I found it difficult to find many teachers who actively use cell phones for classroom learning in my building. I think most teachers don't see a huge value in utilizing this technology and the benefits are not worth their time commitment. I wonder if part of this is their comfort level with this emerging teaching tool...
I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Jacob Settle for this
project. Jake is an eleven-year veteran
Technology and Engineering Education teacher at my high school. He teachers Digital Photography as well as
Drafting and Design classes. I started
my informal interview by asking Jake how he incorporates cell phones into his class. He allows students to use them for notes, calculations
and taking pictures. He is not opposed
to adding additional tasks for cell phones but felt it was difficult to find
meaningful purposes within his curriculum. Jake also felt that the screen size of most
cell phones was a hindrance for projects in his classes. I have also found this to be true. I think the biggest thing I took from my
interview with Jake is his level of frustration not having any solid ideas for
using cell phones in class. I believe
many teachers face this same barrier due to the newness of the technology. It would be great to find course specific
examples to use many of the tech gadgets that are emerging in our world.
Our school district fully supports using technology
integration in the classroom but provides very little in terms of in-service
time or suggestions. I have a feeling
this is going to change over the next several years as our school board has
just approved a one-to-one initiative.
Beginning with our 4th grade students and continuing over the
next 4 years, every student in our district will be given an Ipad to use while
in our district. Teachers have been
promised plenty of in-service time for preparing for this move. I guess time will tell. I remain cautiously optimistic that the
decision to provide Ipads will have a statistical impact on student learning.
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