A Survey of Undergradutes' Use and Attitudes of Cell Phones for Instruction, Learning, and Collaboration

This paper presents the findings of a survey of fifteen undergraduates from three public institutions in North Carolina on their use of cell phones as a tool for instruction, learning, and collaboration. The survey was conducted to better understand the state of students' attitudes toward using cell phones within the context of the educational realm. Participants in the survey were selected as part of the Bot 2.0 project which seeks to promote the field of Botany to traditionally underrepresented populations using mobile phones, social networks, and collaborative web services. The results indicate a lack of use of cell phones by undergraduates within an educational setting while showing a heavy use within the social realm. A majority of the students studied did not regard cell phones as a good tool for completing homework or for accessing instructional materials. All but two of the students (87%) were in agreement about cell phones as a tool for collaboration with classmates.