Mobile Learning

The discussion topic for this particular week was called 'mobile learning.' Essentially, we explored the many different uses for mobile technology in the classroom. For this discussion, we mainly focused on cell phones as the relevant mobile technology.

This discussion focused on the positive and negative aspects of using cell phones in the classroom, ways in which to incorporate cell phones in classroom instruction, obstacles, and issues. I learned a lot from this discussion and it opened my eyes to possibly incorporating mobile technology in my classroom. The following points are the most important things I took from this discussion:

• Using cell phones in the classroom may 'open a can of worms' as the saying goes. You run the risk of students abusing them and misusing them.
• Students love to use their cell phones! By incorporating this technology into instruction, students will hopefully be interested in and motivated by the subject matter and activities.
• Cell phones can be a good way for students to communicate quickly with eachother or the teacher. In turn, responses are quicker, leading (hopefully) to increased productivity.
• If cell phones are incorporated into classroom instruction or assignments, clear guidelines and boundaries need to be established ahead of time.
• Most importantly, cell phones are the means of communication for almost everyone! Teachers need to keep up with technology, and this type of technology is not going to disappear anytime in the near future.

Overall, I thought this was a great discussion. The topic is relevant and the comments that everyone made were thoughtful and insighful. Issues were brought up that I hadn't necessarily thought of (cell phones being used to record teachers- when they are unaware of being recorded) and the ideas for implementing cell phones in the classroom were cool.

The only suggestion I have for this discussion would be to provide more examples of ways to use cell phones in the classroom. We came up with a plethora of reasons why cell phones can be a challenge, but I think that some more realistic ideas would be helpful.