{"id":426,"date":"2011-11-09T21:42:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T21:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/?p=426"},"modified":"2011-11-10T08:16:49","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T08:16:49","slug":"productive-use-of-mobile-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/?p=426","title":{"rendered":"Productive Use of Mobile Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have recently been investigating the use of mobile phones in school and how they can be used productively to enhance learning instead of simply being a nuisance or a distraction. A tall order, I know!<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to many of my Twitter friends I have had lots of suggestions regarding this particular topic. I have now put together a list of ideas that I particularly like and intend to take forward and thought I would share them with you.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, QR Codes were suggested to me by a lot of people and I can see some real potential with these. There are many sites you can use to generate a QR code such as <a href=\"https:\/\/bitly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">bitly<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/delivr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">delivr<\/a>. A QR (Quick Response) code is a two dimensional barcode that can store more information than a standard barcode and can therefore be used to store a URL. These can be scanned using a mobile phone, which will then be directed to the selected URL. Here is an example for you to try:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone aligncenter\" title=\"GeekyNicki's Twitter Page\" src=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/sUxgat.qrcode\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"249\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From the suggestions I received, some of the effective ways to use QR codes in school are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A school treasure hunt where students have to scan the codes to find the next clue(s);<\/li>\n<li>Posters containing QR codes for students to scan, these could be advertising events or simply giving students information in terms of revision topics;<\/li>\n<li>Add sound files to a public Dropbox folder which students can download and play on their phones;<\/li>\n<li>Using a website called <a href=\"http:\/\/qwikvotes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Qwikvotes<\/a> that allows students to vote in polls or surveys simply by scanning the relevant QR code. Here is an example:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><a style=\"line-height: 24px; font-size: small;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/QRCode.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-428 aligncenter\" title=\"QRCode\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/QRCode-300x194.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/QRCode-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/QRCode.png 825w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Another way to carry out voting with mobile phones is by using a site called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polleverywhere.com\/#free_text_poll\" target=\"_blank\">Poll Everywhere<\/a>, this is a great site that allows you to ask either an open-ended or multiple choice question and generates a \u00a0number students can text their responses to in order to vote. The results are then displayed on the screen.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There are also many, simpler ideas such as using the calendar and reminders that are built into most mobile phones for students to record homework and coursework deadlines. I&#8217;ve even told some of my students to take a photo of their school timetable so they always have a copy of it on them. In fact the video and camera features of mobile phones can come in extremely handy, they can be used to record a range of different information depending on the subject area. One suggestion I received was carrying out a scavenger hunt where students would have to find certain items around the school and take photos of them.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the features above, most mobile phones will allow you to record sound and can therefore be used to collect audio evidence for coursework assignments, interviews or podcasting.<\/p>\n<p>Finally mobiles can make great translation tools for students with English as an additional language with sites such as <a href=\"http:\/\/translate.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Google Translate<\/a> or their translation <a href=\"https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5nb29nbGUuYW5kcm9pZC5hcHBzLnRyYW5zbGF0ZSJd\" target=\"_blank\">app<\/a>.\u00a0I&#8217;m not going to go into detail about the various apps available as this would turn into a rather long post, but of cause there are many fantastic educational apps available for many mobile phones. From helping students organise their deadlines to creating revision flash cards there is a wealth of information at students fingertips, and used in the right way, I think mobile devices will definitely make fantastic tools for learning.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the following for further reading:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ideastoinspire.co.uk\/index.html#4\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ideastoinspire.co.uk\/index.html#4<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.multiurl.com\/l\/art\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.multiurl.com\/l\/art<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ideasfactory.me\/?p=166\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/ideasfactory.me\/?p=166<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have recently been investigating the use of mobile phones in school and how they can be used productively to enhance learning instead of simply being a nuisance or a&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/?p=426\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[90,88,89],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ict","category-teaching","tag-apps","tag-mobile-phones","tag-qrcodes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiveclassroom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}