Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

"My Cellphone is My Best Friend"

Dr. Strange gave us these astonishing facts recently:

1. 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side.
2. 80% say the very first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone.
3. 78% say they spend 2 or more hours per day using their smartphone.
4. 68% say they would prefer to use their smartphone instead of their laptop or personal computer for personal use.
5. 91% say that having a camera on their smartphone is important (61% very important)
6. 87% say they use their smartphone camera at least weekly. 59% use their smartphone camera at least every other day. 44% use their smartphone camera for still or motion picture taking every day.

      I work at Best Buy in the cell phone department.  I cannot tell you how many times parents are coming in to add a line to their cellular plane for their CHILD.  I'm not talking about a sixteen or seventeen old teenager that has started driving to school by themselves and needs to be in contact with their parents. No, these are seven-and eight-year-old children that are receiving the latest and greatest phone.  Since all of the children now have them, why shouldn't they use them in school? The temptation is so great.  Teachers are going to struggle to keep the attention of their students when all they want to do is pull out their phones and text their friends that are sitting across the room or in another classroom.  This is going to harm the learning and teaching aspects in a classroom.

      While all of this cell phone usage can be harmful, it can be helpful as well.  I like the idea that most schools now have the BYOD device option (Bring Your Own Device).  Students with cell phones in school can use them for virtual text books, taking pictures of assignments, and just general informational usage.  When I was in grade school, I hated to have to carry around my super heavy backpack, my back would ache after a long day,  Having some sort of tablet in school would have made that much easier, no more physical textbooks.  I constantly lose the paper I wrote my assignment on, but with a phone or device always around, I would never have forgotten to complete an assignment! Not many in my class carried encyclopedias and there were not often any present in the room.  Having something to look of whatever I needed to know would have made me be a lot more willing to actually look some things up.  Cell phone usage is not entirely detrimental to teaching and learning. 

Examples:

• Recording lectures to listen to outside of class or to utilize the "Flipped Classroom" method
• Creating poplets
• Creating and editing iMovies
• Use of Evernote and Dropbox (apps) to send pictures of solutions of difficult problems or assignments that may have been missed