The smartphone becomes a learning companion

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Homework in homeschooling: Each child in 6b is supposed to take pictures of three plants that particularly catch their eye while playing outdoors for the biology subject. Juliana uses a plant app to find out the name and origin of the plants.

This simple scenario shows how digital media, and cell phones in particular, can be used as daily learning companions. According to the JIMplus study, 82 percent of young people use their cell phones for learning and homework. For adolescents in particular, smartphones are an integral part of their lives and are available to most as a device. But many adults classify the cell phone mainly as a toy.

Even before the Corona crisis, the fact that cell phones can be put to good use in educational processes was a long but persistent process of discovery. However, not least the crisis shows that many schools are still too often rather "media guardians" and defensive players when it comes to digital learning. If you look at the current digital capabilities of schools to organize homeschooling, many fall by the wayside. In most cases, it starts with the poor technical infrastructure at the schools for management, administration and staff, but also with the lack of knowledge about digital learning among many teachers - often due to fears.

Up to now, many discussions, especially about cell phones, have revolved around where and when they are forbidden and what is considered dangerous on the Internet from the point of view of the teaching staff. Yet the cell phone can potentially be a digital allrounder.

Whether watching learning videos on video platforms, practicing vocabulary with a language app or taking digital notes - these are just a few of many examples of how the cell phone can be used as a learning companion.

Creative skills can also become big with the little device: With the smartphone camera, children have a good and easy start to producing photos and videos. With editing tools, the right apps and social media filters, collages can be built and artistic effects created. Composing their own music or painting digital pictures is also possible with the right apps. This is how children create something themselves.

Tip: Become a composer, try things out, get a feeling for tones and rhythms: This is possible with creative apps such as Notebeat.

You don't need to know everything, but you do need to know how to find something good. The cell phone can become a huge reference work, providing access to dictionaries of all languages, online encyclopedias or geographical information. Knowing good sources and search strategies are important.

Tip: Translate important information for the school trip into several foreign languages? Artificial intelligence-based translation tools such as Deepl make this possible quickly and now very accurately.

Use a stopwatch to measure who is running and how fast, or pick up a calculator to do some math. The cell phone combines many digital tools that can be practical everyday helpers and are sometimes still used too rarely.

Tip: In which direction are you currently moving? The "compass" app on your cell phone can be a good guide in some situations.

Forgotten homework? Don't have your timetable at hand? No overview of your grades? That doesn't have to be the case: Your cell phone can become your personal planner.

Tip: Need to jot down a quick thought? The notes app on your cell phone can be an important reminder.

Just a playmate?

For children, the cell phone can be more than just a communication and play companion; it can be a gateway to the world in which many things can be discovered and skills can be developed. The important thing is to discover and try out the digital all-rounder in all its diversity so that it can be used in a targeted and healthy way to support learning - and that can also be playful.

Read more in the "Digital learning" dossier.