Cell Phones in the Classroom

Our assignment this week was to lesson to one of the podcasts from the K12 Online Conference from 2007. The podcast that I decided to listen to was called "Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools".
The presentation was about different ways that we as teachers can incorporate the use of cell phones inside the classroom, not as cell phones are traditionally used but as learning tools.
One idea that was presented was to use cell phones for podcasting. They gave a list of websites that could be used to post the podcasts after they are recorded using a cell phone. This could be used for interviews or recording lectures.
The next idea was that cell phones was to take pictures and to post blogs. An example they gave for this was to take pictures of documents or of a person being interviewed to have more materials. A few other ideas that were given were calculators, voice recording to use for hall passes, note pad to write notes to parents, and calendar to organize assignments and due dates.

I think this podcast was beneficial because teachers are always trying to get rid of cell phones in the classroom and I do not think that is going to be possible. A generation has come and this generation includes cell phones. So I think it'll help draw students in if they are able to use a piece of technology they use all the time. It goes back the article I read, Engage or Enrage. This is a way to engage the students into what they are learning. I think that as teachers become more knowledgeable in use of cell phones that we will start seeing them being used more in the classroom.