Perception of medical students for utility of mobile technology use in medical education

Introduction: Mobile technology is changing the way we live, and it is beginning to change the way we learn. Current literature reviews have shown that research on mobile technology in medical education primarily focused on efficacy, of mobile devices as an educational tool and resource, infrastructure to support m-learning, benefits, challenges, and appropriate use. Objectives: To assess the perception of medical student for the utility of mobile technology in their learning experience and to find out different barriers in the application of mobile phone in medical education. Materials and Methods: The study was designed as a descriptive study to assess emerging patterns of mobile technology use by medical students across the academic year 2013–2014. Interview and focus group discussion was a method of data collection. Results: Mean age ± standard deviation of the current mobile was 3.45 ± 1.45 years. Mobile users were 302 (96.79%) and Smartphone users were 261 (83.61%). In the present study, 176 (56.41%) used for the academic purpose and 65 (20.83%) of the students preferred the same for an entertainment purpose. Gender-wise significant difference was observed in regards to Smartphone availability and daily Internet use for education purpose by female was more than male. Conclusion: The lessons learned from this study are-majority of the students use Smartphone mainly for communication, learning, and entertainment purpose. With increasing use of portable devices by students, it is logical to expect the next step to incorporate these devices in the learning environment and should, therefore, be appropriately considered for curriculum.