Mobile Learning in the Classroom

Though I am only 24 years old, I have seen a ton of changes with technology within my lifetime.   I remember my first cassette tape, the Spice Girls, and how excited I was to get it! Can't ya tell?! 

That's me with the Spice Girls Cassette tap, oh what a fun birthday that was! :)

Yes, that's really my Dad! Look how big that is! HA!

Then I got their CD, but soon after that MP3s came out, now we have iPods and can store all of our music through the web on iTunes!  Fascinating isn’t it?! All of this happened within such a short amount of time. What will the world be like another 10 years from now?  My parents have a ton of Disney VHS tapes of all the classics; sadly we don’t have a VHS player anymore and want them all on DVD or Blue ray!  But will DVDs and Blue rays be here 10 years from now, or will there be something different?  I can remember the first computer my family got, with a HUGE monitor.   Now I own two laptops and an iPad and a thin flat screen monitor.  One day, these won’t be enough and I will need to upgrade. Wonder what those devices will look like?  As a child my parents filmed us with a big ole video recorder, now they have one that fits in my mother’s purse and has a lot better quality. 

 I can remember being in school with chalkboards, overhead projectors…now we have dry erase boards, maybe some of us are lucky to have Smart Boards, we have ELMOS, ceiling projectors, clickers, etc.  What is the future bringing us with technology? More importantly, what will it do to education?

If you look around us, today’s population lives and feeds on technology. We rely on the internet for everyday things, whether it is work relative or for our own entertainment. We carry our cell phones/smart phones everywhere we go!  We often ask ourselves, “How did we used to do it?”  We can’t remember. We live in a world that is fast pace and one where everyone expects simultaneous results.  We can communicate across the globe! It’s pretty cool, yet pretty scary at the same time.  

So where am I going with this? Let’s now talk about the education aspect.  We seem to not be bringing the ‘real world’ into the classroom. We are having our students learn the same way we did, even how our parents did: paper pencil, no cell phone policy, etc.  Is that how the work force is? Isn’t it our job as educators to prepare our students for college, the workforce so that they one day can give back to the society in a positive manner?   Some schools are trying to adapt with the technology, but all of us must do it.  We all need to be taking those tiny baby steps and gradually bring our students to the 21^st century mind set in the classroom.

I call myself “tech savvy” when it comes to explaining technological things to my parents and grandparents because I feel like I have grown and adapted to the technology throughout my lifetime,  I’m young and not afraid to push buttons and well, I’m working on my MAET.  But when it comes to my students, geeezzzz…they know so much! They know more than me! When I mention the use of technology or allow my students to use it in my classroom, right away my students become more engaged and motivate to learn.  That’s how they learn outside the classroom, so why not bring it to  the classroom.  The hard part we have to consider is the restrictions/rules.  It is vital that as educators we have good guidelines, a rigor structure and procedure that students follow and understand when they can use their device (know the proper etiquette), what is allowed/not allowed, etc. Some schools struggle with money issues and are not able to have the nice up-to-date technology, but almost every one today, especially high school students have some sort of cell phone/smart phone. That is why for this blog, I focused more on how we can implement cell phones/smart phones into the classroom (generally speaking the high school classroom). 

 I recently became a member of Classroom 2.0 and joined the group “Cell Phones in Education.”  I read some educators blogs, some I found very informative and others I was sad because they have the mindset that phones shouldn't be used at all in the classroom. I disagree.

What tools did I try?

When I had my classroom, I let my students use their phones to read books, check their grades on PowerSchool, blog, tweet, record video, audio, take pictures, etc. However, most of the time they had to ask for permission.  I think as a teacher, if you allow students to do these things and trust and respect them with using the technology, it is almost like an incentive to the students. They like using it; they don’t want it taken away and will hopefully be dependable and trustworthy while using it and use it wisely.   Cell phones today can do so much, things I didn’t think would ever be capable.

I have also tried a program called Socrative. Socrative:  “is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets” (socrative.com)  It is very easy to use and fun. However, I used this with iPads not cell phones. It provides instant feedback, collects the student's data into an excel document, allows you to edit and create your own quizzes which can be multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank...you choose. The kids really enjoyed this. I used it as bell work at least once a week. 

What ways am I thinking about integrating mobile technology into YOUR classroom?

Polleverywhere.com:   a way to gather live responses.  It can work with texting, web, twitter, etc.

Though I have not used this in the classroom, I would love to. This could be a good warm-up or wrap up.  You could post something like: “What did you learn yesterday? What are you still having trouble with?” etc.  What I like about it is the instant feedback.

Twitter- A lot of students have twitter.  Some teachers have shared that they created a twitter account for their students.  The teacher posts reminders of tests, assignments and even funny math jokes! Haha! The teacher that did this used hash tags of the hour and subject to help clarify what was for what class.  It is an instant connection and how we follow the world today.  Great idea!   I would love to do this if I had a classroom right now.  I recommend checking out this article I found about practical advice for teaching with twitter.

I also found an article on 40 quick ways to use mobile phones in the classroom.  Check it out! 

What challenges do I foresee?

The challenges that I foresee are those certain students who will use their cell phone or device for the wrong reason and ruin it for the others. How to deal with it, the consequences, how to monitor the students, etc.