Living in the 4th Screen

Exploring the use of mobile technology in education and life 
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March 4, 2010

Does structured use of cellphones reduce the irresponsible uses of cellphones at other times?

Paul Barnwell makes some compelling points and raises good questions regarding the use of cellphones in classrooms. In a recent article he wrote for Education Week he states:
There are responsible ways to incorporate cellphone use into classrooms, and we may be doing students a disservice by allowing draconian anti-cellphone policies to persist in schools.
This has been the experience at our school. Some of our teachers use student cellphones and Google Voice to record and assess students speaking in the target language in our world language classrooms. How do you record and assess world language students at your school?

Further on in the article Mr. Barnwell said the following:
There are other questions thoughtful school leadership teams should consider. Incorporating laptops or other technologies into a classroom can be time-consuming and frustrating, for example. At my middle school, we have a wireless network with mobile laptop carts. But the computers are fast becoming outdated, and the boot time is painfully slow on some machines. For a student with a cellphone, however, the time to “boot up” and retrieve, create, or share information is comparatively minuscule. This could be a major advantage for teachers wanting to incorporate quick Web searches, collaboration, or idea sharing, and it also lessens the pressure on school wireless-network infrastructures.
Cell phones and iPods boot up almost instantly. One of the takeaways our teachers learned from using student cellphones in the classroom was how quickly they were able to record each student speaking in the target language. This left more time for instruction, amongst other things.

Students live in the world of texting. If you want to reach them texting is the best option. Barnwell address that in the following:

How cool would it be if school announcements were sent to students on their phones? Or, instead of using a blaring PA system, the main office could text a student to come and pick up the lunch he or she forgot on the counter at home? Or perhaps students could openly record cellphone video of teachers for test-review purposes. Or teachers could send texted reminders to students about homework assignments.

I use Outlook to send text message reminders to students who have a detention. If a student misses a detention they have it doubled. To avoid this I send the students a reminder between the last two periods of the day. The students love it and it has cut down on the number of students who miss detentions. I use the Delayed Delivery option in Outlook to set this up.

Finally Barnwell states the following:

Opponents of this type of innovative approach are likely to bring up the potential distractions and abuses that cellphones in school can certainly create, like covert and sneaky text or picture messaging between friends. But guess what? We did the same thing back in our day, writing notes to our friends on actual paper. Inappropriate communication in school will never cease. I expect, however, that structured use of cellphones in my classroom would reduce the temptation to use them in irresponsible ways.

All kinds of things cause disruptions in classrooms everyday. Pencils and paper cause distractions but we don't ban them. In my opinion Barnwell makes his best statement when he says, "...that structured use of cellphones in my classroom would reduce the temptation to use them in irresponsible ways." That has been our experience here at the school where I work. I posted about this a while back. In the first half of this year we saw a decrease in the number of cellphone violations compared to last year when we did not allow students to use their cell phones at all during the school day. Students have told me that by allowing them to use their cellphones between classes and during lunch it decreases the temptation to use their cellphone at other inappropriate times.

Follow the link above to read the full article. Paul Barnwell has a blog titled Questions for Schools .

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Filed under  //   banning cell phones   Cell phones   Cell Phones in Learning   Educational Leadership   Educational Technology   Google Voice   iPod Touch   K-12   School Leadership   School policies  

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February 25, 2010

Using Google Voice in a World Language Classroom

This article in the Asbury Park Press talks about world Language teachers using Google Voice in their language classes to record students speaking in the target language.

The picture above and the quotes below are from the article:

Another form of technology that Peters and Taylor have taken advantage of is Google Voice. With this particular concept, students use their cell phones to call their teacher's Google Voice number and discuss a topic in Spanish.

Kevin Bals, the supervisor for World Language and the school's assistant principal, says this is a way to "capture, record and share audio files."

Bals believes Google Voice has many advantages. According to Bals, teachers are able to listen to and grade the recordings at their leisure and unlike an oral presentation students do not have to speak in front of a class.

"I'm enjoying Google Voice," says Taylor. "I think it can do the most for us."

Freshman Priya Angara, 14, says the class is "Exciting and the technology makes it more interesting."

Jessica Chen, 15, a freshman, is another student in Taylor's class and enjoys the technological benefits of Google Voice.

"It's a tool where you call in and it records our conversation and she (Taylor) grades it,"Jessica says.

Another advantage of Google Voice is that students are able listen to themselves speaking in Spanish. This is just one of many technological tools used by Taylor and Peters.

These world language teachers are using student cell phones to call into Google Voice and record messeges in the target language as part of in-class activities. Using Google Voice allows these teachers to very quickly capture audio recording from each student in a single location. The teachers can then listen to and assess each student's speaking ability. The teachers can email these recordings to the individual students so that they can listen to them. The Google Voice accounts are free and the students only use their cell phones for a couple of minutes so the cost is minimal. Most students have unlimited voice minutes and that reduces the cost to zero. For students that do not have cell phones the teachers will let the students use their phone or the students will borrow one of their classmates phones. In this post I wrote about another teacher who is using Google Voice in a world Language classroom. Using Google Voice and student cell phones is a very cost effective way to record student's speaking in the target language and can be done very quickly so as to minimize the impact on instructional time.

Update: Converge Magazine did a short article on this topic.

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Filed under  //   Cell phones   Cell Phones in Learning   Google Voice   K-12   world language  

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January 2, 2010

Cell Phones & Google Voice in a World Language Classroom - Perfect Together!

There is a great article in the December issue of Educause about using cell phones in a World Language classroom. The writer talks about using Google Voice as the tool to capture student recordings. I have a Google Voice account and I never thought of using it this way. I supervise the World Language Department at the high school where I work. There are teachers in my world language department who are using cell phones as an instructional tool but they are using different platforms to capture the student recordings. 

Follow the link above to read the full article. Below are the key takeaways listed at the beginning of the article:
  • To pursue a paradigm shift in education with limited finances, schools should consider taking advantage of ubiquitous cell phone technology for pedagogical purposes that square with best practices within appropriate disciplines.
  • New Internet SMS and messaging services are proving especially useful to language teachers, turning the focus away from the particulars of language and writing and toward whole language oral output and pronunciation, even at the beginner level.
  • Cell phones give faculty access to students both in and out of the classroom, providing greater power to instruct, persuade, cajole, encourage, motivate, and engage.
  • Students who record their voices in computer language labs or using cell phones become more engaged and invested in those potentially public recordings.
Peyton Jobe, the author of the article, elaborates on how students invest more time for an activity if they know it is going to be recorded. She states:
It is generally accepted that students work harder and become more engaged and invested in activities and assignments that might be publicly posted (on the Internet or otherwise). My own experience shows that students required to record speech of any kind in a computer laboratory setting spend considerable time preparing prior to recording. The very act of recording their voices — creating a permanent record of their speech — instilled a strong desire to perform well. In short, the act of recording increased students’ investment and engagement in the learning process.

This is a key observation Jobes makes. She backs up her statements by the results of an informal survey she conducted on the students in one of her classes. I know the few times teachers in my school have used student cell phones to capture student recordings they have had very positive experiences.The article is well written and worth your time to read it in it's entirety.


via Liz Kolb from CellPhonesInLearning

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Filed under  //   Cell phones   Cell Phones in Learning   Google Voice   world language  

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