USE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IN THE TEACHING/LEARNING PROCESS: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS.

Nowadays, mobile devices are able to support a large diversity of tasks being used for communication, socialization, interaction, collaboration, sharing of information and resources. As already known, mobile phones became active parts of the lifestyle of many teachers and students. The powerful capabilities of mobile devices and the increasing number of educational applications opened new perspectives for the integration of cell phones in the classroom. Mobile learning provides various opportunities for teachers to increase students' motivation, individualize the teaching process, and extend it outside the classroom. However, there is a long journey for mobile devices to become common tools, successfully integrated into the teaching and learning process. Despite the new opportunities and perceived benefits, there are also barriers to integration. These barriers have been broadly classified as external and internal. A key issue takes is the teacher's willingness to incorporate mobile technology into their own teaching demarches. But this decision depends on each teacher's personality, attitude, and perception concerning the effectiveness of exploiting the mobile technology facilities in teaching and learning. In this respect, this paper aims to explore the perceptions of Romanian and Lithuanian science education teachers as regards the opportunities and barriers of using mobile technology in education. The results show that overall, the teachers from both countries have a positive perception concerning the opportunities provided by mobile technology and a similar concern as regards the potential of its inappropriate use. The results also revealed a diversity of perceptions related to the teacher's personality, individual teaching practices, and existing technical support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]