Kids in schools have mobiles. If you can teach students how to use their mobile in a different way, and hold their attention you have a good lesson. You can never assume as a teacher to tell students that you know more about a device they use every day than they do. Students will immediately put up a brick wall and road-block any attempt to teach them from there in. If however you show them a particular skill they might never have known you could use on this device, students will be engaged.
To use mobile technology in class to teach students would be a bold step for all involved. You have to be able to keep the students interested for the entire lesson, so they don’t get sidetracked. Having their mobile in their hands during class lends to all kinds of temptations. So to get beyond these temptations we have to create a lesson that makes students want to stay on track. Text messages will be sent, and messages received which, despite the best intentions cannot be stopped, but to have students ignore these messages and stay on task would be a wonder.
Students in this day love games, and especially computer games. If you can create a lesson around playing a game on your phone or tablet, and make it educational you will teach students to use their technology for more than everyday messaging and social communication. To use the technology to research assignments while in class would go along with what Isard was discussing in the article. We need to encourage students to use their resources that they access daily in more educational ways. Teachers need to make the step towards building new technologies into all levels of curriculum.
ndrobharvey 