Cell phones and podcasts in education

This topic of Cell Phones and Podcasts in the Classroom could take many forms. I could discuss the safety and security aspects of the cell phone in the classroom. I could talk about the difficulties in making sure that each child has access to technology if it is to be mandated for classroom use. I could talk about the troubleshooting aspect of podcasting, or the success rate of retention for English-language learners who repeat a lesson to increase understanding. I am not going to do any of these possibilities. Instead, I am going to focus on the positives of using these technologies in the classroom and try to give some arguments as to why they should be used and embraced by the educational system in America.
I will start by discussing the positives of cell phone use in the classroom - primarily at the middle and high school levels. The first way that phones can be helpful, especially smartphones, is that most have a calendar or events application that students, if taught correctly, can create a list of deadlines, assignments, and other needed dates. This can, if the teacher can manage it well, help to organize the students using technology that they already enjoy using. Polleverywhere.com is one of the first websites that gathers information from student texts to create graphs and charts instantly. This is great for math, social studies, or even for voting for a class color or mascot. The calculator function on a phone can be used in math class or science class. Depending on the type of phone, some students can download educational applications such as google earth or dictionaries or the internet for research purposes. Another neat use of the cell phone is to create blogs or online discussions through a cell phone. Check out http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/25766/The-Voice-of-the-Classroom to hear and see a tutorial about building this online collaborative use.
In order to incorporate some of these uses, there are a few things that you should do as a teacher. First of all, check the district policy on cell phone use in the classroom. Make sure to ask and explain to administration what you want to do and how it will affect the learning of the students. Make sure that you have explained the ground rules to the students and what the repercussions of inappropriate use will be, and always have a backup in case the technology doesn’t work.
The second topic is the uses of podcasting in the classroom and also outside of the classroom. Because of the portable nature of podcasting, the outside of the classroom uses are extremely useful and important. POD stands for portable on-demand casting, so the original use was meant for portability. A teacher can record a story,or two, such as in this example and then have students compare and contrast the stories in their writing center. This makes for a great tool in the classroom while teachers are working with small groups. The students can either go onto a computer, put on headsets, and listen to the stories, or they can sync their mobile device to the website and download it onto their player. http://blog.learningtoday.com/story-time/ Students at home can access the same stories and relisten to it or catch up on work if they were absent. The ultimate use of podcasting would be for the students to build podcasts and post them on a designated website to share with the classmates, the school, the community, or the world via the internet. If they wanted to discuss the history of the town or the moon landing, they would be able to receive feedback from listeners all around the world, just like blogging.
In conclusion, both of these tools are still in their infancy and will continue to grow exponentially over the next few years. I would hope that schools can embrace this growing field and incorporate its use into the classroom as a tool instead of fighting it like they did with computers.
http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/26555/Cell-Phones-in-the-Classroom-Missed-Opportunity
http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=111958 podcasting in plain english
http://radio.about.com/od/createyourownpodcast/ss/How-to-Create-Your-Own-Podcast-Make-Your-Own-Talk-Show-Music-Program-or-Audio-Stream.htm