Mobile Learning Lab Task 3

I know what you are thinking-where is task 1? Well, I am currently awaiting my classroom 2.0 membership but so far it looks cool.  At first, I thought the site was information overload!  For me at least, I like information like that better organized.  However it looks like a useful site. 

I can see where if I led a classroom with cell phone as a BYOD platform, that the poll would be very useful-and since I already love IWB displaying the results on it would be a must. I would think that kids would be more inclined to text their response via cell then raise their hands anyway.  Growing up with the digital world all apart of their lives has given them a sense of comfort in online anonymous posting which is pretty much what this polling tool allows for. I can't tell you the number of times recalling a teacher saying "everyone got this or do we need to spend more time on it before moving on" and no one would respond or the teacher would just stand there wondering on whether or not the class is following.  This is a great tool to know where the students are at before moving on and missing key areas.

Since I don't have a classroom and can't really experiment with mobile devices in the classroom, I can't really give my opinion on their benefits or drawbacks other than what I have drawn from our readings.  However, I did present last semester in a MSU class of 300 students where I observed the devices many of them used during my lecture/presentation.  Although I would like to think they all used them for the purpose of the class, because the teacher did not do a poll like the one we tried with poll everywhere there is really no way to know if these students are texting friends or really exploring class material.

I think some of the challenges I would anticipate would be different types of mobile devices and making sure the lessons were able to be accessed by many devices.  For instance, if you knew for sure that everyone had an iPhone, iPod or iPad you could even possibly use specific apps for your lesson.  However if some kids have an iPad, others an android tablet, some a kindle fire, others a smartphone you would have to carefully develop the lesson to be able to be completed from any device. 

Regardless of the BYOD situation, I think the poll everywhere is a great way to ensure class participation.