Using Mobile Devices
Using mobile devices in the classroom…
Most of us have heard of teachers not allowing cell phones or other mobile devices in the classroom. In today’s classroom, many teachers are changing their tune and now moving towards allowing mobile devices in the classroom. For the same price as a graphing calculator a school district can buy handheld devices that can be used by students for:
• word processing
• online information search and retrieval (including e-books)
• testing in all subjects
• computation
• data acquisition
• visually displaying and processing information
• genuine access to diverse languages and cultures
Classroom teachers can embrace the digital tools their students have in their pocket.
- As a professor leads a class lecture, students can engage by tweeting their reactions and comments right from their phones, which may be displayed on a data projector in real time. The flow of the lecture may continue, but the professor can address comments throughout instruction without stopping or restarting. Students can maintain some anonymity while posing question they may not else inquire.
- Students may work remotely from home if they are sick. They may work from another classroom with in the school. In-school suspension may very well look differently in the future if students can access their class remotely from another classroom. This could also be something Exceptional Children who are not quite ready to mainstream to a traditional classroom can do.
- iPods can be used in the classroom for students to count calories, record themselves reading, listen and analyze music, listen to a famous speech by the spokesperson himself, and even create podcasts helping them review material they have learned in class!
Check out this list of ideas:
|
|
Activity |
Digital Device |
Application/Software or Website |
|
1. |
Create a digital book report |
Digital Camera |
PhotoStory3 |
|
2. |
Record observations on a field trip |
Digital audio recorder |
Audacity |
|
3. |
Look up a word in the dictionary/thesaurus |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
|
|
4. |
View your house online |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
Google Earth |
|
5. |
Read an eBook |
Kindle or eBook device |
Online readers (Check with your media coordinator) |
|
6. |
Geocaching |
Handheld GPS |
|
|
7. |
Create a timeline |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
|
|
8. |
Listen to historic speech |
iPod |
|
|
9. |
Practice keyboarding |
V-Tech Keyboard |
|
|
10. |
Study astronomy |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
Google Earth (Google Space) |
|
11. |
Create and manage collaborative project |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
wikis |
|
12. |
Respond to teacher prompt |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
blog |
|
13. |
Practice Multiplication Tables |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
|
|
14. |
Learn a foreign language |
iPod |
Rosetta Stone |
|
15. |
Check your grades online |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
Your teachers online gradebook |
|
16. |
Take notes in class |
iPod |
|
|
17. |
Gather data on temperature, light, voltage, pH, and more |
Data probes |
|
|
18. |
Graph data |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
spreadsheets |
|
19. |
Draw |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
Kidpix |
|
20. |
Take an online class |
Smartphone or Smartpad |
|
|
21. |
Respond to teacher lecture |
Smartphone |
|
|
22. |
Access lesson assignment |
Smartphone |
Teacher’s website |
|
23. |
Use a calculator |
Smartphone |
|
|
24. |
Read or create a QR code |
Smartphone |
Google Goggles |
|
25. |
Think of your own! |
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