This is a part of a series on mobile devices available for learning.

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It seems like nearly everyone has a cell phone these days. There are “smart phones,” like the iPhone and Android phones, that are full featured handheld multimedia devices, but even regular cell phones with cameras and text messaging can be very useful educational tools.

Credit: Ian Kennedy

Manufacturers and models:

• Apple
• Samsung
• Nokia
• LG
• …too many others to list!

Pricing:

The range of prices for cell phones ranges from free to $500+, depending not only on the features of the phone, but also on what service plan you sign up for with the carrier.

Strengths:

• A large percentage of students already have cell phones. Running a BYOD program and filling in for those students who don’t have or opt not to bring their own device can be an inexpensive way to reach 1:1.
• Cell phones provide a way to engage students in learning 24/7.
• Cell phone use is growing and is likely to be the dominant computing platform.

Weaknesses:

• There can be a distraction factor with cell phones, and as a result, many schools have policies against cell phones in school. We hope these policies will change, but see below for a work-around in the meantime.
• The issue of carriers and monthly plans with different rates can be complicated for schools to manage.
• BYOD programs mean managing a variety of different devices in your classroom. Possible solutions to that are focusing on common functionality (e.g. text messaging) or giving students options and letting them sort out what tools work best for them on particular assignments.

Killer applications:

• For smartphones:
  • Blended and online learning
  • Ebooks
  • Multimedia
  • Writing
  • Research
  • Skills practice
• For all cell phones:
  • Email
  • Photo posting
  • Text messaging
    There are so many things you can do with text messaging, including:
    • Instant response with tools like PollEverywhere
    • Mobile blogging with tools like Edmodo or Twitter
    • Research through tools like Google SMS
    • Vocabulary practice
    • Homework support

Things to consider and some opinions:

• Think about your curriculum goals before deciding on any devices.
• Cell phones are nearly ubiquitous and so essential to many students out-of-school lives that it doesn’t make sense to ignore them as a learning tool.
• There is a lot you can do via text messaging that doesn’t require a smartphone.
• Many schools have policies against cell phones in school, but there is no reason you can’t have students do homework with cell phones.
• Cell phones can be used in school in “airplane” mode or with the wireless feature turned off. In fact, some schools use cell phones without a wireless feature even enabled.

The Kids Open Dictionary now has an option to create mobile flashcards using gWhiz. This free app supports the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, BlackBerry, Android, and more.

To make your flashcards:

(Before doing this, you need a Google Docs account and you need gWhiz on your mobile device.)

• Use the glossary builder in the Open Dictionary to create your set of words and definitions.
• Select the option to save your glossary as CSV. Right-click the “Click here to download your glossary” link and save the file. (If you missed it, we recently added an option for logged in users to save your glossary so that you can return to edit it later.)
• Go to the gWhiz Flashcard Template form. NOTE: You need a Google Docs account to proceed.
• Fill out the form, and then proceed to Google Docs as instructed.
• Save the document as a copy with the name you’d like to appear on your mobile device. Open the CSV file you created above. Copy the cells from the CSV file and paste them into the Google Doc template. Save and close the Google Doc.
• Go to gWhiz on your mobile device.
• From the menu, select Get My Google Data…  Select the file for your flashcards and download.

Here are more instructions on this and some advanced features like adding pictures.

We hope you enjoy this new feature.

Special thanks to Matt Renfroe for requesting this feature. If there’s something else you’d like to see in the Open Dictionary, let us know, and we’ll see what we can do!

You’ve probably seen QR codes around in holiday ads and on billboards. What you might not be as familiar with are all the great educational applications for these handy little things.  I’m excited about the potential and think that they might be a “killer app” for getting cell phones more readily accepted in education.

For those who aren’t familiar with QR codes, they are a kind of barcode that can be scanned by a variety of devices especially cell phones. They can be encoded with data like URLs, text, or vcards (virtual business cards) and can even act as prompts to send a text message or generate a tweet. They’re free of any license and can be encoded with a lot more data than old types of barcodes.

To scan a QR code, you need a device that can scan and read QR codes, like a cell phone with a camera or an iPod with a camera, and QR reading software. i-nigma is one maker of software that supports a large number of phones.

To generate your own codes, you need software. If you already use Google or Bitly to shorten URLs, you’ll find that they now both include a QR code as part of their output. There are also more full-featured QR code generators like this one from Kaywa and this one from Kerem Erkan that allow you to to encode not only a URL but text or a vcard.

