for learning will become available. With each generation of phone, we can help the next generation of children to become more successful digital learners.