This blog talks firstly about cellphones and the negative connotation they sometimes carry in the classroom.
I have had an iphone for a few years now and like many I do love my phone. It is my diary, camera, email assistant, music player, social net worker, shopping assistant and and and - Like many would be lost without their diary I would be lost without my phone. Why though is a diary widely accepted as a work tool but a phone isnt?
The challenge is to break down the barriers associated with cell phones and to encourage those who dislike them to realise their value in a classroom. 15 years ago laptops were the big thing and now they are common place - I would like to suggest that teachers using smart phones should becoming common place too.
In the past I was criticised for having it available in the classroom - a mobile device implied that I was less of a teacher and conducting my social life during teaching time - Whatever. Since the first camera's appeared on cellphones I have been snapping photos of kids. I am a professional I know not to have a personal conversation during school time.
Now I work and live in a part of the country that has little need for cellphones. This might have something to do with the fact that service is limited to a windowsill and that it is impossible to have a conversation on one. But it is so much more than that.... while my students don't own mobile phones they still need to know about them and see their value.
On a daily basis I (and initially my students) used my cellphone to
- take pictures
- video record
- time things
- check out websites and stream to apple tv
- watch you tube
- scan Q r codes
As an educator I use it for running records, note taking as it synchs to Evernote and a whole range of things that I probably dont even think about.
The iPhone got my kids hooked on technology in a new way and paved the way for iPads and iTouches in our school. Kids think nothing about recording each other sharing news, explaining and doing. They grab one to take pictures much like they would grab a pen. They calculate, search, play games and use these devices to enhance their learning.
A great example is the hydrate yourself app. I have some students who need to be drinking water more regularly - rather than teacher prompts the iTouch does it for them - no fuss, discrete and totally cool as they plot their way to their desired water goal. -Why would you go back to teacher prompts when a $1.50 app is allowing students to monitor their own behavours?
The challenge this week was to go mobile and it was something that I had already done but it has got me thinking about just how valuable these devices are in education and that they are not a personal item for teachers to hide in their desk but something that can guide their teaching.
We are certainly developing an iPhone club at our school and not because we are 'cool' but because it allows us to communicate with iMessage (as text really isn't an option) we use them to record events as they happen within the classroom, and probably to calculate big numbers that we can't solve in our head!
Going mobile isn't about conducting your personal life during teaching time - going mobile is about using a tool to enhance teaching, scaffold learning for students and being part of the 21st century.
Especially in a college setting where these devices are sitting in students bags. It does bug me that I have to purchase a scientific calculator at $50 when there is an app on her iTouch. And really does it matter if she sends a txt? Didn't we all do that in paper form! And why aren't students being encouraged to video lesson to re watch later?
Schools need to move forward.
Many of you will have read this blog and thought so what - I do all that and more with my phone but for those of you who don't - why not have a go? - dig that phone out of your bag - borrow someone elses or visit a classroom where a cellphone is a tool for learning.
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