I am apprehensive to use cell phones in the classroom with my fourth graders because they are still very young. I like the idea of using other technology tools that have the same capabilities, but do not require students to bring personal devices to school. From the discussion forum I can see that they have many practical and creative applications in middle school and high school where students are typically bringing phones to school on a daily basis. I am not sure if 9-10 year olds are ready for the responsibility of using a cell phone for school projects.
I created a poll that I could administer to my students, but because many of them do not have cell phones or bring them to school I am not planning on using it with my fourth grade students. I think it is neat software though and our principal might be interested in using it for staff surveys!
The mobile technology tools I am interesting in using in my classroom include USB drives, flip cameras, and laptops. I really like the idea of using USB drives to help students collaborate and share files easily. This is especially important because most of my students do not have their own email accounts and it is much easier for me to manage flash drives than file sharing software accounts. Most of my students already know how to operate a USB drive so that is not something I have to spend a lot of time teaching. I would love to have a set of flip cameras to use in the classroom for reader's theater, modeling good discussions, and recording student work to share with families. I really like the fact that they are easy to use, durable, and can be used by students of all ages. A final technology that I see many applications for in my classroom are laptops. Typing practice, research, content enrichment, blogging, and creating websites are just a few of the ways I would use laptops in my classroom.
