I am an assistant principal at a public high school. I have worked in education for 25 years. Prior to my current position I served as a math department supervisor. For six years before that I was a district technology coordinator. My first 17 years in education were spent as a mathematics and computer science teacher.
I have a BA in Mathematics from The King's College, a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Technology from Georgian Court University, and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
You can reach me on Twitter: @the4thscreen
This article on Scholastic.com gives advice on how to handle cell phones in the classroom. What I found interesting was the section on using cell phones as part of the lesson. Below is an excerpt from the article:
DO Use Texting to Teach Summarizing
Jennifer Kuszmerski, a language arts teacher, uses text messaging to invite students to summarize what they've learned in a given class period. To close a lesson, ask students, "If you had to text what you learned today to one of your friends, what would you say?" "Texts are short bursts of information that get to the point quickly, and students understand that," says Kuszmerski. "If a student can summarize what he or she learned in a sentence or two, it's easy to see if your objective has been met for the day."
DO Use Texting to Discuss Language
To teach students the formal rules of writing, write a sentence on the board, such as "Can you come to my Valentine's Day party?" Ask students to translate the sentence into a text message (i.e., "v-day party 2-nite u should come"). Then, ask them to rewrite that same sentence as if it were in an e-mail to a teacher. ("Ms. Walker, would you like to come to my Valentine's Day party on Thursday night?") Considering audience and revising for tone teaches kids that different forms of writing are appropriate at different times. Marika Dietsch, a seventh-grade language arts teacher, also uses text-speak to demonstrate how language evolves. "My students can't believe that Shakespeare is considered modern English!" says Dietsch. "We talk about how language changes over time, and they make the connection to the abbreviations they use for texting."
I think these are some creative ways to use cell phones as part of a lesson. Has anyone else used texting in this way or in some other way to support a particular lesson? Follow the link above to read the full article.
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Below is the course syllabus for a semester course being offered at Columbia University. The course is taught by Nabeel Ahmad and Dominic Mentor.
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The BBC's education service Janala is delivering English lessons via mobile phones to users in Bangladesh. Since the service was launched in November 2009, over 1 million lessons have been accessed. Bangladesh has 50 million mobile users within it's borders. The service offers hundreds of three-minute audio lessons and SMS (Text) quizzes to the users for a nominal fee. The service is accessed by dialing "3000" and choosing from the menu of options. The BBC has a website that compliments the service and gives users free access to content.
The goal of the BBC in creating the service was to bring English language learning to the masses because it is the international language of business.
More than two-thirds of people who use the beginners' service return, which is impressive considering the 5% "return rate" for mobile products in Bangladesh. The BBC said overall 39% of callers returned to Janala.
An impressive majority of Bangladeshis – 84% – consider English essential to securing a good job and educating their children, according to a BBC survey.
"We knew demand for English was strong in Bangladesh, but the response to BBC Janala has been nothing short of phenomenal," said Chamberlain.
"The growth of mobile is clearly creating an opportunity to provide access to education in a way simply not possible before."
The last quote from the article is the most compelling. The technology is providing a service that would be impossible without the technology. This is just one of many examples I have read about over the last few months that highlights how mobile phones are being used to educate people in very poor countries where internet access via a computer is not the norm or cost prohibitive.
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Below is a video about a University of Texas professor using Twitter as part of classroom discussions. Using their cell phones or computers students can post to Twitter and the professor has these responses projected onto a screen in the front of the room. Nowhere in the video does it discuss the interaction between the live in-class lecture and the Twitter posts.
I like the idea that students can post to Twitter, as this probably provides a forum for shy students to provide some input into the class discussion (A point brought out by a few of the students in the video). I also thought it was interesting how the professor participated in one of the classroom lectures via Twitter when she was out of town. The TA led the class but the professor engaged the students in her Twitter posts. That is a nice use of technology.
At the same time I find the 140 character limit of Twitter to be frustrating. The limit makes me feel like I am having a bunch of conversations that get cut off midway through the discussion. Maybe I will feel differently in time as I just started using Twitter with any regularity. I do like the real time nature of Twitter (Last night's updates on the Chile earthquake where way ahead of the mainstream media). I find the hash tags (#) and @ symbols mixed within posts to be frustrating. I have a programming background and understand characters and such, but what about the non-geek world? Can we come up with a Twitter-like experience that is real time, but allows more characters and eliminates these ( #@!&) symbols in the post?
Does Twitter or any real-time feed have a place in education?
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In this WKBT.com article it talks about the Cashton School District in Wisconsin that is using iPods and iPod Touches in the classroom. Below are some quotes from the article:
"If we think about the world that we're preparing them for, it's not a world of textbooks and pencils," says Cashton Elementary principal Ryan Alderson.The Cashton School District is preparing students by bringing some of the latest technology into the classroom."We use the SMART boards or the iPods or the iPod touch on almost a daily basis," says Cashton Elementary teacher Beth Lee.It's not just at the high school level, First and second graders practice their arithmetic on the iPod touch, and are already learning the basics of Microsoft Publisher."By using technology it really does individualize their instruction," says Alderson.For example, an entire class could watch a video together, but the iPod touch allows each student to take in the information at his or her own pace.
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Hitch is a device that allows you to transfer files from one mobile device to another. This would be a good way to transfer files from one iPod to another. It can be used with most portable handheld devices.
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