I know there was an earlier discussion about using cell phones in the classroom, but it is an area I'd like to explore with my district.  Right now I need to create buy in from administrators.  They'd especially like to hear from any teachers/districts that have successfully integrated the use of cell phones for educational purposes.  I've already brought data and lesson ideas to the table - now they want to hear first hand experiences.
If you can help me out with this, please reply!

Tags: cell, phones

Views: 97

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Sounds great! My point to administrators was this: kids are already using them during class without the teacher's knowledge. If we take control of it and use it educationally we'll have less of a problem than if we ban them.
I started reading Toys to Tools by Liz Kolb today. It's a great resource.
Klista,
I have a GREAT principal to work for. She has allowed me to use cell phones in class for the past 2 years. I teach middle school health/pe in West Virginia. During the 08-09 school year I used it only for "extra credit." Here is what I did, I said any student who has a cell phone and is willing to text please get out your cell phones. Only about half the students had phones and participated. I then said, I will give the first person who gets a text back from a parent with the answer to this question 25 extra credit points. This was the question, "I need to know what all we are having to eat for dinner tonight for my health teacher". I have found it is better to have it on the screen or smart board so you don't have to keep repeating over and over. I would go on with class, as the texts came in of course the first one got the extrat credit points, but we talked about the nutritional values of each meal that was text into class.

This year we have a technology teacher on staff and she showed us a free (always the best right) web site called polleverywhere.com. I have used this site as a review for my students many times this year already. You can make different types of polls, multiple choice or short answer. The kids love it. They not only have to text the answer but they can't wait to read there response as well as the responses of others when it shows up on the screen. They are reading and rereading the answers.
I have also used it to poll the class. Once I took a poll to see how much more time the groups needed to be ready to present their assignment. We also took a poll to see which group had the best presentation.
To help combat any extra texting, once a text has been sent "hands off the cell phone" cell phones must be placed upside down in front of them on their table.
I too would love to hear about new and exciting ways to use cell phones as well as other technologies into my classroom.
I am reading Toys to Tools right now http://www.iste.org/source/Orders/isteProductDetail.cfm?product_cod.... It lists some of the ideas you've already mentioned and has TONS of ideas along with step by step directions (with pictures!). It is a great resource if you're looking for more ways to use cell phones.
Glad it's been working for you!
Klista,
What network operating system do you use with the macs? We would like to go the mac route with our teachers and students and I don't really know enough about it yet. Do you have everything networked?
Networks are not my specialty, so let me see if I can answer your question.
We use the Leopard OS on our Macs. Right now we have a few techs piloting the Snow Leopard to see if it's stable enough to go district wide (We have 18 schools, 7600+ students).
As far as networking goes, we're about half and half of a single network that covers our district and individual per school. The goal is to put every school on that single network eventually, which is wireless. The individual schools that have their own networks right now are wired. They have a few wireless eMINTS classrooms, but the majority of the classrooms require a wired connection.
Does this help?

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