Cell+Phones+in+the+Classroom

=Cell Phones in your Classroom=

How could cell phones be used as learning tools in Foreign Language classrooms? - Ear Fl (415) 223-3803, code #: 101# - When you call this number from you phone you can record stories and save it and then you can go to [|www.earfl.com] and access your story. You can also then go onto the website and add pictures to your story. (Ear FL gets blocked in certain schools, so it is not accessable unless done at home.) - Podcasts from cell phones - upload pictures to flickr from a cell phone for ex. if you are studying "the city" you can have them take pictures of vocabulary words they are learning and upload them to flickr. - [|www.polleverywhere.com] - There are central websites that you could have students send text messages to instead of sending them all to the teacher's cell phone and then the teacher can log onto that website and see everyone's answers. This would allow the teacher to see EACH student's response. - A possible assignment we thought of was assigning the students to call a movie theater (in the target language some how) and come to class with the movie times of some certain movies.

Advantages: -Saves on paper, motivates students to do their homework assignments. -More accessable to students with out computers or internet access at home.

Challenges: -Not every student has a cell phone. Cell phones are often prohibited in school. How do we know students will remain on task when using their cell phone. -How can we asset their learning on their phones. -Schools may block specific sights.

Where do we want to go from here: -As of right now, we aren't sold on the idea and would possibly like to revisit later in a couple months. The school policy is a huge influence. We sent email to Dean and Liz Kolb from U of M, and are awaiting responses. We are still interested in the idea, but we need more guiedance from people who have used it in their classroom.