At our last faculty meeting, I presented an example of how teachers could use existing student cell phones as "clickers" (a.k.a. student response systems).  The site I used, PollEverywhere.com allows anyone to create polls that can be multiple choice or open ended response.  Students participate by texting in their responses anonymously.  Results are shown in real time, making it an exciting way to encourage audience participation.

Since just ONE classroom set of clickers is around $2,000 we knew it'd be hard to obtain them for all our teachers.  Looking at cheaper (or free) alternatives was likely the only way we'd be successful at implementing a student response system in our classrooms.

So our thoughts were to look at ways to leverage existing technologies that some (not all) kids may have...the student cell phone!

Of course concerns arise when you suggest to a room of educators about using cell phones in the classroom.  My suggestion was to keep an open mind about the potential that ALL mobile computing devices have.  If you look at the 2010 Horizon Report, you'll see that Mobile Computing is a projected trend in education.  The Horizon Report is published annually, and identifies trends in educational technologies.

Since around 85% of my students already have a cell phone with unlimited texting capabilities, this was something we decided to pursue.  It's important to note that NONE of the activities I have planned require ALL kids to have phones.  We just need a few per class to do group-based activities.  Just like I do NOT mandate kids do assignments that require home internet access, I too won't ever have activites that require all kids to have phones in class.

Our next steps were to change our Code of Conduct, which will be modified soon.  We also drafted a letter home to parents, that will be required before a teacher attempts to use this technology in their classroom. 

The game-changer for me was discovering Liz Kolb's book, Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education   Here she covers innovative ways to use cell phones as learning tools.  Below I've included a downloadable excerpt from the book, do take a look!

Let me know your thoughts--simply leave comments below!

• Book Excerpt- Cell Phones in the Classroom (pdf - 465K)