Homework for Weeks 5-8

 What Can You Learn From a Cell Phone?  --  Almost Everything!

Click here to view the article I am using to help with my research on the use of cell phones in the classroom.  I also contacted the author to ask a few questions.

Email to Author

Here is the text of the first email I sent to the author:

Hello!  My name is Jessica Leger and I am a sixth grade teacher in Bloomfield, CT.  I am also a graduate student at Central Connecticut State University studying Educational Technology.  I am working on a research paper about using technology in the classroom.  I chose to focus on the use of cell phones in the classroom.  I found your article online as I was doing some research and I found it to be very interesting.

I also recently attended the ISTE conference in Denver, CO and many technology leaders across the world were talking about the use of cell phones in the classroom.

My question is:  How do you prepare parents and explain to them that the use of the cell phones will work?  Do you have them sign off that their student has unlimited texting and is OK to use it in school? How do I make sure that I am not making my parents feel like they have to have a cell phone for their kids?  (Last year I only had 5 kids that did not have a cell phone)

As a teacher, I really want to experiment with using the cell phones. I like the poll anywhere site and I think that if I allow my students to take out their cell phones and text in an answer they will be very excited and engaged.  I am just concerned with how to get my administration, parents and IT department in my school to feel the same way!!!  I also want to cover my liability.  If the students are using their internet to search something inappropriate, I can't control that.  I don't want to lose my job over something stupid!

Thank You Very Much!

Nasa's Jet Propulsion Virtual Field Trip

This is a great virtual field trip I found where students can explore planets, the sun, robots and a space museum.  They can pick a character that takes them through the experience.  The characters talk and explain what the different parts are.

Second Life

As I explored Second Life I thought it was a pretty cool concept.  I had a good time talking to various people.  (Although some don't speak English!  :) )  I could see people getting very hooked on this and spending hours online.  I also found that in many cases I people that were talking to each other were sharing things that were totally inappropriate. 

To join Second Life you have to be 18 years of age, so this program is only able to be used at a college level.  I think it would be difficult to run a class through Second Life because it would take hours for all members of a class to know what they are doing.  I don't think it would be the most effecient use of time.  

I was annoyed by how long it took for new places to load.  Once they loaded I could go around fine.  But, I had to wait for it to load first!