A.

INTRODUCTION
The development of the technology is very fast, including mobile phone. Nowadays, the
young generation tend to depends on mobile phone too much in daily life. They use to have their
heads down and thumbs hopping in their mobile phone. Lenhart in Jaret Keengwe, Gary
Schnellert and Denise Jonas (2010) said that the millennials use mobile phones on a daily basis
to keep in touch with family and friends.
In education field, technology can be helpful, yet it can also be a threat. The teacher and
the school administrator must be aware of this fact. Many school forbid their students to bring
their mobile phones in school. In fact, many students still bring their mobile phones, even after
this rules has been announced, with many different reasons. One of the reasons is the parents rely
on mobile phone much to communicate with their children in school. However, this can be a
nuisance when the students use the mobile phone in the class. Erin Andersen (2009) said, in the
article entitled Cell Phones in Schools: Tools or Toy?, that the reality is that more than twothirds of teens admit using their cell phones in school when they shouldn't. When the school tries
to create the rules to minimize the impact of the use of mobile phone at school, the students tries
to break the rules. Furthermore, the students tend to use their mobile phone for accessing the
internet rather than making call or texting their parents. This can be disadvantages in education
because it increase the threat of cheating, bullying, and any inappropriate content which can
damage the mentality of the students. In addition, the students can rely too much on the internet
rather than reading the literature. Michael Trucano (2014) stated that policies and plans related to
the use of our current generation of electronic mobile devices are sometimes considered in ways
distant or divorced from the way that the previous generation of 'mobile devices' was used in
education: books, notebooks, pencils.
On the other hand, the pros said that students bring the mobile phone in school to make it
easier for them to look for the difficult material or it can help them in doing their assignment.
Moreover, the use of mobile can be helpful in motivating the students in teaching and learning
process. James H. Roberson and Rita A. Hagevik (2008) argues that utilizing the cell phone as a
teaching and learning tool should increase the desire of students to become fully involved in their
education. Based on those facts, the writer is interested to conduct the observation of the use of

mobile phone for the school whether it is a threat or help. The writer conducted the observation
to the students of SMP Perintis 29 Semarang in the academic year 2016/2017.

B. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The writer conducted the observation to the 20 students of SMP Perintis 29, Semarang on
Saturday, 22th October 2016 at 7 A.M until 9 A.M. In this occasion, the writer chose 8 th grade
students because they have already familiar about the use of mobile phone and they are old
enough to get their parents permission to use the mobile phone in their daily life. The writer
used interview as the instrument to collect the data.
Based on the interview, the writer got the data that all of the students bring smartphone,
95% of them use smartphone, while 5% use feature phone. Most of the students bring their
mobile phone to school every day. It shows that all of the students of the 8 th grade of SMP
Perintis 29 use mobile phone in their daily activity. Most of the students feel that mobile phone is
very important. Moreover, 100% of the students can access the internet through their mobile
phone. 95% of the students admitted that they use school WIFI to access the internet in the
school and use the mobile data out of school, while 5 % of them have the WIFI access at home.
The students who use the mobile data said that they purchased the data in the range of 1GB-4GB.
The data usage of their mobile phone is high regarding the average age of the students is 14.
Then, the researcher asked about the use of internet in the daily life. 100% of the students
said that they have social media, such as facebook, instagram, whatsapp, line, kakaotalk, and
BBM. It is clear that the students communicate well through the internet. All of the students have
facebook account and most of them have other social media for chatting. When the researcher
asked whether they ever use the social media for discussion, only 5% of the students answered
that they often ask their friend about the homework and have discussion. The other students
answered that they never have discussion with their friends through social media. It means that
the most of the students spend their time in social media by having daily conversation and casual
talk. Next question is about the use of mobile phone in the class. 90% of the students admitted
that they often use the mobile phone in the teaching and learning process. The school give the
permission for the students to bring mobile phone to school, but they have to turn it off or turn it

