S3 - Mobile Learning Lab

2.0 Cell Phones in Education

After trying polleverywhere in my classroom, I have mixed feelings about cell phone use in school.  While my students were using their phones to take the poll I heard one of my students say, "Cool!  I can't wait to start using cell phones in class.  I will totally do what I am not supposed to be doing without the teacher knowing!"  I am hoping that the more we use them in educational ways, the more our students' sense of right and wrong will kick in. As they realize that this resource really does enhance their education, hopefully they will become more enthusiastic about learning with the help of their own technology.  I agree with Sandra Hines' opinion that the kids already have cell phones in school, and many of them can text secretly.  Why not let them have them out where we can see what they are doing?
*Link to discussion in Classroom 2.0 Blog

Poll Everywhere
For this assignment, I had my first hour get out their cell phones.   They were incredibly excited to be able to bring them out of hiding in a classroom.  We have a strict rule about cell phones.  (If we see them, we are supposed to take them until the end of the day.) So, this was a treat.   We are currently working on parts of an essay, so I asked the question, "What is the last sentence of the first paragraph?"  The results are provided below. 

For the next question, I tried an open-ended response, "What is your favorite color?"  It was fun to see their results "live", and the kids were able to get creative.  Although, because I let up and we were having some fun, one student got carried away and wrote, "Chicken farts."  I am wondering if there is a way to tell who wrote the responses. Regardless, this would also be a good way to let the students ask questions after a lesson.

All in all, I think there will be a place for cell phones in education, but before I do so, I have a couple of concerns that must be addressed.  How do we handle the fact that not all students have cell phones? I had students share, but those without were clearly jealous. How do I prevent inappropriate responses to open-ended questions?

Some other tools I explored were wiffiti, flip cameras, and mp3 players.  First, I liked the ability to choose cool backgrounds on wiffiti.  This could be used for sparking discussion on a topic, character, setting of a story, or political cartoon(persuasive writing).  I like that it can be accessed from anywhere so this could be assigned as homework.   Next, I checked out flip camera ideas.  With my flip camera (that I have not used yet), I can have students act out passages from text we are reading, create commercials persuading the audience to buy/believe in their products/ideas, or present booktalks.  Lastly, I checked into using mp3's in the classroom.  We could use these to search for and listen to podcasts on the topics we are studying or books we are reading.

Other Mobile Learning Tools
In addition to the concerns I already addressed regarding cell phones, there are a few challenges associated with the other tools mentioned in the previous paragraph. I only have one flip camera, so my entire class will have to share.  We will overcome this by creating a chart for usage.  With mp3 players, there is the issue of the "haves" and "have-nots".  I would have to group students so that there is at least one mp3 player per group.  I will also have to purchase mini speakers for the mp3's for multiple listeners or at least splitters so more than one set of headphones can be plugged in.

There are exciting things happening with mobile learning, and I feel lucky to be in the forefront of this technology in education movement.