The use of smartphones as a learning tool by dental students

• Autor(a) principal: Tondolo, Gabriela Cabral
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Ortiz, Fernanda Ruffo, Liedke, Gabriela Salatino, Durand, Letícia Brandão, Guimarães, Magáli Beck
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista da ABENO (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revabeno.emnuvens.com.br/revabeno/article/view/1773
• topic: Educação em Odontologia; Smartphone; Tecnologia Educacional; Estudantes; Education Dental; Smartphone; Educational Technology; Students

Technologies can be powerful and helpful tools for students' learning process, especially for the current generations. Smartphones are routinely used to search for a wide range of information, at anytime and anywhere. Thus, knowledge acquisition through this mobile device, for teaching and learning outcomes, seems to increasingly make more and more sense. Therefore, the aim of this study was to understand the profile of the use of smartphones as an active learning tool by dental students. The data of this cross-sectional study was collected by an electronic questionnaire, with open and closed questions regarding the socio demographic characteristics, type of device and connection, general use for dental learning, as well as the students' attitudes towards the use of smartphone for learning. Out of the total number of students eligible for the study, 169 students responded to the questionnaire (response rate of 49.1%). Most participants were women, aged between 19 and 21 years. All students declared to have a smartphone, with internet connection. The main uses described were related to communication, time management, and education. The advantages pointed out by the participants were convenience, flexibility of use, access to different contents in different ways, ability to search for information, and rapid communication. The main challenges included distraction and overuse. The results of this study demonstrate that students use smartphones as an active learning tool, mainly to access e-books, scientific articles, to listen to podcasts, watch lives, and view publications of theoretical and practical content on Instagram.