Tuesday, March 23, 2010

New Research on Student's and Cell Phone Use

The annual Speak Up Report (Download Speak Up Press Release 2009) has emerged with some interesting data sourrounding mobile devices. The results are excellent news for teachers and schools considering mobile devices in learning! Below are a few of the findings from the report.

Among high school students
  • 85 percent report having an iPod
  • 70 percent have a laptop or netbook
  • 30 percent have smart phones

For the first time since 2003, when asked to identify the major obstacle to prevent use of technology in school, students in grades 6–12 said “I cannot use my own cell phone, smart phone or Mp3 player in school.” Previously, the top response was “school filters and firewalls.”

11% of teachers and 16% of parents dismiss mobile devices as having no positive impact on learning. (This means that overwhelmingly parents and teachers agree that mobile devices can have a beneficial impact on learning!!!)

67% of teachers think students will be distracted and more than half are concerned that not all students will have access

In The Three Screen Report just released by Nielsen, it was found that...

"Active mobile video users grew by 57% from 2008 to 2009, from 11.2 million to 17.6 million. Much of this increase can be linked to the strong growth of smartphones in the marketplace."

The age bracket watching the most videos on mobile devices is 12-17!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Tweet Call! For Students Without Internet at Home

If you have a class twitter account or your students have accounts to use for learning, you know that some students do not have access to the account at home. While some students can use text messages, it is cumbersome to participate in Twitter with a basic phone and SMS text (not too mention costly if you don't have unlimited texting). However, with the free resource Tweet Call, your students can dial in (1-877-TweetCall), speak their tweet and it instantly shows up on Twitter as a speech to text translation! This is a wonderful application for iReporting on the go with Twitter, posting brainstorming ideas, homework reflections, summarizing, as well as current events.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Finding The Most Affordable Cellular Phone

Competition in the market, the consumer's best friend, and nowhere is that competition more thriving then in the world of mobile phones. What was once a luxury item that came at a great price, it is now a standard item moving people around the world, and are available at an affordable price. When mobile phone morphed from bulky to simplify, the competition runs through design, features, services and prices and today's mobile phone customers can take advantage of the many options in order to find an acceptable mobile phone.

Finding an affordable mobile phone, is much easier than when it was based on various companies that are now thrown his hat into the ring to provide mobile services. In many cases, if you are already a customer of the mobile phone, your service allows you to update your phone if you extend the contract. Affordable mobile phone often comes at the time of renewal, you will be able to choose from several low prices - even free - phone.

But in the game to find the most affordable mobile phone, you need to buy, using his influence as a customer to get the best deal you can. New phone deals out of every day, as companies try to compete, to strengthen their customer base. Look at the sales and discounts at the end of the year, mobile phone models change from year to year - if you can buy last year model will often get the nice price.

Most important is to find an affordable mobile phone comes with patience, do your research on models of mobile phones, which received the highest rating, and offer customers the most features for the price. Affordability reflects the value you get for your money so be sure you are not just trading price for quality.

Mobile phone promises to be the future of communications equipment, keeping us in touch with others at the touch of a button. And as models and functions, it will change the price. In order to find the most affordable mobile phone for our particular situation, it is necessary to remain educated on changing technology and what it means for our wallets.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

MACUL Picture/Film on the Fly Contest!

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE "TECHNOLOGY DON'T"

http://tiny.cc/kolbpic (to see full results)

http://tiny.cc/Picfly



WINNER is #13 Picture (No, No texting and Driving)







To participate! Before 10:00pm send a picture of "technology dont's" to tall63haw@photos.flickr.com





Winner will receive a copy of Liz's Book! Voting begins after 10:00pm on this site.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Students Can Participate in The National Voting Process and Text or Email their Reps with Visible Vote!

I recently came across a free mobile application called Visible Vote. From the website you can download it to your cell phone (NOTE: it does not work with all phones yet). Visible Vote gives live updates on votes happening in Congress, and tells how your local representatives are voting on different bills. In addition, it allows you to vote and "have your say". Finally, you can text or email your local representative via your cell phone with Visible Vote (they do all the work for you!). It is a fun and easy way for social studies students to get involved in the democratic process inside and outside of the classroom!

Watch the movie on how visible works!