More Handheld Lessons!

As a result of a project I am working on with a school district lesson plans and more have been posted for using handhelds in learning. These lessons are a result of professional development that focuses on using handhelds with students in grades 3-5. Most of the applications that are used are free and the design of the student activities centers around research-based reading strategies to activiate schema, work with words, pull apart text and write about learning in the content areas. You can also read about this district's three year history of using handhelds for learning. They are a constantly expanding the program and have over 600 handhelds in the district in 25 classrooms!

Cell Phones in Learning

Wow! The date of my last post was some time ago, however, there has been many things that have gone on in my life. Most notable was a two week trip to Italy, where I met up with my son, and traveled throughout the country. We had a very exciting time, even though our trip to Paris had to be canceled do to transporation problems because of the labor protests. Oh well, a few more days stay in Rome made me start thinking I lived there and I was finally getting so familiar with the citta, I didn't need a tourist map...well, almost!

One of my friends asked me to pay close attention to the cell phone technology over there, since there is more and more articles coming out about cell phones for learning. (See some links below) One thing I noticed is that they have so many more models of phones with dramatically more features than most phones our companies offer. Another notable is that I saw virtually every elderly person with a cell and using it. During an audience with the Pope, as he passed by, it was not just the young folks pulling out the phone to snap a picture! And then, I even saw two older women share their pictures via bluetooth. I was amazed, because I had just tried to get my not so senior citizen mother to just learn to dial and send, without touching the Internet key! (within 2 weeks she had "accidently" download data 153 times!!! Ugh...of course she NEVER pushed that button. Swear!) I am glad to see that I now can subscribe to a Parental Block service to keep from dowloading ANY data on her phone!!! Quite appropriately named, wouldn't you agree?!

One of the best uses of a cell phone I observed, was on our weekend trip to Capri and the Amalfi Coast. At a beautiful church (of whose name and town escape me...give me a break...I saw about 50 churches in dozens of locations) I watched two girls holding a cell up to the beautiful front steps. I thought they were talking to each other and taking pictures, but as I moved closer, the girl with the phone flipped the phone and held it in front of her and continued talking. Being nosy, I continued to check it out and I could see on the screen of the phone was an image of an older women talking in real time....a videoconferencing phone!! Now, I want one of those!!

Articles and Links for Cell Phones in Education
(Please help this list grow by adding comments to this post with new links you have found)

Cell Phones in Education by Steve Burt

Youth and Cell Phones: Explorations and Observations by Franz Prichard

A Podcast about Cell Phones in Your Pocket

Cramming for Exams using Cell Phones from PhysOrg.com

What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone? by Marc Prensky

Using Cell Phones In Learning from the blog of Marc Prensky

FlashCards to purchase for your Cell Phones

Lifelong Learning Supported by m-Learning by Andreas Holzinger, Alexander Nischelwitzer and Matthias Meisenberger

Dictionaries for mobile phones