It’s hard to walk into a classroom and find even one student who does NOT have a personal cell phone today. More specifically, it would be hard to find a single student who doesn’t text message on a daily basis.
Schools around the world are turning these devices into something that was banned from the classroom to a tool used to enhance learning in the classroom. Although the schools around the United States are being to use cell phones in their classrooms, schools in the United Kingdom and Asia have been using them a classroom tools for years now (Rapp, 2011).
One way cell phones can be utilized for good in the classroom is to have students participate in polls dealing with topics being studied in class. Polleverywhere.com is one site teachers can use to have students use their cell phones to participate in polling. It’s a different way for students to express their thoughts on topics and ideas. Once students enter their answer for the question/statement and all of them are sent to the poll site itself, a graph will display all of the results so not only does it get students engaged in the classroom activity, it also provides a visual view of their own and their peers answers. If there are less than 30 students in a class, polleverywhere can be used for free. If there are 31-249 students, it costs $15 a month, and for 250 or more students its $65 a month. When you think about it, if a professor is going to use this tool at least a couple of times of month, it will cost less to use polleverywhere rather than have each student purchase their own personal clicker.
Here are some of the uses that polleverywhere.com provides.
To learn more about polleverywhere, visit http://www.polleverywhere.com/.
I have had a chance to use to use my cell phone to vote and use polleverywhere.com and it definitely is a good change-up to class participation. I don’t think it should replace other engaging class activities, such as discussions, but I think it is a useful tool that can be used every so often. I also agree overall that since cell phones, and texting in particular, are so popular that it can be used in other ways to enhance class participation and learning.
The big problem with trying to use cell phones as classroom tools is trying to make sure that they are only used for class use, and not to text friends, go on the Internet, etc. I think that it might be a more useful and appropriate tool for college students, rather than high schools students for example, since maturity level is higher and college students are held to a higher level as far as classroom conduct. Of course this is all relative, and nothing can be completely controlled.
What do you think about cell phones in the classroom? Should they be used in place of devices like clickers? Is there a certain grade level that would be more appropriate for students to use their phones in class? Do you have any suggestions on how teachers/professors can help regulate the use of cell phone for class purposes only?
References:
Rapp, D. (2011). Lift the cell phone ban. Scholastic Inc. http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751073.
I agree that using cell phones in the classroom as a means to poll would cut the otherwise necessary costs of clickers and the hassles of configuring the accompanying software. Using cell phones would be convenient and very exciting for most students, but what about the one or two students who show up to class but do not own a cell phone? I can’t help but think about these “minorities” who might be left out and perhaps ostracized because they are not able to participate the same way as their peers in the engaging nature of cell-phone-learning. I mean let’s face it, whether in an inner city school or not, although many will likely own and be avid users of cell phones, there will always be those few children, no matter what age, that cannot afford one, who have to share one with a sibling, who had theirs stolen, or had it revoked by a parent/guardian as a consequence to negative behavior. Even if the teacher offered these few students an alternative technology, like a clicker, as an attempt to offer equal participation during class, that sends a strong message to the whole group. Firstly, it automatically acknowledges those who do not have cell phones, which can be humiliating in front of judging peers. In this way also, privilege is equated with owning a cell phone, while disadvantage is equated with not owning one. Is this an acceptable message?
ReplyDeleteLet’s say, though, that all students within a classroom owned cell phones and always remembered to bring them to class. In this ideal environment, these devices would be EXCELLENT tools to encourage participation and engagement in a more personal way than clickers. In a COLLEGE environment too, I could see cell-phone-learning to be very beneficial and appropriate for the age/maturity of the students.
Raleigh brought up an interesting point about bringing unwanted attention to students who may not be able to afford cell phones at the middle school or high school level. I know schools have purchased smart phones for use in the classroom, so that could maybe solve the problem of excluding those children.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I wasn't sure about allowing students in middle and high schools to use phones for educational purposes because I thought it could allow for too many distractions via texting or using social networking sites. But this article discussed the use of smart phones in elementary schools and mentioned the capability of blocking texting and certain sites, which eased my concerns. http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/12/gobles_schools_to_give_smart_p.html
Like Britney and Raleigh said, I could see the use of smart phones being beneficial for college aged students in the classroom. I like the idea of using smart phones for polling rather than buying the clickers that students may only use a few times for a single class.
In terms of regulating the use of the phones for educational purposes in college classes, that may be more challenging. I'm not sure how far professors should go in regulating the use of cell phones. One would hope college students could control themselves when it comes to using cell phones for class purposes only, but I am sure we have all seen students texting throughout class or interrupting class to take a phone call.
