Proactive, Preventive or Indifference?: Reaction Modes of Faculty towards Use of Personal Mobile Devices in Courses

Students enter classes with mobile devices and use them for learning; however, these are also distracting devices. Some teacher educators display positive attitudes; others display negative attitudes, depending on their perception of the advantages and disadvantages of mobile technology for learning. This paper represents findings of a study that examined teacher educators' attitudes towards the use of mobile technology in classes, and their reactions to its use. The study identified three types of reactions: proactive, preventive and indifference. Findings show that teacher educators perceive the benefits of using mobile technology in their classes as outweighing the disadvantages. However, the majority is indifferent, e.g. do not initiate new uses of mobile technologies in class, but do not prevent its usage. A correlation was identified between the lecturers' reactions to uses of mobile technology and the familiarity with its possibilities and potential in class.