Study Habits Have Changed Because of the Use of Mobile Devices
The use of mobile technology has been of great impact to various aspects and standards of living. These impacts have been in education through the theory of m learning which means study through the mobile phone. Our focus under this topic is to discuss these impacts on education and the first impact is the increased access to the learning institutions.
The use of the mobile phones, which are easily accessible by most of people, gives people access to institutions of learning without physically attending the institutions. This is especially for the people who are physically disabled, thus making their access to education easier and less costly compared to the cost that would have otherwise been incurred through arrangements of special means of transport.
These people are able to access their studies as scheduled through their phones. Most interesting m learning is portable, which means that classes can be accessed at any point and any time. People can travel, do other works at the same time they are attending their classes (Fong, Reggie & Wangs, 2008).
M-learning also increases access to those situations where costs for fees are a burrier to many people. Recently and with the current economy, most people are unable to raise the school fees. M learning has therefore been an alternative especially for the areas where environmental and infrastructure challenges hinder other learning modalities, particularly e-learning.
At the same time, for individual learners mobile technology is less expensive than other technologies such as personal computers and broadband connections that are necessary for e-learning. M learning thus acts as important avenue by which to reduce the gap between the haves and have-nots in contemporary society, where access to knowledge and information is increasingly important.
M-learning facilitates changes in the character of learning modalities that in turn affect educational outcomes. It represents more than a mere extension of traditional forms of education; it facilitates alternative learning processes and instructional methods that the theories of new learning identify as effective for learning.
Mobile technology also facilitates design for personalized learning in that they are responsive to difference and diversity in the way learning occurs. For instance, during fieldwork or attachments students can interact with their lecturers and tutors and they can therefore be in a position to ask and respond to queries. In addition, it facilitates designs for authentic learning, learning that targets real-world problems and involves project of relevance and interest to the learner.
On the other hand, the use of mobiles in studies has negative impacts. One is the increased exam irregularities, where mobile phones have been used in several nations as way of leakages to students during examination. This has been through short messages where answers are sent to students during the exam time.
Teachers or involved persons who may be either family members or relatives send answers to their students. This has been of great impact even to the study habits and modes of the students. Students have been reluctant about their studies as they are aware that they get help from other sources.
The other negative impact of the use of mobiles is that it ruins the morals of the students. This is mostly an effect of phonographic sites where they watch all kinds of immoral behaviours. Another negative effect is that students use most of their time chatting on internet and social networks instead of using their time for study, which causes poor performance to most of the students (Seyler & Scott, 2009).
Cyber-Bullying Against Young Adults in the Past Five Years
The term cyber-bullying was first defined by Bill Belsev as the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.
According to various researches, this is mostly done by older youths who have great access and knowledge of the internet. Subsequently the term cyber-bullying is also defined as when internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.
Cyber- bullying is committed through various ways, which include sending of continued email, or messages to someone who has said they want no further contact from the sender. It also include sending of threatening messages, sexual remarks, pejorative labels such as hate messages or speeches, ganging up on victims by making them the subject of the ridicule in forums and posting false statements as facts aimed at humiliation.
Cyber-bullying among the youths is done through posting and disclosure of victim’s personal information at the websites or forums. This data may include the real name, nicknames, address, or work place or schools, which the victims would have not allowed people to know. This has been especially to those people who at sometime had a close relationship but afterwards they developed hatred.
Cyber-bullying is also used to publish materials in their victim’s name that are meant to defame or ridicule them. Some cyber-bullies also send threatening and harassing emails and instant messages to the victims, while other post rumours or gossip and instigate others to dislike and gang up on the target (Shaheen, 2008).
The other mean that is commonly used by cyber-bullies is hacking of email addresses and afterwards access the information contained in the inbox such as the photos or confidential details, which they then expose to the public by publishing over the internet.
In a case study, a young college girl had her email address hijacked, after which the hijackers used the photos that were in the inbox of the girl to create an account on the face book. They also sent spam messages to the contacts that the girl had. Moreover, they used the face book account to chat and invite friends whom they believed the girl knew.
They even went further by posting messages, quotes that tarnished the name and the whole picture of the girl. This was a clear picture of what cyber-bullying would affect the lives of young people. Cyber- bullying is also used by conmen to generate messages meant to con people. In the past years, many people have found a means of earning their living through sending of messages meant to get resources from other people through illegal ways (Shaheen, 2008).
Conclusion
Mobile technology advancement has greatly brought change to study habits some of which are positive while others are negative. Therefore, it calls for awareness course to students on the positive and negative impacts of mobile phones use in studies.
Technology is a tool for development if only used in the right perspective. In past years the rate of cyber crime has greatly increased giving birth to acts like cyber burying. It is therefore a matter of concern to many since this has caused psychological and emotional effects. Moreover, it has tarnished peoples’ names and needs special attention as soon as possible.
References
Fong, J., Reggie, K., & Wangs, L. (2008). Hybrid learning and education: First Conference, ICHL, Hongkong, China, August 2008. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Seyler, R., & Scott, W. (2009).The reconstruction of space and time: Mobile communication practices. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.
Shaheen, S. (2008). Cyber-bullying: Issues and solutions for the school, the classroom, and the home. Oxon: Rutledge.