Teachers | Do you use cellphones in your classroom? If so, how? If not, why not? Tell us here.Overview | Can cellphones serve as effective instructional tools in the classroom? In what ways can the use of mobile technology support and strengthen curriculum? What are the drawbacks? In this lesson, students learn about innovative uses of cellphone technology and applications in the developing world, then explore how their phones can be used as learning tools.
Materials | Computers with Internet access and cellphones (optional); research materials and copies of handouts
Warm-up | Take an informal survey of students’ use and possession of cellphones by asking the following questions and calling for a show of hands: How many of you own a cellphone? How many of you don’t? Why?
Share the results of the recent Pew Internet Research Study, which found that 71 percent of teens (compared to 77 percent of adults) owned cellphones in early 2008. Ask: Do you think this is an accurate number today, or do you think the usage and ownership has gone up in 2010? Why?
Next, have students engage in one or both of the following exercises:
Option 1
Ask students: How are cellphones used, and how can they be used, in our society today? In a large group, ask them to brainstorm about the various possible uses for cellphones. You may want to provide the following categories, and perhaps split the class into small groups, each one tasked with brainstorming about cellphone use in one of the categories:
- Communication and social networking
- Information seeking and sharing
- Entertainment and leisure
- Personal business and banking
- Entrepreneurship, business development and marketing
- Creativity and the arts
- Education and learning
Invite students to rely on their own experience or observations as well as imagine creative ways of using cellphones in all of these areas. (Can they think of any other major categories for cellphone use?) When brainstorms are finished, have students share their ideas. Ask: In the past couple of years, what are the most innovative ideas for cellphones that you have come across?
