Thinking about education and technology.....

Summer is officially over (at least it is for me). Fall classes start in 2 weeks, which leads me to the most pressing question of the term.

No, it's not office hours, how many tests to give, or how many students I have.......it's what to do about cell phone (or ipod or tablet or laptop) use in the classroom.

In the past, I've always said that if I catch you playing on your phone, it's mine for the rest of the class. I'm starting to rethink that. Honestly, I'm not going to stop them from texting, facebooking or playing words with friends, so why stress myself trying?

Instead, I'm looking for ways to turn their divided attention and quick thumbs in my favor. At the #MOSHRM11 conference last week, one of my favorite presentations used "clickers" to poll the audience throughout the presentation. As an educator, I love that. It engages the audience, its entertaining, and it prevents presenters from turning into Charlie Brown's teacher:

Unfortunately, the presenters felt the need to remind the audience 4 or 5 times (in 1 hour) to make sure to leave the clickers behind.....apparently they had "legs" and walked away previously.

So, while I love the idea, I didn't want to be responsible for handing out and collecting clickers each class, if I could even get them (read: tight university budgets and expensive technology).

While playing with my own new tablet (the Samsung Galaxy Tab for anyone who is interested),  I found a free classroom "clicker" service from Socrative.com (@socrative). Basically, there is the teacher system and the mobile system....students can go to a mobile website and take what ever quiz, exit questions, etc I want. Plus, I can put results in real time on the presentation screen.

I'm going to try it this semester....if it bombs, at least I didn't spend any of my (or the university's) money. If it works.....then let the cell phone games begin!

- Heather