What an interesting class today. I am not sure what I was expecting, but
meeting previous MACers was well, very enlightening. Listening to their “real world” perspectives
about smart boards, Ipads, laptops and anything else that was electric and
computed, how they were paid for and how they were used…who had them and who
wanted them…very interesting! Having
children who are in school in A2 I see the influence of technology and thought
it was odd to hear not every school had the same access…I was not surprised,
just thought it was odd.
What I found personally intriguing was the discussion of
cell phones and their use in the classroom as an educational tool. I guess I never really thought about how you
could use a smartphone in the class as a way to augment learning. It gives the students a way to use a piece of
technology as a learning tool…what a great concept…My oldest is probably going
to be happy because now I actually want him to get one, something I did not
want before btw…
But using the phone as a way to increase learning is
amazing…especially in my discipline, social studies, more specifically history,
or econ, or geography, or politic science.
I have always been a big believer in not memorizing the dates but
focusing more on the era and what was significant about that period of
time. After all, you can just look dates
up, so using the smart phone, as a way to facilitate this just seems
natural. Suppose an idea is discussed
and you, the teacher, are not really sure of something, giving the students the
opportunity to help and be part of the learning process seems like a brilliant
idea to me! I think it also allows the
student to see the process of discovering the answers of what you do not know. I believe it is empowering to show you do not
know everything, and are not afraid to show that, but also to let people take
charge in their life. Here is “how you
find the answer” should always replace “here is the answer.” What happens when the person, giving the
answer, is not around anymore?
The old adage, give a man a fish and he will eat for a day
but teach the man how to fish and he will eat forever just popped into my head…
You are about to be a very popular dad! :)
ReplyDeleteIf cell phones and learning excite you (and you have had time to catch up on sleep and family time!), you might enjoy these resources:
http://www.slideshare.net/elizkeren/liz-kolb-mame
Slide deck from Liz's March presentation, chock full of cell phone ideas
http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/Record/008906526
Liz's book, Toys to Tools
http://cellphonesinlearning.blogspot.com/
Liz's blog
I too am looking forward to learning more about cell phones in the classroom. I have not made up my mind yet. I totally see the "distraction" factor....but I can't yet say they are of zero value. Nearly every kid has them, and those that do have them use them with great frequency. Can we tap into that to move the students to a higher intellectual state? Hopefully we will find out in the fall...
ReplyDeleteI am excited about the possibilities of using cell phones in the classroom. Allowing the students to use the internet access they already have to engage in active learning is great! I wish I could have challenged a couple of my teachers with such a ready source of information at my fingertips. I am learning how to master that with my ipad and the various digital storehouses we've learned about. The "distraction factor" is always going to be a factor when you are dealing with students who have cell phones, ipods, ipads, or handheld games.
ReplyDeleteI agree Sir. Teach 'em to fish.
Sup Spisak, you make some good and interesting points that I wholeheartedly agree with. I think that using cell phones, especially in our discipline of social studies, is a great idea and conventional tool that I will certainly allow in my future classroom. I think that times have changed, and that teachers are no longer looked at as simply people who amass a knowledge of a large amount of facts, but of people who facilitate the discovery process that learning is. Like you said the simple knowing of dates and facts doesn't really add up to anything if you can't contextualize them and comprehend the details behind them. While I'm afraid a bit of the distraction factor like some other commentators have mentioned, I think by disallowing cell phones you're only forcing students to be more covert and cell phone use probably won't stop, let them eat cake and maybe you will be able to get some help from them in terms of looking stuff up.
ReplyDelete