Cell phones in the classroom

Greg Lehr from the Social Studies department at Newton High School is with the ESSDACK TIG group this morning sharing his ideas of using cell phones as learning tools.

He started out sharing a quick video documenting the evolution of cell phones over time.

Greg also shared some of the current statistics of cell phone usage. He works with a lot of low SES kids but still has usage rate of around 75%. Greg also mentioned that he has had lots of positive support from administrators but still encounters some resistance from fellow teachers.

The building policy is that no cell phones are allowed in school and so Greg had to work fairly hard to get approval to use them as part of his instruction. But he’s found some interesting ways to integrate them.

Audio uses

He starts with Drop.io as a way for kids to quickly post audio clips online using their phones. Drop is basically an online storage site that allows you to create a “drop” that automatically stores audio clips created via cell phone.

He’s had kids use Drop to create “radio” Public Service Announcements for his world history class. Another assignment is to have kids think as if they are an inanimate object such as country, government or slave ship. They then post an audio clip to Drop using their phone.

Greg also uses reQall, a pretty sweet tool that takes cell phone calls and converts the audio to text. He has kids use reQuall as a brainstorming tool and as way to train kids to create self-reminders. I think you could also encourage kids to create audio summaries of articles, videos and class discussion and then print out them out.

Visual uses

Greg assigns what he calls Five Photo Stories. In a Five Photo Story, kids must tell a story using, yep . . . five photos. For example, he has asked kids to tell a story on the Middle Ages or German Unification using pictures that they take around the school using their phones. In groups, they have to write out explanations of their photos.

They share their pictures using just their phone screens together with their written work as a way to review content and lecture notes.

At his school, Flckr is blocked but I think you could do the same thing by having kids use their cell phone cameras to create online portfolios at Flickr.

Texting uses

Kids in his class use two different tools that support their phone text features.

A quick wiffiti we made this morning

The first is something called Wiffiti. Wiffiti (like graffiti) is a bit like Wallwisher but for cell phone texts instead. You create a free account, provide the supplied text number to your kids and their texts show up automatically.

You could have kids respond to a wide variety of questions or as part of an ongoing discussion. I like the idea of having this on during a lecture or video for back channel conversation. Seems like a nice way to encourage a wide range of responses.

The nice thing is that you can make your Wiffiti screens G-rated, automatically filtering out a lot of possible inappropriate comments.

I also like that you can embed a live Wiffiti screen into a web site. Post a video clip or quote or article on your site, then embed the Wiffiti screen underneath. Kids then text their responses to your guiding questions as home work or review.

A similar tool is called Polleverywhere. I had played with this a year or so ago but either didn’t notice the text feature or it was recently added. Basically the same idea as Wiffiti – post questions and kids respond to them. One difference is that you create questions that actually require yes or no, multiple choice, etc. You can then track the answers.

Sample questions might include:

• Should the US have dropped the bomb? Why?
• Provide three adjectives that describe the Holocaust
• The anti-war movement was effective in ending the Vietnam War. Agree or disagree?

Greg also uses Polleverywhere to have kids complete traditional KWLs.

Reminders

He uses Joopz

a web-based text messaging service that enables “web texting” – two-way communications from the Web to any mobile phone in the U.S. and Canada . . . and back

to remind kids about upcoming assignments and assessments. You type in your text online which then goes out as a group text message to students’ phones.

Problems?

• Anti-cell phone policies
• Resistance from colleagues
• Signal strength inside buildings

We also discussed the issue of increasing numbers of web-based phones such as iPhones and Blackberries in schools. These sorts of phones are able to bypass the school’s internet network. System admin folks will lose all control over access as these phones bring 3G networks into school buildings.

(Could this lead to stricter cell phone policies? My gut feeling is that schools will try to enforce stricter policies but am also convinced that Pandora’s box is wide open with cell phones.)

But it’s obvious that more conversation is needed among K-12 educators about how to best do what Greg is already doing in his classroom.

Access Greg’s materials below:

• Prezi presentation
• Toys to Tools book summary
• Parent Permission slip
• Cell Phone Student Contract
• Toys to Tools book

Contact Greg with more questions.