There are lots of great educational applications for QR codes. (Remember barcoded videodiscs?) Here are just a few.

• Post codes for homework, extra help, etc. on the board.
• Provide easy access various types of content at learning stations.
• Differentiate instruction by providing various types of remediation or enrichment (or multiple styles of resources – video, text, audio, etc.) for homework.
• Implement clicker-type applications like polls; jut project a screen with multiple-choice QR codes.
• Provide multimedia content via print (e.g. link to videos, interactives, etc. on a textbook page or in a handout).
• Automatically send a text message with homework, spelling or vocabulary lists, writing prompts, etc.
• Bar code library or classroom bookshelves with links to reviews or more information.
• Have students create QR codes and associated content to enrich their own presentations (e.g. murals or dioramas with QR codes).

I’m also working with a professional development event, for which we’re going to post QR codes at the door to each workshop and session with a link to electronic handouts and other resources.

One reason I think that QR codes are particularly applicable for schools is that you can print out a handout (homework, etc.) with QR codes and have kids take them home to access the information, watch videos with extra help, etc. With many schools still banning cell phone use in school, this is a good way to engage kids and get them using their phones to enhance learning while still complying with school rules…at least until we can change them.

(Thanks to Jeff Utecht and Greg Kulowiec for ideas on using QR codes in education.)

The University of San Diego just released a series of documents and policy recommendations on “Helping School Personnel Control Student Misuse of Electronic Communications Devices On and Off-Campus.”

After reading this collection, I have so many thoughts that I hardly know where to begin. Any personal interpretation aside, though, I think that anyone involved in K-12 educational administration should read this. It includes a very thorough compilation of legal cases related to student use of both school-owned and student-owned electronic devices (primarily cell phones, but the information is broadly applicable to other devices, as well as to social media and the web in general) both on and off campus.

So now for the personal interpretations, in no particular order:

• There are a lot of complex legal issues to consider, and many cases with contradictory findings.
• I worry that upon reading this leadership will run shrieking from the room and not even want to use electronic devices for instructionally valid purposes. (My experience, as well as that of others, is that when students are given instructionally relevant activities to do, improper use drops dramatically.)
• It’s a shame that this amount of exhaustive work on mobile devices and social media went into examining improper uses of electronic media.
• Little mention was made of constructive uses of technology, beyond to point out that now that schools have used electronic devices for productive uses, they will find it harder to restrict their use. Unfortunate comment.
• This is very indicative of the focus of most administrations on legal issues. If folks spent as much time on addressing real learning needs as they do on legal compliance and covering their collective asses, students would benefit.
• This report applies as much to broader student uses of the web and social media. There are some fascinating cases related to cyber-bullying and personal student web sites devoted to often juvenile (they are kids after all) student critiques of schools and school personnel. Personally, I worry a lot about restricting student speech (which is addressed in this report). For each of these cases, we should look a non-digital parallel example and think about how we would react to that. There is then the issue of publicness to consider — drawing an inflammatory picture is not the same as then photocopying that picture and publicly distributing it (or putting it on the Internet).
• Simply saying in a policy document that free speech and the Constitution will be respected is not enough if the actual polices are not consistent.
• There is a huge need for educating students about the publicness of the Internet (and mobile communications that can be forwarded, publicly posted, etc. in a single click), related legalities, and responsible and civil behavior. This is a 21st century skill!!
• I would love to use this document with a class of middle school students to have them engage in a discussion of the issues and then draft their own rules and acceptable use policies. Anyone game for that?

Please weigh in with your own comments on these issues and this report.

One of the challenges of Web 2.0 apps is that there are frequent changes to the business models, often resulting in services that were originally free going to a pay-per model or sometimes going away altogether. I understand that everyone needs to be self-sustaining, but it’s a challenge for schools using these tools. (This is one of the reasons I love open source software — you know it’s always going to be free.)

This recently happened with two tools I use. One is Gabcast, which used to be free, but now has a time limit of 4 minutes as a free trial plan. In looking for another free tool to do phonecasting (recording audio from a phone and posting it directly to your blog of podcast), I haven’t quite find one that fits the bill. I tried phonecasting.com but had some challenges getting it set up. I’m still looking into a few other options, so stay tuned. (drop.io allows you to record files by phone but is lacking some other useful features. It is really intended as a broader file sharing tool, rather than just a phonecasting app.) If you have an app for this you like, please let me know.

