Mobile Learning

I myself have never been that obbsessed with mobile devices in my personal life. Therefore, I knew the ipod's and mp3 players played music, but not really anything else. I obiously have a computer and a cell phone. I know a lot of what I can do with my laptop, but much of that is specific to a mac. I never really used my cell phone for anything else besides calling and texting.

After my limited experience it surprises and amazes me that there are so many educational ways that I could actually use a mobile device in my classroom. A lot of the devices seem like they pretty much all have the same function such as the ipods, mp3 players, and PDA's. I was actually surprised to see a flashdrive on the list and was really interested in what new things I could do with one that I didn't know about before. But really it just transfers data from one place to another and while this is very useful, it wasn't new information to me.

I think the mobile device that I would like you use the most is the smart phone, especially after learning about the different successful trials already. My school is a smaller rural school without a lot of money or internet access. The idea that my students could all be handed a compact computer that they can use anywhere there is cellphone service just astounds and excites me. This would completely level the playing field and bring everyone into the 21st century.

I especially liked trying out Poll Everywhere. Making a poll was quick and easy, though I have to say that seeing my own results pop up on the screen seconds after I had texted them was really exciting. And I know that if I think they are exciting then so would my students. I already have several students in my middle school classes that bring their cellphones to the class even though they aren't supposed to. Poll everywhere would be a fun way to start off the class occasionally. The only problem I forsee with that is getting permission from the administration and then making sure the students don't play with the phones when we're done with the poll. The best way to solve that would be to use the smartphones that don't have the texting or calling capability, though I know our school doesn't have the money for that at the moment.