Journal #4

Journal #4
From Toy to Tool, Audioblogging with Cell Phones
This article written by Liz Kolb is about using cell phones in the classroom. She toys with the idea that cell phones can be used as active and engaging tools for students. She used to want to ban cell phones from classrooms, but over time has accepted them. She believes cell phones can be used as learning tools for constructing knowledge, creating blogs, collecting and storing data, and developing multimedia projects. Anyone can audioblog from anywhere and at any time making this a very accessible tool. The article even gives step-by-step instructions on how audioblog leaving it virtually impossible to fail at. The idea she has is for interviews and recording sounds then posting them from your cell phone and later adding images or creating a video. Of course there are concerns, copyright issues, cost issues, and control issues tied to audioblogging. A concern is student privacy since once these blogs are published they become public access. So it would be recommended to upgrade service, or use an alias.

Question #1 Is this a good idea, not all students have cell phones?

Answer: I don’t particularly like this audioblogging idea for students, I think that kids use cell phones as a social device and should be kept that way. Also not all kids have or should have cell phones. In the article she suggests applying for grants to get a couple of class cell phones so that would be a better idea than allowing kids to have their phones during class time.

Question #2 By audioblogging in the classroom would teachers be giving up too much control?

Answer: Yes, students should not be allowed free access to their phones during class time. They would be tempted to text and play around rather than use them as constructive tools.