cellular learning

I must apologize for my absence from these pages.  I have no excuse as my ink never runs dry nor do my fingers lack the ability to move.

If I have anything to observe about my classroom over the past few months is how much I want to share what I am doing with all of my classes, not just one pilot program.  I have seen so many teachable moments that the phone could be used for over the past few months.  When a student asks what a word means, why not have her take out her phone and do a little research to see not only the definition of the word but also what context of the word applies to the lesson.  I enjoy watching my students scramble for their phones to answer this type of question.

I have observed the richness of discussion using polling sites like wiffiti.com and polleverywhere.com.  Student are able to raise great points that even I have not thought about and show a different perspective on the topic because of this.  I have seen increased engagement with these polls as well.

The greatest growth I have seen comes from the combination of the mobile device with the wiki.  Giving students the ability to share out work and show their own growth has been a wonderful experience.  Also, enabling discussion of what they have learned is also very interesting.  I have decided that in the final quarter of the year, students will complete a major project for the wiki, turning it into a portfolio of growth in the course.

I have seen so many possibilities with the wiki over the year and will be sharing some ideas with everyone soon.

I promise to continue this blog with a bit more frequency than I have in the past.

So for now, I say, “see ya!”

I know that I have not blogged in a couple of weeks, but my doctoral studies have kept me quite busy as I am nearing the end of a term.

This video shows my students at work with their cell phones developing flickr.com slideshows for demonstration of their work.    I will be posting exemplars of this at a later date.  I have started using flickr for slide shows instead of photobucket for the simple fact that I can pause a flickr slideshow.  This makes it simpler to pause student work.  One drawback i have found using varying phone technology has to do with the quality of the camera in the phone – some phone cameras just not that good.  Some students are now using digital cameras for their work and others are now submitting handwritten work to compensate for low quality cameras.

This video is a 30 second cut from a group activity performed in my class this week. It shows my student’s response on wiffiti.

I had them break into groups of 4 that contained at least one smart phone per group. Each group was then tasked to answer the following questions and put their responses up on their assigned wiffiti board.

The only tool they had to find those answers was the smart phone contained in each group.

Group A: 

1. Who "coined" the term matrix?

2. When did the matrix first appear?

3. Name 3 other contributors to matrix mathematics.

Group B:

Name 4 real world uses of matrices.

Group C:

Name 5 different math operations that work with matrices.

Group D:

1. What is a matrix?

2. What is a determinant?

3. What is a square matrix?

4. What axiom did Russell and Whitehead use the word matrix with?

This was the first time I had approached a topic using groups in this manner.  I only have four students in the room equipped with smart phones. As a result, I created the four groups.  However, on that day, one of my students with a smart phone was not in attendance.  You can imagine the problem this created fro this group.  I had to given them my smart phone for this activity.  There was a little bit of a learning curve for them with that phone but they worked with it and were successful at the activity.

I was very pleased with my students and their performance of this activity.  They were able to construct knowledge on their own about what a matrix is and its uses. 

The issue of the lack of smart phones lead me to have a conversation with my district’s director of instructional technology about the use of the iPod touch in activities like this.  I have even found an app for the iPod touch that allows the sending of sms texts without having a cell phone number or account. The name of this app is textPlus found at http://beta.gogii.com/v/textplus.html.  Since my room has access to a wireless access point, this will enable the ten or so students in my room with iPod touches to also contribute to group activities.  This also allows a low cost solution for students with out cell phones to participate in all activities if the district were to provide several loaner iPod touch for students who would need them.

One final thought,  as we desire to see increased literacy and desire for students to become life long learners, it is important that we follow every avenue that would lead them to live up to the potential that they truly have.

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.