First Few Days
The first few days of classes have come and gone. I wanted to reflect on my thoughts about the week. The first issue that I have noticed is that I am not getting 100% participation, yet. Many of the students are eager to work with their phones, but I do seem to have some hold outs. I did several text based activities with the students. I do have two students without an unlimited texting plan on their phones, so I have had to adapt to their needs. Fortunately, pen and paper are still amazing tools of communication. I believe the power of many of the web applications that exits for sms texting lies in the anonymity of the text. I am including an example of a wiffiti.com screen below that shows their responses to a review assignment. Notice the names that show with each text. This anonymity should allow even the shyest student an ability to participate without the fear of being heard and teased.
I am encouraged by this experience. I am being challenged and learning along with my students. I look forward to how much I will learn throughout the year.
September 13th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
When you write of adapting the assignments for those without unlimited texting plans, have you looked at using online cell phone simulators? These can be used to allow students to dial the number needed and enter the text answer. Some are: http://gizmosms.com/ http://www.text4free.net/ http://www.txtdrop.com/
September 13th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Thank you for the links. They are interesting and I will look into possibly using them.