'Smart' use of smart phones by university students

This blog is about how university students 'smartly' use their smart phones in seminars, and the other possible applications of smart phones in facilitating students' learning and social experience at universities.

26th November, I conducted three seminars for Marketing Principles (an undergraduate level 1 module). In the seminars, students were divided into groups and asked to create a brand name for a moisturising cream. The main purpose of the seminars was to demonstrate the complexity of creating a brand name. Hence, when developing the brand name, students were asked to consider four key criteria: it should be distinctive in terms of its personality; it should convey the product's benefits and/or attributes; it should be easy to pronounce, remember and recognise; and it should be expandable to other product lines or categories. During the brain storming process, at least one student in each had naturally taken out his or her smart phone and started searching for ideas or information on the Internet. One group had even use the smart phone, as a prop, to assist with their presentation. This phenomenon fascinates me because it suggests the possible use of the smart phone in facilitating students' learning.

It is common knowledge that young people frequently use their smart or mobile phones to engage in social activities (e.g. texting friends, checking messages on Facebook, chatting on MSN or Yahoo Messenger). However, we have little knowledge on how young people also use their smart phones to assist with their research or learning activities at the university (or at the school).
In the retailing sector, many retailers (e.g. Tesco and Amazon) have created mobile applications (e.g. websites) for smart phones in order to entice their customers to engage with their brands more frequently and to encourage them to spend more. Perhaps, universities should follow suit of this retail practice. That is, universities should consider developing mobile applications that will enhance the learning and social experiences of their customers, namely, students. Examples of mobile applications that universities can create include:

• library database which students can easily browse for journal articles on their smart phones;
• timetables which students can easily check the room and time of their seminars (many modules tend to have seminars in alternate weeks);
• academic calendar which will remind students about assignment deadlines, exam dates, and major social events, and last but not least;
• digital discount bar codes which students can use to get discounts for meals and/or coffee on campus.

It is no denial that we have become more and more dependent on smart phones in our daily lives, and this is more obvious among young people who are born and bred with information technology. For this reason, universities should start thinking and acting like major retailers (eg Tesco and Amazon) by embracing this digital technology i.e. smart phones and devising plans that enable them to use this digital technology to add value to their customers' experiences, either learning or social experiences or some mix of both. After all, students will be paying a lot more for their education (the tuition fee may go up to £9000 in 2012) and, thus, universities need to find new ways to serve them better. The use of smart phones can be one of these new ways.