Teachers share tips for using smart phones as learning tools in class, at home
From staff and wire reports
Mobile Learning: Effective Anytime, Anywhere Education
Using smart phones has given students the freedom to explore and challenge themselves beyond the lesson, one teacher said.
For years, schools have banned the use of cell phones in schools. But today, some schools are cautiously embracing smart phones as a student-friendly technology that can enhance lessons at little cost to schools.
“This is their life,” said Barbara Horner, an eighth grade language arts teacher at the Emma C. Attales School in Absecon, N.J.
She shared student projects at the 15th annual “From My Classroom to Yours” technology conference March 14, sponsored by the Southern Regional Institute & Educational Technology Training Center, or SRI & ETTC, at Richard Stockton College.
The all-day conference offered workshops on a variety of technology, from interactive whiteboards to online programs such as the virtual-dissection program Froguts. Patricia Weeks, director of the SRI & ETTC, said a major advantage to smart phones is that students already know how to use them.
“The teachers are interested in integration, how to use the technology to improve the lesson,” Weeks said. “With a smart phone or tablet, they don’t have to teach the students how to use the technology itself.”
Speakers stressed that no matter how cool the technology, it is still only a tool, not an end in and of itself.
See also:
How to make one-to-one computing a success
Education’s Guide to Mobile Learning Devices
‘Bring your own device’ catching on in schools
Mobile learning: Not just laptops any more
“It’s not about the iPad, it’s about how you can use the iPad to enhance the lesson,” said Kathleen Fox, curriculum coordinator for the Brigantine Public Schools, which got a cart full of iPads this year. She and teachers Melissa Knoff and James Wilkinson discussed applications they are using in their classrooms, including a Macbeth app (Shakespeare in Bits, from Mindconnex Learning—a 2012 Readers’ Choice Award winner from eSchool Media) that includes a family tree of the play’s characters.
Wilkinson, who teaches science, said teachers have to make sure they focus on the lesson, and not the app.
“Kids treat it like a game, and it keeps their interest,” he said. “It’s up to the teacher to keep them focused.”
Horner said using the smart phones has given students the freedom to explore and challenge themselves beyond the lesson.
One Response to Teachers share tips for using smart phones as learning tools in class, at home
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aimcpatrick
March 19, 2012 at 11:41 pm
We implemented a one-to- one program in our middle school with 110 students this year using iPad 2′s. Each of our teachers were also given an iPad. We’ve had a few minor hurdles, but for the most part we are so amazed by the outstanding leaps we have made. Students are more engaged and motivated in their education than we have ever seen them. We’ve also cut down so much on our paper usage. We aren’t paperless yet, but most of our teachers say they have cut their paper use by 50 percent. Our teachers post many of their assignments online or email them to their students. Each of our kids have a school assigned Google mail address. The kids email assignments back to their teachers. Then the teachers create folders either in their Google mail account or on their iPads or computers where these are saved electronically. We already have one math textbook on our iPads, and we are hoping to replace more of our texts this next year.
Sure we had to talk to the students about the appropriate times and use of their email. We’ve provided classroom management tips for our teachers about the use of iPads in the classroom. And occasionally an iPad has to be taken for a period or so, if the student is misusing it. We’ve had more breakage of iPads than we expected, and that has been an issue. Loaners are a necessity! But overall, it’s been the most exciting, rewarding year it could be because of our iPad initiative.
Carolyn Patrick
Director of Electronic Learning
Meyer Academy
West Palm Beach, Florida