40 Uses For Smartphones in School

It has been more than a week of High School already and I am getting adjusted to a large campus, a variety of activities including Water Polo and Jazz Band. I am really enjoying it. Our school started a pilot program to evaluate Yondr pouch to provide a phone free space. The Yondr pouch has a patented technology where we can lock the phone in the pouch and once locked they cannot be accessed during school hours. We can open it again at the end of school. I am leaving my phone in the locker. That led me to think if a smart phone is a distraction for students or are there benefits of having a smart phone in the classroom. Here is an interesting article that shows 40 uses of smartphones in school. Obviously using the phone responsibly is key. What do you think? Should students have access to a smart phone in class or not?

Smartphone - A revolution in the classroom:

1. Check facts: probably the most common use of all.

2. Take photos: mobile phones can be used as cameras to illustrate work and presentations.

3. Make videos: similar to the last point.

4. Carry out tests: this is probably one of the most interesting and revolutionary uses of the mobile phone in the classroom. To implement this technique now, download the ExamTime Mobile App for iOS or Android.

5. Read the news: many teachers often include news articles as part of their teaching methods (for example, in Economics).

6. Dictionary

7. Translator

8. Calendar

9. Write down ideas

10. Listen to music: we have spoken before at length about how music helps us to study.

11. Images: a picture is worth a thousand words.

12. Review

13. Stopwatch/timer

14. Read eBooks

15. Voice Recorder

16. Discover related subject material

17. Document scanner

18.Calculator

19. Edit videos

20. Edit pictures

21. Publish in the class blog

22. Make presentations

23. Track blog visits

24. Remote control

25. Communicate

26. Store Formulae

27. Control noise in the classroom: your mobile phone can serve as a decibel meter and tell you when the noise level gets too high.

28. Updates: Remind is an app designed to send notifications to parents and/or students without knowing their phone number.

29. Locate points on the map

30. Tweet: Twitter is a social network that has many educational uses. The mobile phone is probably the best way to access it to read and write Tweets about education.

31.Study Vocabulary

32.Control Attendance: there are many applications that can help keep track of the attendance of students direct from our mobile phone.

33. Assess Students: mobile phones can be used to monitor and keep track of a student’s course work and exam results.

34. Clock

35. Inspire: The mobile phone provides a window to the world where you can discover topics and ideas that are otherwise limited by traditional books and encyclopaedias.

36. Share Notes

37. Digital Whiteboard

38. Weather

39. Measure Productivity: there are applications, such as Time Recording Pro, that allow you to measure the time you have dedicated to a particular task. This can be very useful for teachers and students when taking on a project that is divided into several phases.

40. Play: there is much talk of the gamification of the educational process