Teacher shortlisted for mobile phone learning

TdaNews Direct
Published: 10 October, 2008

A sports teacher from Nottingham has been shortlisted for a national award after being praised for an innovative approach to learning - through the use of mobile phones.

Steve Pritchard, a lecturer from South Nottingham College, introduced the everyday technology into the classroom to encourage communication between himself and students through Bluetooth connectivity.

Bluetooth allows pupils to share files and record evidence of work, an idea which has landed him a nomination for the 2008 Handheld Learning Awards in London next Monday.

Mr Pritchard said of his idea: "I decided that the easiest way to stop the students' mobile phones being a hindrance or distraction in the classroom was to incorporate them in the work I do in the classroom."

He added that it was also an easy way for them to gather information on the move and prove their abilities.

The concept came soon after research by the University of Nottingham which recommended the revision of mobile phone bans in schools as studies concluded that they were powerful learning tools.