Teachers Use Cell Phones to Teach

What would you think if, on the first day of school, your teacher told you to take your phone out and prepare to learn, instead of threatening to throw your phone away if you used it during class?
Personally, I’d be shocked. As far as I knew, all teachers thought cell phones were pure evil. But evidently, I was wrong.
Teachers at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel, Florida, are now using cell phones to help teach. Ariana Leonard, a teacher at Wiregrass Ranch, uses her cell phone in her Spanish class to help students learn vocabulary, copy notes, and to remind students when homework assignments are due.
“I can use my cell phone for all these things, why can’t I use it for learning purposes?'” Leonard said. “Giving them something, a mobile device, that they use every day for fun, giving them another avenue to learn outside of the classroom with that.”
Dan Domevech, the executive director of American Associate of School Administrators, thinks teaching through cell phones is the future: “It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today. The kids are much more motivated to use their cell phone in an educational manner.”
This new trend is a stark contrast to the history of cell phones in high school classrooms. Most schools still prohibit cell phone usage in classrooms. However, this can be a hassle for teachers.
“It’s just a conflict taking them up and having to deal with them,” said Bill Husfelt, superintendent of Bay Country District Schools in Florida. “It’s too disruptive.”
Teachers who have started incorparting cell phones into their teaching strategies are noticing a strong positive impact. Besides reminding students of upcoming tests and assignments, teachers can have students answer questions set up through an online polling website. A teacher in Wisconisn has students record their speeches on their phones as a way of practicing.
If teachers can embrace the new technology that students are so enthralled with, they can use cell phones and iPods as wonderful teaching tools.
Jimbo Lamb, a Pennsylvania teacher, said that this new “technology helps us be more productive [in our teaching methods.]”
I have to agree!
Via Yahoo News