CEP 812: Mobile Learning Lab

I really enjoyed working through this lab. There are so many cool tools that are out their that are mobile. I really feel like learning can be much more beneficial to students when they can learn anywhere, not just in school. Mobile devices allow this to happen. Lets face it, technology is not going to go away. As educators we need to learn to embrace it and figure out best practices for implementation into the classroom.

There is a lot of beneficial information in the Classroom 2.0 site. I enjoyed rummaging through and reading all of the different ideas people had. So many tips! There are also many features available for self enrichment too. Here is a screenshot of something I posted related to cell phones in class:

I also used Poll Everywhere to create a short survey of some things that I may ask students on the first day of school just to get an idea of technology in their lives outside of the classroom. Here is the link to that survey.

There are a few different ways I plan on implementing mobile technology into my classes this coming year. First, I am using a social networking site called Edmodo. I chose Edmodo because it has great features, but also because it has a mobile app available. If students are not able to download the mobile app to their phone they can still access it using the mobile site. I am going to incorporate Poll Everywhere into my presentations as well. It's a great tool to use as a check for understanding. I realize that it uses cell phones and many schools forbid it, but personally I feel like it would be a missed opportunity. The human race wouldn't have come this far if the rules weren't bent just a little every now and then, right? In reality, I will probably talk with my principal to see if I can get cell phones approved maybe for just that purpose; possibly inviting her down to watch a lesson where the technology is used. Many of my students also have MP3 players or iPods or their phone can play media files. I am planning on creating podcasts of our class lectures so they may be downloaded by students and posted to our Edmodo site.