Cell Phones

The question I have been mulling over is where and how we can use the omnipresent cell phone in classes. Hall Davidson from Discovery School does a presentation on cell phones in education. He starts by having people take out their cell phones and answer a question. You can go to http://www.polleverywhere.com/ and get an account that with a downloadable spreadsheet that will update with every vote. Users send a text message or go to a website and vote and it updates on the spreadsheet. You can watch people vote. A personal account is $15 and presenter is $65.

How about a quiz on the cell phone? Students can text in the answers. Imagine how motivated your students would be to do a quiz on their cell phones.

Gcast is a great site to create podcasts. Now, I understand that it would take energy to create these podcasts but it meets the kids where they live. To start out I am hoping to get advisory groups to make weekly ‘Remdawg” podcasts with info, news, maybe challenges, interviews, etc. They can choose the topic, music and content. I wonder if we can get the kids to embrace this. I think it could be a powerful connection to the school and the community.

Other uses for cell phones in classes might include using Twitter to connect group work, blog posts, accessing pictures and doing searches. Qik.com lets you share live video. Jott.com offers voice to text. There are sites that translate and many, many more options.

Step one is to embrace the technology instead of banning it. So, that being said, do you see Remington Middle School encouraging the use of cell phones in classes any time soon or do you see that in the far distance?