Mobiles in classroom

[rush_tech]

Anyone work at this school, you must be having load of fun

[sidewinder]

Theres a lot of babble there but no real mention of what they're going to DO with them?
Aside from allowing them on wireless (I'm guessing the majority of kids dont have phones with wireless on them yet anyway) theres nothing.

They mention smartphones to record data, but they were probably all the same model, and preconfigured for that use. How are you going to achieve that with a myriad of different devices?

[dwhyte85]

Innovation doesn't concern itself with the implementation that's our job...

We get this alot from the younger teachers, they have great ideas - like webcam discussion between classrooms, when the teacher is not a specialist on the subject... by the time the session is initiated on whatever program it'd use it works out quicker to walk between the classes!

... was still asked to go buy 20 webcam for all staff concerned, they haven't used them once.

[mb2k01]

Hmm. I don't agree with the first lines of the article about them being the first school to do this - we've paved the way to work this way for months but not yet published anything (in fact, I'd be unlikely to publish anything - it's just an extention of the learning experience, not a news feature!)

The concept is simple - most pupils have them but are told they can't use them, yet they can use/borrow laptops, cameras, netbooks, microphones, tape players, cd's etc etc - when a high percentage of all of those resources are available on most phone handsets these days.

There will always be a potential negative when anything new is proposed, but if you make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and educate instead of restrict, then it should minimise any problems.

[fiendishlyclever]

I've used mobiles in class before - physics practicals with bluetooth/properties of radio waves. I've let kids video stuff as well etc.

All you need is good classroom management and enforced guidelines/boundaries of acceptable behaviour. I suspect this is where the problem lies.

[dwhyte85]

Purely from an IT perspective...

I can just see this descending into madness, kids calling us in to do things on phones that we have no idea about... cover lessons being assigned the task of 'research on your phone'... i can just see it now... 30 year 7 pupils with phones that can't do alot else other than text.. haha

Of course I can be overly pessimistic as it'd be more work for me but I think the next concern is... in certain areas kids having a phone capable of doing tasks like surf the web, play music & video and the like are more likely to get stolen both in and out of school, this then leads to insurance issues (a school surely can't insure for kids phones??), facilities to store a phone & the worst for me... provisioning for network access where needed. Argh!!!

Although I do agree with above if this is a carefully planned, strictly monitored environment for use then that's one part of the problem solved.

From a teaching perspective...

You can nearly do everything on a phone you can on a laptop it must be utilised to improve learning

From a students perspective...

let's listen to music, text our friends and check facebook with our 3g conn.

All you need is good classroom management and enforced guidelines/boundaries of acceptable behaviour. I suspect this is where the problem lies.

Try this with a year 11 bottom set maths class of girls with no interest in maths but interested in organising what they're doing after school - set boundaries & being eagle eyed wont help!

[fiendishlyclever]

Try this with a year 11 bottom set maths class of girls with no interest in maths but interested in organising what they're doing after school - set boundaries & being eagle eyed wont help!

I teach in a special school with a high percentage of EBD pupils. I also spend a lot of time visiting mainstreams - usually trying to work with teachers who have groups like this. A dull curriculum and poor management account for upto 75% of unsatisfactory lessons I observe.

[dwhyte85]

I teach in a special school with a high percentage of EBD pupils. I also spend a lot of time visiting mainstreams - usually trying to work with teachers who have groups like this. A dull curriculum and poor management account for upto 75% of unsatisfactory lessons I observe.

Thankfully I don't teach, I just see first hand what actually happens. Students who want to leave school and are just going through the motions in year 11 because parents are making them go wouldn't care if you had a dancing clown with a dragon that shoots flowers through its nose... they just dont want to be in school, they will not comply with boundaries when told to use own phones or school laptops - but that's a different matter all together and going off-topic.

[enjay]

If used correctly, and if they add something which couldn't previously be done (50+ cameras on a school field trip could be very useful), then I see it as a good idea, but one which needs consideration in terms of security/theft (both in school and on the way to/from home) and potential exclusion and/or victimisation of the child whose phone can't do all these things.

Conversely - News - French want to ban mobile phones in schools - The Ecologist