Special Assignment

Special Assignment

Ages 18 - 24

1. 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side.
2. 80% say the very first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone.
3. 78% say they spend 2 or more hours per day using their smartphone.
4. 68% say they would prefer to use their smartphone instead of their laptop or personal computer for personal use.
5. 91% say that having a camera on their smartphone is important (61% very important)
6. 87% say they use their smartphone camera at least weekly. 59% use their smartphone camera at least every other day. 44% use their smartphone camera for still or motion picture taking every day.

Part A

Write at least two paragraphs on the implications for education, school, teachers, and learners that flow from the above data.

The data above does not shocked me one bit. In the past couple of months I have had to train a 21 year old girl to take over my job as Human Resources manager at an engineering staffing firm. Most 0f the time when I was teaching her she was absently listening while playing on her phone, texting, and taking "selfies." This was very frustrating to me since I may look at my phone twice a day while I am at work and not to mention very rude. This, to say the least, has had an affect on her work and her learning. This is just an example of a personal experience I have had recently on the use and effects of smart phones.

The above paragraph brings me to my opinions on what the above data implements on our education, school, teachers, and learners. With the growth of technology and cell phone use there will be positive and negative affects in the classroom; in my opinion, mostly negative. Young adults are so wrapped up in social media and their phones that it is difficult for them to pay full attention to their teachers because they are so worried about who has called, text, tweeted, etc. This will definitely be something that teachers will have to deal with in their classrooms. This will also have many negative consequences on the students education and how they learn.  If the trainee would have paid more attention to me instead of being so worried about her phone, her job wouldn't be in jeopardy now.

Although there are many negative ramifications there are also some good that can come out of smart phones. The students have any information they could ever need at their fingertips. If something comes up that they do not know about they can just Google it and find out the answer. This does bring up the issue of cheating but that is just another negative. Another positive of smart phones is safety. God forbid, but if something ever came up in the school where the police would need to be called then there would be plenty of students who could use their phones.  As a future lower elementary school educator I don't believe I will have to worry about this issue as much. Most of my students will probably be too young to have their own phones and even if they did I don't think they would be as worried about them. There isn't near as much drama in kindergarten as there is in high school!


Part B

Assume that all of your students will have either a smartphone or a tablet with a camera. Generate as many ideas as you can as to how you might make use of these tools for learning purposes for kids whom you will be teaching. Make use of the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards where appropriate.

They could generate a whole project with any of these devices. 
They could look up information, take pictures, set up presentations, and even make a movie.
The teacher could give each student a subject and they could look up all of their needed information on their devices.

Callie Barton