CEP 812 - Mobile Learning Lab

I really like the Poll Everywhere idea. It is flexible as far as the options for the type of questions to ask and it provides immediate feedback for the teacher to gauge understanding. It also gets the students engaged in learning because shown by the statistic in the Module texting is the most frequently used form of communication between the ages 12-17. The only disadvantage for me is that our students are not allow to have cell phones on them in the middle school. Although it was very interesting to read about the phones Verizon created that only allow data processing and bans calling and texting to other numbers. Even though cell phones are not allowed, we could always do a online poll on our netbooks. We also have access to iPads that have unlimited amounts of apps for the classroom. My friend who teaches 4th grade uses her to organize help her organize her AR library they even have an app to scan the books and tell you exactly what reading level it is.


Some of the tools I found useful were class dojo, flash drives, smartphones, and mp3 players/flip cameras. Class Dojo is a website that can help track behavior both positive and negative. It displays the students (you could use numbers instead) and allows you to add points for good behavior or take away for negative behavior. I have a smartboard that I can do it on, but I can also add points directly from my smartphone if I am busy walking around the room. Then, you can have a reward for reaching so many points. I also love flash drives, I use them everyday to work on and transport files from home to work. We are doing a RAFT (Role Audience Format Topic) on adding integers and the format is a rap. The most creative and descriptive rap is going to be able record a video/audio production of their song with me! Lastly, I love the idea of recording lecture notes for students, especially if a student was absent. I would love to propose an idea for getting a classroom set of mp3, this would definitely make class time more efficient if students could sometimes work independently on the lectures instead of having all the interruptions with a whole class. I could see students not asking as many questions if they were to just be listening to a lecture and not wanting to stop or me answering their question when 10 others might have that question later on. Another problem is abuse of the technologies. One teacher had an iPod Touch stolen, so we would have to keep tight security on the items.