Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Although I believe that using mobile devices in the classroom is risky, I can see the benefits of it. I'm not sure that I will personally include them in my classroom for any smart board-response apps but I could see myself finding an app that my students can use that's related to English education (vocabulary, quizzes from the readings that we've done, etc).

The first article I looked at was a news article from US News.
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/10/26/teachers-use-cell-phones-in-the-classroom

The article discusses the cell-phone bans in school districts and how some teachers have found basic uses for cell-phones in their classrooms. The article provides differing options on the use - showing the pros and cons but overall they seem to have a positive outlook on their use.

The second article I found was from Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/25/why-a-leading-professor-of-new-media-just-banned-technology-use-in-class/

The article/ video focuses on how humans can't multitask and how technology has made multitasking so common. They did studies to see how well people perform while multitasking and found that most people did poorly when they had a distraction during the study. A teacher explains the negative effects that multitasking and technology have in the classroom and his decision to ban it.

Getting Involved | Twitter Chats

Last week I mentioned participating in one of the chats that I've been following for the last two weeks. I ended up participating in the #engchat for several reasons:

1. Educators post in that chat throughout the week and the hour that was devoted to it this week was pretty uneventful. I ended up posting later on and retweeting newer information. 
2. I was more interested in the English chat because I felt it applied to me more.
3. I was more comfortable with its format. 
4. Harper Lee is releasing a new book (a sequel to "To Kill a Mocking Bird)  and what kind of future English teacher would I be if I didn't freak out about that a little bit? 

The most I did was favorite a few things, post a tweet about Harper Lee's new book and retweet someone. I felt at ease and accepted into the "community".  I really do enjoy this chat though so I'm planning on keeping track of it. Regarding my involvement, I can see myself retweeting and favoriting things but unless I find something fantastic that I have to share, I probably won't post to the chat that often. 

Educational Games | Free Rice

Prompt: 

"Find a game that fits with your educational area of study.  Play the game and make sure it is something you would use with students.  


1. Post a response that includes a link to the game, a brief description of the game, and the subject area of the game.  Give consideration to what is being learnt by playing the game and how this is occurring."


Response:

The game I chose was for Language Arts and it focuses on expanding students' vocabulary. You're given a word and then asked to choose another word with the same meaning (Ex: Queasy means...nauseous). If you miss a word, they repeat it to make sure you know what it means. This game has 60 levels and can be as challenging or as easy as the instructor would like it to be. 


There was one extra perk that I really liked - for each correct answer, the World Food Programme donates rice to help end world hunger. 1 right = 10 grains, 5 right = 50. The website has games for ALL subject areas, so check it out! 
http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/2947

Connecting With Educators on Twitter | Following Chats

Getting to the heart of it...

These chats are ways for educators to connect and communicate. They are specific to certain topics and generate discussions that need to be had. For example, in the "No Box Thinking" chat, they have a weekly focus. The first week's focus was teamwork and how it relates to the classroom, your dreams and the students' dreams. It then went into the focus of "dreams" and how society affects it, etc. It's just very interesting to see how different educators responded to the prompts and how they think we should handle certain situations. Below are some things I observed during the chats. 

• No Box Thinking - #nbtchat 

• I was interested in how the chat has a mediator and that they guided that chat by asking simple questions with complex answers. It was also engaging - the discussion then kind of led into it's self. The mediator still asked questions but the topics seemed to blend into one another. The one issue I ran into while observing and participating in the chat is that they pushed back one of the weeks because of the Super Bowl. 

• English Edu - #engchat 

• This chat wasn't mediated as much as the #nbtchat but I was still engaged in the conversation happening. The other thing I noticed about this chat is that it was more constant - there was always someone posting something throughout the week. This chat also pertained more to me - there are always interesting links that are shared regarding literature and teaching practices that I enjoy going through and bookmarking.  

Next week, I'll be posting about getting involved in one of these chats. I'm leaning towards #engchat...

Curious to see what I'm talking about? Search #nbtchat at 8 p.m. on Sundays and #engchat at 7 p.m. on Mondays at twitter.com!