Browsing by Author "Koponen, Kalle"

The use of smartphones in a school context involves two intertwined social realities, official and unofficial, that are often at odds with each other. In a formal context, school is about taking care of social educational responsibilities related to education and upbringing. On the other hand, school is also an important social world between young people, largely consisting of informal activities. Teachers best see the struggle between these opposing social realities and the importance of students' smartphones as part of it. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to describe, analyse and interpret teachers' experiences of smartphones and their different uses in the classroom environment. The study examines teachers' experiences of the formal and informal use of smartphones and the way schools approach the use of phones. In addition, teachers' different attitudes towards smartphone use will be examined. The thesis is qualitative in nature and its research material consists of interviews with six secondary school teachers. The study utilises phenomenographic research orientation, which makes it possible to study variation in teachers' perceptions. As a key result of the study, four types of attitudes were found in teacher interviews that reflect their different attitudes towards smartphones in the classroom. The types of attitudes were smartphone favourable, -unfavourable, -indifferent and -uncertain. Different attitudes were found towards the official and unofficial use of smartphones, the monitoring of smartphones and the future vision of smartphones. In addition, the material revealed different ways in which teachers relate to the general guidelines concerning smartphones in schools.