Academic

101 Classroom Uses for a Cellphone

By tmcgaugh

I’m cross-posting this from Millennial Law Profs because I have a feeling that my fellow Feminist Law Profs and readers are going to be some of the greatest outside-the-box creative thinkers on how to use a common everyday item for off-label purposes.  It’s no accident that Necessity is the Mother of Invention and not its dad or second cousin.

Steve Demby  suggests 10 ways to use a cellphone in class — and that’s just what he could come up with off the top of his head.  But I’m determined that we can come up with 92 more. There are both students and professors who read this blog, so what can you think of (that’s constructive and serves some educational purpose) that you can do with a cellphone in a classroom?

Here are Steve Demby’s 10:

1) Check the spelling/definition of a word
2) Research a topic
3) Look up reference images
4) Pull up maps (even with satellite imagery)
5) Document a science lab with built in digital camera/video
6) Fact check on the fly
7) Mail questions to the teacher that they might be embarrassed to ask
Classroom response system
9) Take quizzes
10) Record and/or listen to podcasts

So post away! If you’re reading this post, add a comment over at Millennial Law Prof with at least one (yet unnamed) way to use cell phones in the classroom. Let’s assume that the phone has standard phone capabilities as well as text-messaging, pictures, mp3 sound, video, and Internet. If your idea requires some kind of add-on beyond that (like a stand-alone keyboard) be sure to note that. If you’re reading this post on a blog other than Millennial Law Prof, be sure to click over to MLP to leave your idea.

Hit it!

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on May 07, 2008 (boomark / email).