Module 3 - assignment 7 - Mobile Devices in the classroom

The practice of BYOT is being trialed in Henry County schools this year, beginning at Bassett High School. I appreciate that the article addresses both sides of the concept. My experiences of trying to integrate student owned technology into the classroom have spanned the gamut of both positive and negative. From a positive perspective, students do seem more involved in certain activities, however they can quickly find themselves distracted by the social connections they have while online. I have many students who use their camera features to record pictures of diagrams from the board, or even pictures of their notes in case they lose them, but I must also monitor closely that they aren't taking pictures of themselves and others just for posting. I think that so far, for every appropriate use of the technology in the classroom I have seen, there has been a reciprocal inappropriate usage. In this sense, the partial adoption of the technology affirms the writer's citation that “[it]

involves more than merely incorporating new technology into current pedagogical strategies; it requires an instructional paradigm shift that promises to fundamentally change the way students learn.”

Since we close out the Earth Science semester with Astronomy, I decided to look up applications that would support student involvement in this topic that they could access both here and at home. Since students are not at school at night, the app has to be able to help guide them in a way that they can learn and then share when they come back the next day. The two apps I liked were the NASA application, and the StarWalk App.   The NASA App is a great general information App that lets students not only explore the galaxy, but also lets them see our place in it and our efforts at studying it. I like the updates on Satellite views and rocket launches, and I appreciate the description of the different projects taking place that are studying our earth. Students tend to think that our only studies were the moon and now Mars. This App gives them more understanding of the constant scientific inquiry taking place above them. 

The Star Walk is great for teaching about the constellations, star color and magnitude, and positional movement and rotation. The fact that students can go outside in day or night and see what is above them and even study specific stars or planets that they can see encourages them to explore their universe. They have a real-life connection and can specialize their experience based on what appeals to them. The downside is that the App does have a cost, but perhaps a grant could be found to cover it on a set number of iPads and we could have a "field trip to outer space" one night at the school, where students come to the school at night and we use the iPads to study the night sky.