Into the Driver's Seat

This week an online article grabbed my attention. Its title read “94 Percent of High School Students Using Cellphones in Class.” I immediately scoped out the heading and thought to myself, “Finally, teachers are beginning to embrace the powerful little gadgets.” However, it did not take me long to realize the researched article took quite a different slant.

One quotation in particular caused serious professional introspection on my behalf. The article quotes the researchers as stating, “‘The potential damage stemming from heightened cell phone use during class casts a pall on the entire educational system, on the school atmosphere, on the educational achievements of the class, on the pupil’s own learning experience and on the teacher’s burnout having to cope with discipline problems in class.’”

I understand the tougher task of using regular cell phones in class versus internet ready smartphones, however , I could not disagree more with the above quotation. Although there is no doubt the very same scenarios mentioned in the above article are occurring in various classrooms around the globe, I now encourage all students to bring their cellphones or smartphones to class. Just a few years prior, my colleagues and I were struggling mightily with how to integrate the crafty handheld tools.

A blessed trip to the ISTE 2011 conference in Philadelphia helped me devise a BYOD classroom management plan and opened my eyes to the infinite educational potential of smartphones in the classroom.

In continuation of last week’s article, Part 1: 44 Smart Ways to Use Smartphones in Class, here is a new list of thirty-six additional ideas to help leverage the power of these tech gadgets in the learning environment. In this blog post, I have attempted to avoid any redundancies, and I sincerely hope my endeavors were successful. Please join me in helping educators everywhere creatively use smartphones by contributing any overlooked uses and supportive responses via this survey. The shared comments can easily be assessed by clicking this link.

These days, nearly everyone has a mobile phone or smartphone device. As a society, we have become dependant on these gadgets, to the point where it can be challenging to function without having access to a world of information – from transit schedules, to news, to weather or stock market updates – literally at our fingertips. However, as technology like slideshows and multimedia presentations become common fixtures in the classrooms, there remains a reluctance to embrace “social” media in the learning space. Instead, many instructors view mobile devices as potential distractions in the classroom that can serve to disengage students from the material at hand (Froese, Carpenter et al., 2012). In this article, I seek to challenge this paradigm concerning cellphone use in the classroom setting by proposing ways in which students can use their mobile devices to enhance the learning process by engaging with course material through innovative mediums. Through a review of the literature and research into emerging technologies, I will explain how smartphones can be used as an innovative tool to promote collaboration, enhance creativity, and improve communication in the classroom.