Abstract:
Contemporary society experiences the era of connection, mobility and ubiquity in human communication, unleashing new forms of interaction and collaboration in networks and online environments. In this context, there is a growing and rapid expansion of the use of mobile devices, which inevitably begins to occur more frequently in schools. The aim of this research was to understand the reasons and consequences of the use of cell phones by students in school. The methodology adopted was the Grounded Theory (Glaser; Strauss, 1999GLASER, B. G.; STRAUSS, A. L. The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Piscataway: Aldine Transaction, 1999. ) and data were obtained through interactions on Twitter, online questionnaires and interviews with students who were using a mobile device at school to access the internet. Based on the collected data, four explanatory categories related to the use of cell phones by students at school were created: rules, didactic use, motivation, and consequences. Through the process of data analysis, it is noted that, in general, schools tend to prohibit cell phones' use, however; students often transgress this prohibition and utilize their phones due to having free time at school or to being bored in class. In addition, the need to access social networks for entertainment and to search for something related to the subjects is reported. In this scenario, it is pointed out that schools should try to comprehend the social and cultural issues related to the cyberculture and the youth, as well as realize the phenomenon as an opportunity of approaching students and of mutual learning.
Keywords:
internet; youth behavior; school attitude; technology access; educational technology