Professor . . . good. Laptop . . . bad?

Okay . . . I get it.

Laptops can be distracting. You want kids to learn something. You have something to share and assume that kids should be paying attention to you.

I can see your point, I suppose. But liquid nitrogen? Really?

I’m not convinced that your assumption is necessarily true. And thanks to the work of Phillip Schlechty, I’ve got my own educational assumptions about the current situation in education:

• Students are expected to do quality work even when the work given to them lacks quality.
• Work given students while in school is not as engaging as activities they attend to outside of school.
• Today’s schools are better than ever at doing what they used to do.
• The attendance of students can be commanded but their attention must be earned.

But I don’t think that we as educators like talking about these kinds of things. We want to live in that fantasy world where all kids would come to school prepared to learn and hang on our every lecture.

And one way to live in that fantasy world is to attempt to ban laptops and other “distracting” items from the classroom. A recent article in the Washington Post documents the movement across the country to do just that.

Really?

We’re still so certain that we’re the only ones that have access to knowledge? We’re still not sure that constructivist learning is an effective strategy? We still haven’t bought into research-based methods of engaging kids?

And yes . . . I understand that technology can be a distraction. But to assume that we don’t need to change how we do our jobs and that we can return to that fantasy world by banning laptops is just wrong.

The Post article does acknowledge this idea:

Plenty of professors still allow laptops. Siva Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor of media studies and law at U-Va., generally permits them in his classes. He remembers his own college diversion: reading newspapers surreptitiously on the floor beneath his desk. He believes that, ultimately, it is a professor’s job to hold the class’s attention.

“If students don’t want to pay attention, the laptop is the least of your problems,” he said.

There will be times when I might need to use an interactive lecture as part of instruction and I’ll ask kids to close their laptop lids. But I’m a firm believer in the ability of both teacher and students to use technology to create quality work, provide engaging tasks and enhance learning.

The result? Kids learn more.

The bonus? You’ll save tons on liquid nitrogen.

Sam Wineburg is still a stud

I mentioned historian and author Sam Wineburg last week while sharing a story from columnist Leonard Pitts. I’ve read Sam’s stuff and had the chance to hear him speak several years ago.

And just so you know, Sam’s a history stud. He’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and saves babies from burning buildings. He’s like Superman of the history Justice League.

So . . . okay. I like the guy. He says stuff that makes sense and is working to find ways to help history teachers do their jobs better. What’s not to like?

And a recent article in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Quarterly just adds to his studness. This quarter’s theme is Using Primary Sources to Teach Historical Thinking and Sam shares some reasons why primary sources are such powerful tools.

To get the total Wineburg buzz, head over and read the entire article. I’ve put a bit of a taste below. He starts the article with a conversation:

When I recently asked Kevin, a sixteen-year-old high school junior, what he needed to do well in history class, he had little doubt: “A good memory.”

“Anything else?”

“Nope. Just memorize facts and stuff, know ’em cold, and when you get the test, give it all back to the teacher.”

“What about thinking? Does that have anything to do with history?”

“Nope. It’s all pretty simple. Stuff happened a long time ago. People wrote it down. Others copied it and put it in a book. History!”

I’ve spent nearly 20 years studying how high school students learn history. Over the years I’ve met many Kevins, for whom the life has been sucked out of history, leaving only a grim list of names and dates.

Sam suggests that the way to combat this is by teaching kids to think about what the facts mean rather than just the facts themselves. Nothing new for many of you but he goes on to share how primary sources lend themselves perfectly for this purpose.

History experts approach documents differently than history novices. Mostly, Sam suggests, by coming to documents with

a list of questions—about author, context, time period—that form a mental framework for the details to follow. These questions transform the act of reading from passive reception to an engaged and passionate interrogation.

What sorts of questions?

• Sourcing: Think about a document’s author and its creation.
• Contextualizing: Situate the document and its events in time and place
• Close reading: Carefully consider what the document says and the language used to say it.
• Using Background Knowledge: Use historical information and knowledge to read and understand the document.
• Reading the Silences: Identify what has been left out or is missing from the document by asking questions of its account.
• Corroborating: Ask questions about important details across multiple sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement.

