Mobile Phones

The technological age we are coming into is a great period for teachers. I always thought I would be an "old school" teacher in the sense that I would not be using much technology in my classroom. After looking at I pads though, I realise how foolish I would have been to shut out an item of great teaching potential. Below is a P.M.I chart that come across as very one sided. 

Positives: 

- Interactive

- light and very mobile

- accessability to internet and shared learning sites

- Great variety of applications that are free

- Inexpensive

Negatives: 

- Possible cause of distraction

- Monitoring of its use is required and difficult to do in higher grades. 

Interesting:

- teachers can overlay notes onto selected on-line, shared documents as side notes, reminders, reference points ext.

- Applications designed for learning are available from kindergarten English and maths to grade school science, maths and English

- Appeal to all learning styles. Auditory, kinaesthetic and visual learners

- "Expands students creativity and intellectual curiosity of students" - Malik Burnett.

The last interesting point came from a third year medical student in North Carolina. His suggestion gave me a relative idea to the curiosity of the student. I have found with myself that if a new subject is given to me in an appealing way, I will engage myself in the activity until it is complete. If my curiosity is grasped by the concept and extra information is given, I will submerge myself in the learning material. Ipads have a lay-out that has that "X-factor" which grabs the users attention and curiosity. They also give students the opportunity to research further by means of downloaded applications/books and on-line investigations.

The only Major draw back that I could see would be the distraction potential smart phones and Ipads have. The readily available access to the internet is on such a grand scale that it can be a scary thought for teachers to give there students that power. this can be solved with the blocking of websites and monitoring the students using them.
The other minor drawback is the cost but this is easily debatable as a brand new 16 gigabyte Ipad costs $540 to buy outright ( Apple, 2013). 

The high level of accessibility to information grants I pads and iPhone great relevance and potential in the classroom. Not only does it give access to the internet and interactive games, but also allows for teachers and students to record and reflect on gathered data in the classroom. This is done with the readily available photo and video camera that is available on almost all mobile phones, smart phones and Ipads. These two tools can be used in Art and science for the benefit of both the teacher and the student. Other free applications that come with all mobile phones is the calculator and stopwatch. Both of these tools can again be utilised in a science lesson, and, can give aid in mathematical lessons. Smart phones and Ipads are one step ahead of other mobile phones though as they have the accessibility to applications that give a greater level of interactiveness with the students.

Applications are great as they appeal to many different learning styles. They are very visual, require engagement from the user and, give audio directions if needed. These three factors appeal to auditory, visual and kinaesthetic learners. A great application that I have found and use regularly that fits perfectly into the higher grade science curriculum is the "Sky View" application available for iphones and ipads. This application allows the user to view the current location of the constellations, the moon and the sun. It also gives facts on selected items and gives what time the Sun or Moon will be at that location. 

             ( http://kmiahali.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/skyview-for-iphone-review-give-away/) 

At the start of the day you could use this application to take a screenshot of the current location of the sun and it locations predicted location at the end of the school day. AT the end of the day we could see if the prediction was correct. Students could also then research the speed at which the earth is revolving and calculate the distance the Earth has rotated during the school day. 

Mathematical application have also been designed for students who are struggling with their times table. A highly recommended application for students learning their multiplication tables is "Ultimate times tables". This application allows students to undergo four different types of tests that include multiple choice, beat the clock, factor test and a regular test. All are great tools to fine tune the learners quickness, accuracy and confidence in their multiplication tables. 

    (http://louiseduncan.global2.vic.edu.au/files/2011/06/Screen-shot-2011-06-06-at-10.11.28-PM.png) 

Another great feature which it has is the progress button. This shows the learner which questions they have answered incorrectly. In conjunction with this, the application has a "where should i imporve" button. This is great for teachers to see where their student are struggling and gives direction to the student to help them turn into self-directed learners. 

I thought that i would be very "Old school" in my teaching methods, however i can not deny the great learning and teaching potential that smart phones and Ipads have in the classroom. They are both great tools to be used in the classroom and not using them would be a waste. If i have the facilities and opportunity,  I will definitely be using them in my classroom for their affordance. As Michael Coghlan said, "Students use their mobiles so much, it is like breathing to them, and the come to school and it is cut off is like stopping them breathing, they don't get that air. I just think that is rather fraught"