into silent mode. In the contrary, most of them use the mobile phone in class to chat with their
friends or checking their social media. Some of the students admitted that they play games in the
class to finish the levels in one game. One of the reasons can be boring subject or teacher which
leads the students to find entertainment through their mobile phone. It shows that the students
often break the school rules about the use of smartphone in school.
The next topic is about the use of smartphone in gathering the information or material
which is useful in teaching and learning process. The first question is whether they use Google or
other search engine to get the information or do the assignments. The writer use the Google as
the main search engine because Google has the most number of user and the biggest search
engine in Indonesia. 95% of the students use Google to get the information, while 5% of the
students never use any search engine. The students who do not use the search engine usually ask
their friends to get the information. Then, the writer asked about when they use Google. Most of
the students, around 75% of them, use Google when they find the difficulties in finding the
answer of the questions and dictionary. This statement shows that the mobile phone can be useful
in teaching and learning process. It can help the students to improve their knowledge and help
them to be independent. The last questions regarding this topic is what the students usually
search in Google. 80% of the students use Google only to get the information or find the answer
in the learning process, while 20% of them use Google to look for their interest, such as pictures,
movie, etc. However, this benefit can lead to another problem. The students can depend on their
mobile phone too much to get the information or answer the difficult questions given by the
teacher. They will not have interest in reading literature. The last question of this topic is about
the Google for education or any education site. 100% of them do not know about Google for
education or any education site. This may occur because the teacher do not encourage them to
use this kind of media in teaching and learning process.
The last topic is the acknowledgment of the students and teacher regarding the use of
mobile phone for technology. The first question to be asked by the researcher is whether they
often open application store in their mobile phone. 95% of the students answered that they often
open playstore, blackberry store, or other application store. Most of the students know the newest
application in the store. The next question is about the application downloaded by the students.
60% of them stated that they often downloaded games, 25% photo editor, and 10% media social.

It is obvious that the students download the application to have fun and entertainment. The
following question is whether they know or find any application for education. 60% of the
students said that they know about the application but they do not download it. The last question
is whether the teacher ever asked them to use mobile phone in teaching and learning process. All
of the students answered that their teacher never asked them to use mobile phone in teaching and
learning process. It implies that most of the teacher still use conventional method in teaching and
learning process. However, the teacher should be aware of the development of technology,
especially in education, because the writer have found many education application in the
application store and many websites which is very helpful in teaching and learning process.
To close the interview, the writer asked the students opinion about the use of mobile phone
in the class. Most of the students thought that mobile phone is very helpful especially in foreign
language class, because they can find the meaning of the words easily through their mobile
phone. The students claimed that bringing a thick dictionary to school is very inconvenient.
Moreover, they also think that looking for the words in the dictionary is difficult. However, some
of the students think that mobile phone, sometimes, can be a nuisance. They stated that they keep
looking on their phone in the class.
With the large amount of data purchasing, the students should be able to open many
education websites or education application at home. Yet, most of them do not know about the
existence of education websites nor education application. It shows that the students use the high
data usage just for gaming, media social, chatting, and watching videos. In this case, the teacher
and parents guidance is needed. As we know, the mobile phone and internet can be a threat in
cheating.

C. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

1. Conclusion
Based on the data analysis, the writer drew some conclusions. First, the students use
mobile phone too much in their daily life, including in school. However, most of them do not use
the mobile phone for education. They use mobile phone for entertainment. It can be seen from

their statement that they do not find an education application or website on the internet, while the
writer find many of it.
Second, the students found that it is more convenient for them to use mobile phone in the
teaching and learning process to gather the information than bringing many books and dictionary.
Sometimes, there are some information which cannot be found in one book, so they have to find
the information through the other resources. The last point is the teachers in the school do not
aware of the mobile phone use for education yet, so it still bring the threats in teaching and
learning process. The teachers still use the conventional method in the teaching and learning
process.
2. Suggestion
Based on the conclusion above, the writer would like to give some suggestions. First, the
teacher have to be aware of mobile phone use, so it can be useful for education. As stated before
that there are many application and task management program for mobile phone which can be
used in teaching and learning process. It can be an advantages for the teacher to use mobile
phone in the class. Second, the use of mobile phone for students still need a guidance for the
parents and teachers, so that they can use it for education purposes, not only for entertainment.
For minimizing the treat of the mobile phone uses, the school should set the regulation. The
school can give the permission to use the mobile phone if the subject teacher permits the students
to use it and ask the students to collect their mobile phone in the teaching learning process.

D. References
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001cc4c002e0.html on October, 28, 2016 at 9 A.M.)

Roberson, James H. and Hagevik, Rita A. 2008. A Cell Phone for Education. NC State
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North

Carolina

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http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/sum2008/roberson/index.htm on October, 28, 2016 at 9 A.M.)

Keengwe, Jared, Scnellert, Gary and Jonas, Denise. 2014. Mobile Phone in Education:
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and

Opportunities

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Learning.

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http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10639-012-9235-7 on October, 28, 2016 at 8 A.M.)

Trucano, Michael. 2014. A Mobile First Approach to Educational Technology. World Bank Group
(accessed from http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/mobile-first-edtech on October, 28, 2016 at 9
A.M.)