Living in the 4th Screen

Exploring the use of mobile technology in education and life

Should students be allowed to use their own electronic devices in school?

It is only a matter of time before schools allow students to bring their own electronic devices to school. Below is a snippet from an article in this weeks eSchools News titled "Bring your own device’ catching on in schools."

Mobile devices are now found in the hands of most children, and school leaders are using that to their advantage by incorporating devices that students already own into classroom lessons and projects.

Concerns remain about students who are unable to purchase or borrow a device for use in the classroom, but districts might find creative ways—such as asking local businesses or community organizations for help—to provide devices in such instances, advocates of the trend say.

With access issues in mind, allowing students to bring their own devices from home can offer educational benefits, as well as some surprisingly positive results when it comes to creative thinking and classroom behavior.

You can read the full article here.

Stop giving out mobile devices and beefup your wireless access

Below is a snippet from an article about George Fox University about how they are getting out of the business of giving out laptops to students and instead putting the money into their wireless infrastructure.

The proliferation of smart phones and other mobile devices has also lessened the need for a laptop on campus, said Smith. Already equipped with multiple WiFi-enabled devices, students don't really need another piece of equipment, particularly one that's partly or entirely controlled by their institution of higher education. 

So instead of focusing on equipment giveaways, Smith said, George Fox University is focusing its efforts on beefing up its WiFi network to accommodate all of those devices.

"That's where we'll be throwing most of our dollars (the money saved by not having to buy laptops) this year," said Smith, who pointed to coverage and density as the two biggest issues that the college will be addressing within its wireless network. "We've seen weaknesses within our network, and we'll be working to address them."

The full article can be read here.

Given the proliferation of ubiquitous mobile computing devices I think this is the proper strategy going forward for schools and universities. Spend your money beefing up your wireless infrastructure and allow students to use their own devices. The best mobile computing device is the one the student is most comfortable using.

Students on their cell phones in the hallway, what was going on in this classroom?

Google_voice
I observed a class the other day and I observed students talking on their cell phones in the hallway, other groups of students sitting at their desks and talking, and later on a popular music video was projected onto the large screen in the front of the room. Some administrators might have been bothered by what I saw, but I thought it was one of the best lessons I had seen all year. Why? The students were fully engaged in the learning. Let me explain.
 
The class I observed was a high school Spanish class. The day before the lesson I observed the students began writing a dialogue between two or three people in Spanish using the vocabulary words they were learning as part of the unit. They continued this activity and began practicing speaking the dialogue. When the students felt ready to record their conversation they went into the hallway and using their cell phone they called the teacher's Google Voice number. Each group's dialogue was stored in the teacher's Google Voice inbox. Since she has each student's contact info in her Google Voice account it associates a phone number and the student's email to each student recording. At the beginning of the lesson the teacher went over the rubric she would be using to grade the recordings. She emphasized that she would be listening to their voice and that they should try to sound like a native speaker. When the students completed the recording she played a Spanish music video. She handed out the lyrics in Spanish with some of the words missing. The students had to listen and fill in the blanks. The next time through the video she supplied a word bank to assist students who were having trouble.

After the lesson the teacher said to me she was sorry that I did not get to see her doing that much. I told her it was one of the best lessons I had seen all year. I think she was somewhat surprised by my statement, but I reiterated to her that for almost the entire period the students were either reading, writing, listening to, or speaking Spanish. The NJ Core Curriculum Standard for World Languages emphasizes the ability for students to communicate in the target language. I must add that this particular teacher is excellent at what she does. She works very hard and has developed an excellent rapport with the students in her classroom. There was absolutely no misuse of the student cell phones. The students were very well behaved.

As a side note our Spring Break was to start in a day and the teacher was going away with her family. She has a smartphone running the Android operating system. Google Voice is a native app on her phone. If she wanted, while she was sitting on the beach, she could listen to the student recordings and send an email or text message to each student letting them know how they sounded. She could have even sent a copy of the recordings to each of the students for them to listen to (For non-Android phones you can access Google Voice via the web). Without Google Voice and student cell phones how would you duplicate this lesson? What would it cost the district? How much time would it take? Would you be able to archive the recordings and share them with the students?

Additional side notes - For this lesson the cell phones worked exactly as they should. The students had no problem using their own phone and at no time did they use the school network. Easy to use and no glitches. How often can you say this about classroom technology.

How do you record student conversations at your school?

How about Mobile Phone Friendly Websites for Schools?

Curtin University of Technology has created a mobile website to allow students access to information, support services, and campus wide facilities. It is believed to be the first of its kind in Australia.

Below are two quotes from a news release posted on the school's website:

Curtin students will now be able to access information about transport services, financial support, housing and places to eat, on their mobile phones.

‘We also know that 99 per cent of our students have mobile phones and that 75 per cent of those phones are web-enabled, so this sort of website is going to reach the vast majority of our students.’

How about mobile websites for high schools here in the US? Interesting statistics in the quote above - 75% saturation rate for web-enabled phones amongst their student body (Consistent with what I posted here). What percentage of students in your high school have web-enabled phones? How fast will that market grow in the next few years? Will your campus be prepared for the onslaught of web-enabled phones that I believe is coming to all high schools? 

As prices for both phones and service contracts decline in the next few years, because of competition, will I believe, lead to a surge in web-enabled smartphones amongst high school students. These phones can access the internet without ever touching the school network. How will your Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) address these types of issues? I believe school networks could become irrelevant. Students and teachers will not need to use the school network to access information. They will simply bypass it. That is why I quoted the following in this post:

The article references a report titled "Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning". The report recommends that school administrators begin to ease restrictions on the use of cell phones in school. Basically the report validated the approach we had decided upon.

As school budgets become increasingly tighter, how will school administrators answer parent's and board member's questions regarding the use of mobile phones on campus as a way to reduce IT costs? What do you say to the parent who asks why they should spend $150 on a TI-89 graphing calculator when their child's smartphone, that they already purchased, has a graphing calculator app on it that is superior to the calculator? These types of questions loom on the horizon as sure as Mariano Rivera will close out the 9th inning of a baseball game. As administrators, I believe we need to start preparing for these scenario's today.