Smartphones, New Literacies, and the

Classroom
SIERRA NICOLE STRONG

echnology has been advanc- Smartphone technology has

ing and improving all changed and improved significantly
throughout the history of men. In the pre- throughout its history, with each new im-
sent time, there has been a huge advance- provement, addition, and upgrade helping
ment in cell phone technology that has and adding to the study of new literacy.
never been seen before. Its history has come
This type of technology through three phases: the
has evolved significant- This study of how people first phase focused on
ly from the dial phone, communicate with technology the features and func-
the flip phone, to the tions [fulfilling] corpo-
smartphone technology
is called new literacies; some rate requirements with
that is present today. examples of them are the Blackberry intro-
Since smartphone tech- PowerPoints, Google duc[ing] many features,
nology is continuing to including email, [the]
evolve, even right now, documents, and social media Internet, Fax, Web
there is still research platforms such as Facebook browsing, [and the] cam-
that needs to be done era, the second phase
about its effects on soci- and Twitter. introduce[d the iPhone
ety and how people use and] features that the
smartphones to communicate and find general consumer require[d] which were
information. This study of how people email, social website integration, audio/
communicate with technology is called video, internet access, [and] chatting,
new literacies; some examples of them and the third phase is currently trying to
are PowerPoints, Google documents, and close the gap between enterprise [and]
social media platforms such as Facebook general consumer centric smartphone[s]
and Twitter. Smartphones are relevant to and improv[ing] the display quality,...
this study of new literacies because there stabil[izing] the mobile operating system,
are abundant amounts of information and introduc[ing] more powerful batteries,
apps, technology availability continues to and enhanc[ing] the user interface. There
increase, and they help teaching and ha[s also] been several upgrades in Apple
learning to be quicker and more efficient. iOS, Android, and Blackberry OS.

