S3 Mobile Learning Lab

Through the mobile learning lab, I joined the Cell Phones in Education forum. One of the first posts I read was by Dale about Saline schools amending their BYOD policy for cell phones in the classroom. Working in Ann Arbor (right next door to Saline), I was shocked by this. Our district has a firm no cell phones in the classroom policy. Last year, I asked my principal how many of the 4th grade students tend to have cell phones because I wanted to perhaps use them for polls or Twiddla. She said most of them did have them, but I probably wouldn't be allowed to do it since it goes against the school/district's policy on cell phones about using phones during the school day. It's so frustrating to have that sort of red tape that impedes on educational opportunities.

I made a poll using www.polleverywhere.com to ask other posters on the Cell Phones in Education forum whether their district has rules against using cell phones in the classroom even under teacher guidance. The (limited) response was split - half said 'yes' and half said 'no.'

Because of the limitations in using cell phones specifically in the classroom, I looked at some of the other technologies in the mobile learning lab, specifically FlipCams. One of the ideas I really liked was using FlipCams to have students record PSAs. I like the idea of doing something like this for our PBIS kickoff assembly for the year to illustrate the most important rules in our school and perhaps the referral process. I wanted to look at the ideas for USB flash drives but the blog that was linked on the lab was no longer active.