Using Cell Phones in Class: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em

From frontbox.dk

I recently wrote about how I had given up on trying to take cell phones away from students. Since then I’ve come across a couple of articles that have ideas on how teachers can integrate cell phones into lessons for students from elementary school to university. In my classes now I actually collected all the cell phones at the beginning of class and only give them to the students if I'm going to do an activity with their cell phones.
More and more teachers are moving away from teacher-centred classes to student-centred ones. Smartphones and cellphones can help make this possible as students learn to teach their peers. There are drawbacks, of course. Besides the disruption phones cause, the fact that not every student has one could mark the haves from the have-nots.

• Text Students Questions: Send out a mass text at the start of the day and let students know that the first few students to respond will get a reward, anything from treats to no homework to extra credit points work. 
• Quizzes and Polls: During class have students answer questions using a poll format. They can see the results in real time. 
• Questions on blogs and forums: Create an intranet blog or forum for students to ask and answer questions. 
• Scavenger Hunt: Send all the students out of the classroom and start texting them clues on what they should find. Have them send a photo to prove they were there. 
• Podcasts: Students can create them and listen to other students’ as well. Research: Students love surfing the net. Put it to good use and have them do research that way. 
• Dictionary: Great for language learners. They can use L1-L2 dictionaries or L2-L2 dictionaries. 
• Call: Make phone role-plays more realistic by sending half the class out of the room and having them phone their partner. 
• Translate: Google translate isn’t the best, but you could use it to your advantage. Translate a sentence from their L1 their L2. Give them the L2 and have them translate it back into the L1 and then re-translate it into their L2. 
• Calculator: Great for math classes. 
• Timer: Have students talk for X amount of time and time it when they do so. 
• Blog: Have students blog about their experiences. You can also use it for homework. 

References

• Huffington Post: Teachers Using Cell Phones 
• KQED: Don’t Lecture Me: Re-thinking How College Students Learn 
• KQED: How Teachers Make Cell Phones Work in the Classroom