Smartphones, New Literacies, and the Classroom STRONG 1

(Sarwar & Soomro, 2013). Although
smartphones were originally aimed to-
wards company use, technology has
evolved to where now the general public
can use it for their own needs. This is ex-
tremely important for how people com-
municate (the study of new literacies),
teach, and learn. Before the study of new
literacies developed, there was the study
of old literacies where people were lim-
ited to simply writing out what they want-
ed to say. The difference between old lit-
eracies and new literacies is that new
literacies include pop culture and digital
technologies... These categories include
the reading, writing, listening, speaking,
viewing, and designing of both print and
non-print text of any kind through a
multitude of media, such as books, flip
cameras, computers, and handheld devic-
es like smartphones, e-readers, and e-
tablets (Hagood, 2017). Now with this
new technology, people can write out
their information in a way that can be
more helpful to their teaching and learn-
ing needs. Instead of searching through
paragraphs of written text, people can
portray the most important information in
a quick and concise way. Therefore, with
each smartphone technology improve-
ment and innovation, the study of new
literacies changes and improves as well.
With smartphones, there are abun-
dant amounts of information and apps
easily available by the push of a button or
some typing. In the article iTouch and
iLearn an examination of educational searched and found on smartphones is
Apps. by Kristy Goodwin and Kate
Highfield, they talk about three kinds of
educational apps: instructive apps [that
have] elements of [a] drill-and-practice
2 Voices from the Middle VOLUME 123
design, [where] the app deliver[s] a pre-
determined task, manipulable apps
[that] allow for guided discovery and ex-
perimentation within a pre-determined
context or framework, and constructive
apps [that have] a more open-ended de-
sign which allow[s] users to create their
own content or digital artefact (2012).
Since teaching and learning is different
each teacher and student, this is the per-
fect way to accommodate each unique
classroom situation. It allows teachers
and students to choose the type of educa-
tional app that best fits their teaching and
learning needs. Differing from regular
phones and other technologies,
smartphones are powerful computing
devices offering traditional wireless voice
service as well as native software applica-
tions and, perhaps most importantly, the
ability to connect to and run a myriad of
Internet-based services including email,
geo-location, streaming video, and social
networking, while providing a good user
experience (Kenney & Pon, 2011). This
shows just the tip of the iceberg of what
the smartphone is capable of. The ability
to get results from the Internet in seconds
will be very useful for searching infor-
mation for projects and assignments in
the classroom. Thus, all the information
and apps on a smartphone should be tak-
en advantage of by teachers and students
so that they can learn, teach, and com-
municate better.
One way that information can be
through the use of search engines. Some
good examples of popular search engines
that many people use are Google, Bing,
Yahoo, and Ask.com. In the article
NUMBER 66 MAYTEMBER 2042
Medical Student Appraisal Searching on quickly. If students and teachers use this
Smartphones, it states how Google is a application correctly, they will surely be
great search engine for their needs in the able to improve their teaching and learn-
medical field because it require[s] low ing skills because they will be able to find
specificity in search terms, it allow[s] great information to learn and teach in the
students greater flexibility in generating classroom. Overall, search engines are a
relevant results despite spelling errors or great way to find information because
acronyms, and it return[s] an endless they can be easily accessed on
array of multimedia resources, including smartphones, people can find the infor-
images and vid- mation that they want, and
eo (Khalifian et al., 2013). The ability to get results there are ways that people
Although the article from from the Internet in can make sure that the
this source is aimed to- information they are
wards an audience of peo- seconds will be very searching is reliable and
ple pursuing or working in useful for searching correct.
the medical field, the appli- One useful way to
cations and uses of Google information for projects organize and convey all
are the same for people in and assignments in the the important information
the English field since eve- found through searching
ryone can use Google to classroom. on smartphones is through
search information in any the use of electronic note-
field that they choose. Because of these book apps. Some good examples of these
features in Google, people can find the kind of apps are OneNote, Evernote,
information that they are searching for Google Keep, Simplenote, and Dropbox.
even quicker and they can even simply These apps have some very helpful uses
say what they want to search to Google such as keeping information in place for
instead of typing it out since most research and academic writing, recording
smartphones have that useful ability. copies of documents, minutes, spread-
Some people would disagree against us- sheets, diagrams, photos, [and] videos
ing a search engine like Google for find- [that] can be tagged with a common pro-
ing information and sources because there ject name for easy retrieval, writing a to
is a drawback [of having a] variation in do list, and taking notes on important in-
reliability of sources (Khalifian et al., formation, which can include pictures
2013). However, this isnt a problem be- and even audio clips (Axford & Renfro,
cause Google also has another database 2012). This is helpful to both students and
called Google Scholar where people can teachers because they both can keep de-
find more scholarly peer reviewed articles tailed records of their notes and aids such
from academic journals; they can also use as pictures, videos, and diagrams, which
the advanced search feature to make it wasnt all possible in old literacies. In this
clear exactly what they want so that they way, they can keep the most important
can find concise and correct information information organized so that they can

