Smartphones and tablets have enabled students and teachers to connect to the outside world wherever they are. So how can educators take advantage these tools to advance student learning? The May issue of Educational Leadership looks at how schools can make the best use of mobile technology, ensuring that these devices are not distractions but vehicles leading students to growth in knowledge and skills.
The Policy Question
Teachers and schools take a variety of different positions on whether to welcome mobile devices in the classroom. Some forbid them altogether, some allow only school-owned devices, and others allow students to use their own devices freely. In the online article "In Pursuit of a Cell Phone Policy," Larissa Pahomov shares how her own perspective has evolved during her career. Teacher Catlin Tucker, who allows her students to use their own devices, offers "Five Tips for Managing Mobile Devices."
- What is your own school or classroom policy on mobile device use? How does it compare with the policies Pahomov shares in her article? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of your approach?
- What changes, if any, would you like to make to your mobile device policy? How might you get started making those changes?
- If you don't allow students to use mobile devices in the classroom, what are some of your reasons? Do any of Tucker's suggestions alleviate your concerns?
- What have your experiences been with one-to-one and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs? Which approach seems most appropriate for your students?
The Right Apps for Learning
Visit any app store, and you'll find a seemingly limitless supply of free and low-cost apps that claim to help students learn. But how can you be sure that these apps are actually effective? What can apps offer that isn't available from simple pen and paper? In "Choosing Apps by Design," Jay McTighe and Tom March encourage educators to begin with the end in mind and choose apps that fit three interrelated student learning goals: (1) acquiring knowledge and skills, (2) making meaning of big ideas, (3) transferring learning to new situations.
- What apps have you used with your students? How well did these apps contribute to these learning goals?
- In their article, McTighe and March mention apps that are useful for each of these learning goals. Which apps sound like ones you could use in your classroom?
- Larry Ferlazzo offers a list of 11 apps in his article "<LINK URL="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may15/vol72/num08/Apps,-Apps-Everywhere@-Are-Any-Good,-You-Think%C2%A2.aspx">Apps, Apps, Everywhere: Are Any Good You Think?</LINK>." Select a few of these apps and consider how you might use them to promote authentic learning among students. Think about McTighe and March's three student learning goals and how these apps might contribute to meeting them.
Open a Backchannel
In "Digital Backchannels: Giving Every Student a Voice," Jeffrey Carpenter suggests that backchannels using tools like TodaysMeet can involve more students in classroom discussions.
- Have you ever used a digital backchannel by, for example, live-tweeting at a conference or joining a chat room during a professional development session? How did your backchannel conversation affect your overall experience?
- For leaders: Try experimenting with backchannels during your next faculty or department meeting. Open a room on <LINK URL="https://todaysmeet.com/">TodaysMeet</LINK> and invite participants to ask questions and make comments during your meeting. Be sure to keep a monitor in view where you can see the comments being made and bring them into the larger discussion. After the meeting, ask participants what effect the presence of the backchannel had on their engagement in the meeting.
- For teachers: What kinds of discussions in your classroom might be enhanced by the addition of a backchannel? If your students bring mobile devices to class, have them use their devices to make comments and ask questions in a TodaysMeet room during an upcoming class discussion. What benefits did you see in this approach? What challenges did you encounter? How might you adjust the strategy to surmount those challenges next time?
When Is the Best Not Best?
Bradley A. Ermeling, James Hiebert, and Ronald Gallimore critique the idea of "best practices" in their article "Best Practice: The Enemy of Better Teaching," noting that researchers "treat skeptically the claim that a practice is broadly and generally the best."
- What are some "best practices" that you've been encouraged to apply in your school or classroom? How successful were your efforts?
- Think of some "best practices" you'd like to implement. Reading over the three big problems that Ermeling, Hiebert, and Gallimore identify, discuss how you might avoid these traps.
- If there is no clear "best" practice, how can educators determine which strategies to apply?
- The authors suggest that what is needed is "a system that creates opportunities for deliberate study and improvement and supports collaborative teacher planning and reflecting on lessons." How well does your school fit this description? What steps can you take to create this sort of atmosphere?
