WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Will Richardson’s post about his school’s problems with MySpace has re-stimulated my thought about using student-owned technology as a learning tool, rather than imposing draconian measures…
I first started thinking about this after reading this post on Bud the Teacher’s blog about a competition being held for 30-second films shot entirely using mobile phones. (the winning short film is surprisingly good) I started thinking about the technology available to a great proportion of students that I’ve taught, and - despite using technology way more than others within my institutions - how little I managed to exploit that fact. Yes, students could go to my website or the departmental one to download homework, find information, email me, etc. Yes, I used an interactive whiteboard, put Linux on a few spare computers in my classroom. But what about the technology students used with them on a daily basis - mobile phones, etc.?
Mobile phones (cellphones for our American friends…) are increasingly becoming mini computers. My Orange SPV smartphone, for example, is about four times as powerful as the first PC I was bought in 1995. It can play music, organize my appointments, play and record videos, take photographs, chat using MSN Messenger, communicate via infrared and bluetooth and surf the Internet. Whilst all students perhaps don’t have phones as advanced as this, a time will come in the not-too-distant future when such features are ubiquitous and students (via peer-learning or even(!) by reading the manual) will be familiar and comfortable with their functionality. We as educators should be using this to our best advantage. Although I don’t do so now, I’ve managed to post to a blog I had on Blogger via my phone by sending an email to a specified email address. (you can now send pictures, too) I’ve shared files with others via bluetooth and transferred pictures and videos via USB to my PC. Imagine the possibilities: field trips where students post to their blogs/wikis whilst they’re there; creating mini-documentaries using the camera in their phone; be in different places working on the same project and be talking via instant-messaging; the list goes on…
It’s time for media and ICT-literacy to be key components of teacher training. Otherwise students are going to leave us behind! 
Related Links:
- mLearnopedia - a site aiming to bring together ways of using mobile computing in education
Popularity: 3% [?]
This is an extremely important issue and one very much after my way of thinking. I am positive that student tools are the future.
This is where ICT tools become part of the standard equipment just like a ruler. iPods, phones, PDAs are all commonplace in schools and all have the power and ability to be used within lessons.
I think the next generation of such technology will enable use to implement some more joined up thinking. For example a student I had to have words with recently was telling me how she hated ICT and didn’t see the point. She said she couldn’t use computers. I asked her whether she had access to a computer at home. “Yeah, but all I do is talk via MSN, bluetooth my pictures from my phone and sent them to me mates, download musak to my mp3….. oh yeah, and I also help my mum download her photos….” It is making that connection where students become able to make effective use of the tools they already have access to where the use of ICT becomes inherent across the curriculum.