Experience on using mobiles as a teaching and learning tool in history classes: students' perception

Foundation: using mobile phones in class does not constitute a general pedagogical practice. There is still no consensus on whether it is a distraction or if it benefits knowledge acquisition. Objective: to describe an experience mobile phone usage as a teaching and learning tool, from the perception of the students. Methods: pedagogical research conducted at the Cienfuegos University of Medical Sciences during the first semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. An application for cell phones was designed with all the resources of History of Cuba I students need. A survey was carried out to find out the expectations of the students, and at the end another was applied to assess compliance. Results: the highest expectations were based on the novelty of this method (78 opinions, 82.6%) and the ease for knowledge acquisition (71 expressions, 75.26%). The importance of technology was identified by 63 students. All considered that the application fulfilled its function and met their expectations regarding the ease of acquiring knowledge and as an appropriate method. Three students considered it as ordinary and one evaluated it poorly. Influence on motivation was evaluated by 96.2% as well. The students in whom the application was used, 78% obtained the highest mark compared to 73% in those who did not use it. Conclusion: the use of mobile phones in the teaching-learning process was favorable.