The above post give legitimate reasoning for the presence of personal cell phones in the classroom, however just like with social media in the classroom, there is a fine line between distracting personal use and appropriate educational applications. In my opinion the polling application of the cell phone sounds very similar to the clicker function and i'm wondering who picks up the tab for it?
ReplyDeleteWith the clicker, each student spends between $30-$50 dollars for their own clicker that can be used in different classes, while it sounds like the cost of the phone application must be held by the teacher and paid monthly. The clicker places less financial burden on the teacher or professor making it more likely to be used.
In the end it sounds like the ideal audience for the phone pole would be a small undergraduate college course or students in graduate study. The students using the pole function need to be responsible and able to control their use of the phone and keep it strictly class related during classroom use. Monitoring personal use of the phone would be difficult because there is no real way to restrict what the students are using their phones for once its been "okay'ed" to pull them out in class.
Cell phone use in the classroom sounds like something that would be very difficult to control once started. Bringing such an important and personal tool into the classroom give students access to the internet, social media, and messaging applications that can take them right out of the classroom focus wise. Better to use classroom designed and designated tools in order to better define purpose and direction in the classroom.
I like this idea, using cell phones as a polling tool is interesting and may be exciting to students but like the above posts mentioned the many many distractions will make this tool so much more difficult.
ReplyDeleteIt will be to much for the professor to try and make sure students are using the program for its appropriate uses, it will be soooo many students texting and on twitter and Facebook. Does the software has a blocking function that only allows students to participate in the software when they are in class? I know the apps on my phone allows you to back out of them and do other things while using the app. To have the people who created the program go through means of getting things blocked on the cell phones for the software to work like it is suppose to this alone is to much of a hassle.
This would be a good tool for college students mainly upperclassmen and graduate students. I would love to try it out.
I love that you brought this topic up because I did a research paper on this subject this past summer, and there is SO much information out there about it. The use of cell phones in classrooms is only rising, and the strictness of banning cell phones in school is only decreasing. I actually participated in polls in one of my classes this summer using cell phones, and it was so easy and efficient. As college students, we all had cell phones and were so easily able to text a letter to a number that was provided for us. Once we did this, a graph even showed up of the statistics of our results. This process took less than a minute, and everyone was able to give their own individual input during that time.
ReplyDeleteSome classes are even piloting cell phones called "Mobile Learning Devices" that are provided for each student. These MLDs do everything a cell phone does including internet access besides call and text. Students as young as elementary love these devices because they feel like they have their own smart phones, and they get to use them for school purposes!
Like Catherine said, just like most other forms of technology there are disadvantages to this as well. I know if I told every student in my 7th grade class to take out their phones, they would get so rowdy and excited and lose focus on the actual lesson. Texting each other and other friends would definitely become an issue during this time. I think using cell phones in a classroom can be beneficial and adjusted based on the type of class you have and the students in it. Like everyone else said, I think this idea is most beneficial in a college setting.
I think it's great to have cell phones in classrooms be a positive action as opposed to a negative one. Our generation relies so much on our phones now, why not use them during learning?
I agree that cell phones could be used for good in the classroom. I had to purchase a clicker one semester and the teacher only used the clickers in one class. The whole experience seemed like a waste of technology and money. I would think that a website like polleverywhere would be more beneficial in a case like mine. As for the regulation of the cell phones beyond educational use - there really aren't too many ways to control the use of cell phones. The responsibility lies with the student to learn the information. The same problem can be seen with allowing computers in the classroom to take notes. There is really no way for individual teacher at the front of the classroom to monitor the student's screen. However, if the student is not paying attention and is distracted by his or her own technology, usually, it will show in the student's grade on the exams and in the class. I think cell phones would be good for classroom polling, and I think, especially for small classes, cell phones would be a more reasonable tool for the classroom than clickers.
ReplyDeleteIf the school was paying for the polleverywhere fee instead of the students (or if part of tuition went to it) I think a lot of students would prefer using their cellphones as polling devices instead of buying clickers. Its very natural for college students to use cellphones daily and this would not be a hard transition for students to make. However, since cellphones are used for other purposes it could break or go on the fritz like my just did and then students would be annoyed in their personal and academic lives. Clickers are so annoying to use and I have missed points because mine wouldn't connect to the site. Using my cellphone would have been a lot quicker and easier. This also could prevent academic dishonesty. I have known people to ask friends to take their clickers to class for them that way even though they are not present in class they still get their participation points. No one is going to willingly give up their cellphone for participation points.
ReplyDelete