Post 7 - Mobile devices

Hi, I have a question for you?

Happy to help, whats your question

How can I use mobiles in my classroom and why should I?

Well,

we have all heard the term Web 2.0, which describes the World Wide Web sites that highlight user-generated content and usability. The term was popularized by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty at the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 Conference in late 2004 and it basically means that the information is read-write. such as 

• The ability for visitors to make changes to Web pages: 
• Using Web pages to link people to other users: Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are popular in part because they make it easy for users to find each other and keep in touch.
• Fast and efficient ways to share content: YouTube is the perfect example. A YouTube member can create a video and upload it to the site for others to watch in less than an hour.

Think of Web 1.0 as a library. You can use it as a source of information, but you can't contribute to or change the information in any way. Web 2.0 is more like a big group of friends and acquaintances. You can still use it to receive information, but you also contribute to the conversation and make it a richer experience.

With Web 3.0 knocking on the door (some say it’s already here), it’s imperative that students get a grasp on 2.0’s social landscape. By virtue of their daily role, teachers are in a prime position to turn their students into digitally savvy leaders. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-301.htm

With Web 3.0 stating that the new internet will become your personal assistant than the phone is you, personal assistant, butler, secretary,  social organiser and by virtue your link to the world. So I guess we truly need to start considering how they can be used in the classroom and have a plan so they can manage the risk of how they will be abused in the classroom!

How do we do this?

We start with see our students as mobile learners and start to consider mobile devices as a learning tool.

  

In today's schools, it is not uncommon for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad to be utilized, but how do we do this safely as while this is an excellent opportunity to learn how these social tools work, teachers often forget to focus on critical components like:

• The permanent and searchable nature of private data (e.g., profile information, comments, images and video) once it has been uploaded to the Web. Do students fully understand that what they’re writing is now public record? It can be a deal breaker when potential employers and colleges find an applicant’s negative information online.
• The imperceptible ways that companies collect, store, use and spread personal information that students share through a platform’s sign up process, quiz or game.
• The unreliability of privacy settings—these settings change regularly and often without users even knowing it. Teachers should outline the privacy settings as laid out by the major social networks and what students can do to stay current with updates.

Without a doubt, social media belongs in the classroom. I can seen how quickly a high school class can organize itself into action when classmates (i.e., Facebook friends) engage with each other online. Imagine applying this is a class-wide activity!

What do I need to consider?

Safety First!! Than fun, fun, fun.

Teachers need to. educate their students about the importance of privacy and security by including it in the classroom curricula. 

• Keep the dialogue going about the technologies that your students are using to keep your education efforts current and relevant.
• Administrators: Offer professional development and continuing education opportunities for teachers in the areas of privacy and security.
• Teachers and Administrators: Be proactive. Make sure your school has policies in place that address important issues concerning student privacy, employee privacy, searches and surveillance, use of computers, mobile devices and social networks (on and off campus), cyberbullying, school email and data security.

http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/resources/articles/digital-family-life/family-social-media-in-the-classroom-part-2-of-3

I have developed my own safety presentation outline what it means to be a good digital citizen in today's world.

Class rules from clatcham

What and iPhone do these days?

They are call smart devices for a reason!

iphones can;

• Audio Recording coupled with Web 2.0 tools to immediately post them on the web.
• voicemail
• audio recording
• podcasting (gabcast, jot.com)
• Mobile Note Taking
• Using an SMS System (e.g. ) can allow you to receive communications from your learners via text, without giving out a personal phone number.
• Can help you stay in touch with learners who may have particular queries and provide a fast response.
• Use the calendar for reminding students about tasks and homework assignments.
• StudyBoost to review/study
• Students and teachers can create a set of study or review questions on this site. The questions are then sent by text to the students so that they can review using their phones.
• Teachers can create a group using a service such as Remind 101, Celly or Broadtexter to send texts to parents, students, clubs or school faculty.
• This is an easy way to send reminders, homework assignments, or other news.The teacher creates the group and it is up to the student/parent to use their phone to join. You post the message or reminder once and it goes out to everyone.
• Vote/Poll using a QRcode & a smartphone
• Any question & any number of answers can be created easily and quickly for any kind of group event. Votes are recorded and displayed on a webpage. Votes shown in a pie chart and a table.
• Students use their phones to create a video of an object in motion, mark its position frame by frame, and set up the scale using a known distance. Vernier Video Physics creates position, and velocity graphs for the object.
• Use an SMS system (e.g. Txttools) to send reminders to learners.

I like what Liz from lang witches said:

“You don’t necessarily have to bring the cellphones into the classroom to do these types of projects”

I agree that this is very important to remember, especially as homes in the twenty first century have a extensive array of smart devices that can be utilised. Give the students the option to do a homework assignment via their parents’ phone while they are driving from school or at a family function (now they can have a good reason to stare at their phone). These day students are more than capable at operating a well equip phone so allow students to become active and current reporters while on a field trip.
As Liz states 'Let’s rethink banning cell phones from schools, simply out of fear that they might be used for the “wrong” reasons and let’s focus on using them for the right reasons.

http://langwitches.org/blog/2007/10/21/cell-phones-as-classroom-learning-tools/

iPads and tablets, what can I uses them for?

