They are replacing the cyber cafes where many people had used for surfing the Net.

Myanmar is now accustomed to mobile phones, with shops selling them everywhere. They are replacing the cyber cafes where many people had used for surfing the Net

Even children use mobile phones before they are old enough to attend school. As a result, we need to assess the connection between education and technology.

In developing countries, there are challenges to establish education in rural and remote areas. Many expect to rely on technology to meet these challenges and assume that the use of mobile phones will give the education sector a boost.

Government found that using mobile teaching systems in Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, India and Bangladesh produced promising results.

But according to a recent study by Japanese government, children who spend more than four hours a day on a mobile phone are score less on exams than children whose use of mobile phones has been restricted to 30 minutes per day. Among the nearly one-in-nine 14- and 15-year-olds who use their handheld device for at least four hours a day, grade scores fall an average 14 percentage points across all subjects.

The deficit rises to more than 18 points in mathematics, according to the survey conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Education.

Almost half of the students in the survey answered that they spend over one hour daily using a mobile phone. One-fourth of the students who took part in the survey did not have a mobile phone. The use of smart phones is prevalent among students 11 years old and up, with 54 per cent of those in their final year of elementary school owning phones.

Fifteen per cent of them spend at least one hour daily on their mobile phones, according to the survey. One alarming effect of this attraction to mobile phones is that students are ignoring school lessons, the study found. Kazuo Takeuchi, who has studied the way youngsters use mobiles, said that children with the devices tend to lack confidence in their academic ability, and urged parents to set limits on their usage.

Although it is assumed that Japan is a developed country and the results will be different for developing countries, we need to consider the timely and untimely use of devices that can be beneficial. Moreover, we should recognise the difference between addiction to a device and normal desire for it. Daily Eleven urges parents to place limits on mobile phone use by their children – they are too young to understand the impact of overuse.

FONTE:http://elevenmyanmar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7353%3Amobile-phones-may-have-limited-use-in-education&catid=57&Itemid=406    acesso em 29-08-2014