Smartphones, New Literacies, and the Classroom STRONG 3

convey it the way they want to and they
can study it well. Although some people
advocate the use of document and spread-
sheet applications, the structure is prede-
fined by [the creator of these programs]
just like it is for the structure of papers,
notes, and information organized in old
literacies; notebook programs allow data
to be moved around, reorganized, and
sorted very easily. They are also designed
to sync with different devices and differ-
ent locations, allowing multiple users to
edit and update the files (Axford & Ren-
fro, 2012). This allows easier access for
teachers and students, specifically in a
group project or when theyre doing peer
review, to edit and comment on writing
done in these electronic notetaking apps.
Since the apps have these functions, stu-
dents and teachers will be able to learn
and teach in a better way because they
will be able to receive beneficial feed-
back and various viewpoints from other
people from anywhere at any time, teach-
ers can post assignments in a clearer way,
and students can more easily access the
information that teachers post. Thus,
electronic notebook apps are only one of
the helpful apps out of the hundreds of
thousands that can be used by teachers or
students to teach and learn and it is quite
apparent that they will help improve and
change the lives of those who use them.
Since smartphone technology pro-
duction has improved and increased, the
availability of them has increased and
will continue to increase as technology
gets better. There has been an increased
demand for cheap smartphones [but]
the sales [have] not decrease[d], and from
October 2014 (launch of iPhone 6) they
4 Voices from the Middle VOLUME 123
are gradually increasing (Chmielarz,
2015). This shows how more and more
people are able to afford smartphones and
have decided to purchase them. It also
shows how teachers can use this increase
of availability to their advantage in teach-
ing since their students will most likely
own a smartphone and know how to use
them well. Additionally, researchers have
discovered that in the year 2013, there
were almost as many mobile subscrip-
tions as people in the world,
smartphones are more prevalent than
other technologies, such as personal com-
puters and landline telephones [in some
countries], current-generation
smartphones provide users with easier
access to the Web and thousands of
other applications, and that in the year
2011, over half of the public universities
had fielded a mobile application for their
school (Tossell, Kortum, Shephard,
Rahmati, & Zhong, 2014). This shows
how people are embracing technology
and how it can be helpful towards
schools since so many public universities
are already using them. Since more peo-
ple have easy access to a smartphone, it
makes sense to take advantage of this
technology and to use it to easily find in-
formation in a matter of seconds. As a
result, technology availability will help
towards making education better since so
many people own smartphones, know
how to use them well, and know how to
use all of the different technologies that it
has to offer.
Since the introduction of
smartphone technology, teachers who
have decided to use technology in their
classroom have discovered how
NUMBER 66 MAYTEMBER 2042
smartphones have helped teachers to
teach more efficiently and students to
learn more quickly. For example, in the
article Risks, Rewards, and Responsi-
bilities of Using New Literacies in Mid-
dle Grades, Margaret C. Hagood de-
scribes a teacher and how she used to
have her students write essays until for
one project she had them work
collaboratively to create scripts and to
design, direct, film, and edit... digital
stories; this teacher also noted that she
and the students enjoyed [this] project
and learned more than when she had pre-
viously taught this assignment (2017).
The students had more freedom to write
and communicate how they wanted to
and they could get more creative, so it
was easier for them to learn. This also
enabled the teacher to teach them in a
way that was more enjoyable for both
her and her students, so the students
were more willing to learn and process
what activity they were doing.
Smartphones are considered valid peda-
gogical devices... [since they] allow
young children to easily manipulate and
interact with screen objects and create
digital content and they allow young
children to learn and discover in ways
that are commensurate with their pre-
ferred learning modes: physical touch,
trial and error, and repetition (Goodwin
& Highfield, 2012). Using learning
methods like these on a smartphone is
better than traditional learning methods
because rather than staring at a faraway
whiteboard without doing anything, each
student will own a smartphone, or at
least have one to share with a nearby
classmate or the teacher, that they can
Smartphones, New Literacies, and the Classroom
use to communicate, find information,
and do problems on. In this way, all stu-
dents will have something tangible and
easily viewable that they can use to
quickly learn. In conclusion,
smartphones are helpful for teachers and
students since they can use them to cre-
ate what they want to in a quick and effi-
cient way.
Just like other technologies
throughout history, smartphone technol-
ogy has improved significantly with its
quality and features, such as the time it
takes to search something on the inter-
net, the quality and amount of its diverse
apps, and its other numerous amounts of
functions and abilities. As it has im-
proved, people have discovered im-
portant ways on how to use it for the
good of the people, specifically educa-
tion. Old literacies are a slower way of
learning and dont have as many possi-
bilities to create and imagine as much as
new literacies do. The possibilities of
what can be done with smartphones is
completely astounding and all teachers
should take the use of smartphone tech-
nologies in the classroom into considera-
tion as they think about how they want
to teach their students. With the wide
availability of smartphones and its apps
and great internet searching capabilities,
teaching can surely be quicker and more
efficient for everyone as long as they use
this technology in the correct way that
will help advance their learning.
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STRONG 5
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