M-learning in high school: The impact of using SMS in mathematics education-an Iranian experience

The following study was an attempt to investigate the effect of providing co-curricular activities using an m-learning method, i.e., SMS on a group of female Iranian high school juniors´ learning during a course of mathematics. A hundred students were divided into four groups of 25, two of which received treatment, i.e. they were sent math quizzes and were provided with feedback by the teacher via SMS over a period of 10 weeks. The findings of the study suggest that making use of m-learning methods in providing informal co-curricular activities for high school students can have a great impact on their learning and foster it to a great extent. It was also found that informal activities through SMS increased the students´ motivation to learn mathematics and it encouraged interaction among the students in the process of solving mathematical problems so that they could provide and receive feedback from their peers. On the other hand, this method proved to be a very time-consuming job on the part of the teacher. Moreover, the lack of access to cell phones on the part of some students caused difficulty in the way of implementing the SMS method.