I also used a web site for checking for plagiarism that was free but now charges. In looking for alternatives, I found The Plagiarism Checker from the University of Maryland, which looks good. They also offer a premium version for a fee, but the basic one worked fine for me. (I tested out others as well, but they seemed to think everything written at a high level was plagiarized, even original work of my own.) I have not used this application extensively, but in trying it out, it seemed to work well.  I also looked for open source alternatives, but didn’t find any.

If you have your own favorites in these categories, please add a comment and let us know.

For those of you in my session “Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction,” here are the links to the cell phone stuff we did:

Photo blogging from a cell phone

Audio blogging from a cell phone

Polling via text messaging

And here are the results of the survey:

After a few hours of reading more about the new Foleo and watching Palm’s video conference on it, here are a few more of my thoughts.

- The Foleo can be used as a standalone device (i.e. without a smartphone). It has built-in WiFi, a USB port, a VGA port, an audio-out jack, and slots for SD and compact flash cards. (There is no hard drive.) I think Palm is purposely under-selling the Foleo’s potential as a low-end laptop, but in fact, that seems to be what it is.

- The price is right. I was expecting more of a UMPC-type device, and at $1,500-2,000, these devices are way too expensive for what they are. However, at $500, the Foleo seems affordable. And you can bet the price will drop over time.

- A drawback of the Foleo is that it is one more device to carry around. How this works for you will probably depend on your personal preferences and how you use different devices now. Personally, for “real work,” a big screen is important to me, as is access to desktop applications. Currently, I use my phone as a wireless modem for my laptop. I have a very small notebook that I love. (For entertainment like music, reading, etc., I prefer mobile devices.) My laptop is 2.8 pounds and has a DVD player, a 40 GB hard drive, and a 1.6 GHz processor. It’s a “real computer” that can boot Windows or Linux, and it’s not a lot bigger than the Foleo. I do like the form factor of the Foleo, though I wish it had a tablet-style flip screen. I think for people who have been able to wean themselves from a laptop and are able to use their smartphone as their mobile computer, the Foleo is a great product. For people like me who still find a laptop indispensable, it’s probably not as relevant. (Maybe I’ll evolve though….:)

- I really like that Palm says they’ll support a variety of devices, including the iPhone. The whole idea of using Linux (although Palm has their own version, which could be a concern) should be to open the device up to developers. As they’ve done in the past, Palm is opening their device and encouraging lots of development. Apple has chosen not to make their devices accessible, and I think that’s a mistake.

- There is apparently no support for old Palm OS apps. (In fact, Palm is reaching out to developers to develop PIM apps.) While this is a little unfortunate, it probably makes sense.

- Is this device relevant to education? It’s hard to say. I’d guess not too much in its first release, but very possibly down the road. If the price comes down to under $300, the processor gets more robust, and some solid educational applications are developed — all of which seems likely — this could be a decent educational laptop. With all the new Web 2.0 apps (and the addition of offline syncing), this could be very powerful. In fact, it could be a step closer to the super-user-friendly, book-type form factor computing device we’ve dreamed of for schools. Of course, we’ll watch what happens with OLPC and the Classmate as well.

All in all, I think this is a good move for Palm.

Tech coordinator Darren Draper is doing an informal survey to see how many students have their own cell phones. If you have time, please do a quick survey of your students. Then either post your results to the spreadsheet linked in the blog or email Darren the info.

The deadline for getting data to him is May 23, so act now!

Thanks. We’ll be eager to see the results.

Many of you have seen me demonstrate the amazing application with which you can record a podcast from any phone and have it posted directly to a web site without having to touch a computer.

To do this, you first need a Blogger account. (Blogger is a cheap, easy way to publish your own classroom blog or web page. Just make sure your district doesn’t block it if you intend to use it at school.) Then you need to set up an AudioBlogger account. The whole thing is FREE (except that the number you need to call to post is a toll call)!

This is a really powerful, yet simple, technology. What I like about it is that anyone can do it — all you have to do is dial a phone number and talk. No creating a web page, no FTP’ing files, no HTML.

This is a great way for teachers to get information about homework assignments and class activities home to parents. Just call on your way home from school. It’s also a good way to have students post oral responses to questions or prompts.