All those fantastic learning activities I mentioned last week
Interactive learning objects are web based objects that allow students to visually understand and virtually interact with phenomena that they learn about in the classroom.

These activities have an amazing ability to merge a game with education, whilst having a good explore (commonly referred to a a play) I designed a mobile phone, investigated a crash. I felt it animated real life situations in an easy scaffolded way to create a great learning platform. It provides a easy and free way to provide students with real world experiences that without these tools would be completely inconceivable due to logistic and experience.

What activities are there?

The list is endless and it really comes down to your learning out come, as I mentioned without linking an ICT to a learning outcome they are just a waste of time...But if you can link a learning out come to an online activity well, aim high and redefine the activity altogether. There are many benefits to using smart devices in the classroom, there are also so concerns and questions. Good planning and time will tell if mobiles phones will be known for their uses or the ability to misuse them.

Positive Student carry them everywhere and it is sometimes considered that phones own the person, not the other way around so use it to your advantage. They are call a smart device for a reason as they enable ubiquitous access to information, social Networks, tools for learning and productivity, and hundreds of thousands of custom applications The capabilities are endless and the student are constantly connected, this means we can have mobile learners

Minus The perception still remains that mobile phones are more dangerous for children than other internet-enabled devices, and strong guidelines are in place in most schools forbidding mobile phone use Healthy use of mobile phones need to be established this include health and mental well being Cyber bulling, trolling, online predation and abuse is well documented and of serious concern, policies for safety need to be established early and be well understood by all students

Interesting The apps and the learning opportunities and applications to teaching are endless, be creative and clever. What are the compatibility issues from android and Apple, what do students have access to? What programs run of each platform? What is going to happen in the future?

What are QR Codes?

Oh those funny squares!

My bog QR (scan this and it will
direct you..right back here
on your phone!!)

If you haven’t noticed, there has been an influx of strange black-and-white codes showing up all over the place. Restaurants, stores, movie theaters, magazines, I even created one for this blog! What are they? They are called QR Codes, with the QR standing for Quick Response. 


Basically, they are bar codes on steroids. You can download a simple free app on your smartphone to be able to scan the code, which will then take you to a website, file, phone number, or wherever else the author of the code wants you to see.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/04/qr-codes-in-classroom.html

Examples of the various uses of QR codes

QR Codes can be created to display; 

• URL’s
• Emails address
• Youtube videos
• Vcards

The way QR Codes can be used in the classroom is only limited by our own and our students’ imagination. A couple of ways to use QR Codes include:

• Make worksheets link to websites
• Make a project trail for students to follow
• Sheet music that links to mp3 files
• Take students to websites without the need to type in an URL.
• Provide information ‘hot spots’ throughout the classroom to access online videos, websites, text that is related to curriculum and instructional material.
• Adapt text/books by including QR Codes – providing additional information via text, video and audio
• Adapt text/books by including QR Codes – providing text or audio in an alternative language
• Attach QR Codes to the classroom calendar / timetable to point to information about upcoming class events, assessment reminders, etc.
• Take students to a website you are browsing on an interactive whiteboard. Using the Mobile Barcoder add-on for the Firefox web browser, quickly generate a QR Code and have students scan with their own hand held device.

A great example of using QR codes to providing instant feedback

Like all ICT's there are positive and minuses below is my PMI on QR Codes. I feel there are low risks using them, QR Codes just need a good idea and some well thought out planning.

Positive QR codes are an easy and novel way to direct a student to a link, website or even my blog! They are simple to create, it took a few minutes with no prior knowledge to create my first one. Can be used in a variety lesson structures or in hot spots around the classroom.

Minus Unless linked to a learning outcome such as the need for instant feedback than it can waste time, the students and your, use them appropriately

Interesting What are the issues with misuse of these, can they be made to lead to an inappropriate site, check links carefully.

So what does this mean for teachers, should we use mobile phones in the classroom?

Good question!

Students today are independent mobile users, if we can apply this and plan for it we can hopefully make students independent mobile learners.

The safety of student and teachers privacy and well being, must be considered and again planned for, students will use their phones regardless of their education, they are apart of every students future in and out of the workplace.  Therefore we need to educated them on the safe use so that they gain life skills that will aid them into the future. 

If we can redefine mobile use again, we can use this technology to enhance learning and redefine the possibilities of learning in and out of the classroom.

References

 http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/04/qr-codes-in-classroom.html

 http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/resources/articles/digital-family-life/family-social-media-in-the-classroom-part-2-of-3

 http://langwitches.org/blog/2007/10/21/cell-phones-as-classroom-learning-tools/

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-301.htm