Cells Phones

After receiving my new smart phone for Christmas, I was excited to learn new ways of using my phone for personal and as an educational tool so I read the chapter called “Cell Phones” with vigor. I did not learn anything new but this chapter may be helpful for others. Teachers can use cell phones to send texts to students to remind about exams and pending project timelines. Students can be encouraged to use the calendar feature to add important educational dates such as exams, quizzes, project deadlines, etc. Student possessing phones which have internet access can be used to research questions that arise during classroom discussions. In our school, teachers generally have one computer in their classroom and often they are using it to project their lessons. While the teacher continues with the lesson, students can use their phone browser to research questions or a topic in more detail perhaps promoting more indepth conversations. Smart phones have many educational applications and among them are dictionaries, language translation tools, etc.

Students can listen to educational podcasts and can download books onto these devices. Downloading books is handy and makes them available for impromtu reading. Students can also take pictures to document projects steps. The pictures can be downloaded to a pc to create project documentation or create a class slide show for a parent’s night.

Along with using these technologies in the classroom, teaches must teach proper phone etiquette and the proper use of phones in the classroom. Smart phones are relatively new to most students and will take some time before students use them effectively in the classroom without monitoring.