Perhaps most important is the need for teachers to model this sort of questioning out loud for their students. I don’t think we do this enough. We assume that kids know how to think this way. And they don’t.

The title of Sam’s book, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, says it all. To think historically is not natural and we need to be more responsible in training our students to do something that they may find uncomfortable.

Why?

It’s pretty simple.

The goals of school history are not vocational but to prepare students to tolerate complexity, to adapt to new situations, and to resist the first answer that comes to mind.

These are not history skills. These are life skills. Get on it. Superman is depending on you.

Joe’s Non-Netbook

Chris Lehmann is the principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Sounds basic enough but you need to understand that Chris is more than a building administrator. Together with others, he is a voice in the wilderness arguing for more innovation and appropriate technology integration in K-12 education.

A recent video clip helps give a taste of both his sense of humor and his desire for tailoring education more specifically to the needs of our students.

Tip of the Week – Digital Storytelling II

Several years ago, Judy Beam and Becky Herl shared some amazing digital storytelling ideas with the ESSDACK Technology Integration Study Group.

Judy was at it again this morning with a new and updated presentation. There have been a lot of handy new tools added in the last year or so and Judy has done a great job of collecting them all in one place.

Go to her Tell Me a Digital Story wikispace and check out the many resources that are out there.You’ll find story starters, tons of tools, lots of sites and some info on things like copyright and image archives. Becky was not here today but her site is also incredibly useful!

You might also be interested in a nice 4-page PDF titled Digital Storytelling across the Curriculum by a guy named Arnie Abrams.

Have fun!

Aggregating, filtering and connecting is so old-fashioned

It was some time ago that I wrote about The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson. I was impressed with Johnson’s account of Joseph Priestly, a British minister, scientist and political thinker who was also a friend and contemporary of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
And I had buried much of that stuff deep in the brain until I ran across a recent post on the Innovation Leadership Network. In Networks and the Information Glut, Tim Kastelle and John Steen write about the idea that social networks have always been around and how researchers have used those networks to gather and share information.

When we talk about ’social networks’ we don’t just mean facebook and twitter. People have always functioned within networks, and these have always been important in the development and spread of ideas.

It’s an interesting idea that I tried to articulate back in February 2009. My post was a bit all over the place and wasn’t really laser focused on the idea of social networks. Kastelle and Steen do a much better job of discussing how social networks of all kinds encourage creative thought.

The fundamentals of innovative thought haven’t changed since the 18th Century – it’s always been aggregate, filter and connect. The great thinkers of earlier times corresponded extensively because it helped them aggregate information from a wide variety of disciplines and sources.

I like their wording:

it’s always been aggregate, filter and connect

And they’re right.

Priestly used his connections with Franklin and Jefferson to gather, expand and share his research. We need to find ways to do the same as professionals and as classroom instructors.

If you are not currently part of some sort of Personal Learning Network, you need to be. It’s hard for me to imagine how a history teacher can continue to be effective if they are not connected with like professionals to ask questions, share information and discuss current research. Delicious, Plurk, Twitter, Ning, uStream, SlideShare, LinkedIn and other similar tools can (separately or together) all be pieces of that network.

It’s also hard for me to imagine trying to prepare students for the 21st century without training them to aggregate, filter and connect appropriately. And while the Priestly, Franklin and Jefferson versions of those tools still exist (US postal snail mail, for example), we also need to work to find 21st century tools that students can use.

A couple of suggestions:

• Low prep?
  Use Delicious to gather and share resources with your kids and train them to do the same.
• Higher prep?
  Use iPod Touches in the classroom as a relatively cheap way to aggregate data and connect with others.

The basic idea? Use time-tested methods of gathering and sharing information but with 21st century tools. In my earlier post, I said that

maybe all it will take is to become more old-fashioned in our thinking.

Can it be that simple?

Intersection Consulting. “5 Ways to Cultivate an Active Social Network.” 9 July 2009. 25 January 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/intersectionconsulting/3704908885