by Alayna Daws
We all have one. You may be using it to read this blog post right now. I am sure you guessed what I am referring to: a cell phone. In my experience, as a student at the University of Georgia, I am used to seeing the syllabus clause: “No use of smartphones in class. No social media in the classroom.” Cell phones are very frequently viewed as a distraction to student learning. Can cell phones redeem their bad reputation in the classroom?
I will let you in on a trade secret: cell phones have a lot of potential in your classroom! As a Writing Intensive Program (WIP) instructor, my “job” is to encourage and support student writing and communication of ideas. I put the word job in quotations because it doesn’t feel like a job. I pinch myself every time I have the opportunity to teach and lead class.
This semester, I have had quite a few opportunities to teach. My target audience is 4th-Year Undergraduate Statistics students. How do you keep 4th-Year college students engaged? I reflect on this question very frequently. I have learned to adapt and not be afraid to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks. A few ideas have stuck and have proven to be very successful. Most of the successful ideas I have incorporated to encourage interaction and writing include the use of cell phones in the classroom. As you know, some students are inclined to use their cell phone during the lesson anyway, so this provided more incentive to incorporate cell phones into the lesson.
You should have seen the look on my students’ faces the first time I asked them to get their cell phones out for an activity. The cell phones came out and the light chatter began as students snickered at the idea of being encouraged to be on their phone. Once the cell phones were out, I have not looked back and continue to incorporate them into most of the lessons.
By far, my favorite tool utilizing cell phones is online discussion boards. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking these discussion boards probably cost money and require students to have an account to participate. What if I told you there are resources available that are free to you, and students, and no student account is needed! Have I convinced you yet? If not, then please keep reading.
Discussions are vital to the success of the classroom environment. Cell phones can be used to connect to online discussion boards led by the instructor. Discussion boards lead to an increase in student classroom engagement, as they encourage quick writing and allow you to gauge students’ understanding. Another useful benefit is having a convenient way to see what students are interested in and how they are feeling. Continue reading for an example of a discussion board I facilitated in class recently.
Students scanned the QR code provided on the class lecture slides, and this QR code sent them directly to the discussion board. Students posted an answer to the prompt anonymously. This was completed in the middle of the class. I have found the middle of class to be a good time to utilize discussion boards. It allows you to evaluate student understanding on the fly and adjust the remaining lecture time accordingly. It also gives you a second to catch your breath and gives the students a quick brain break.
Students received the following prompt: “Are you okay with the progress so far? If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” Two student answers are provided in the image below.
I found these two responses extremely helpful to my teaching. It shows me that students are connecting and applying the material from their other courses. The responses also gave me some insight into what was not clear to the students. As you can guess, I spent some time following the discussion board to talk more about the math behind the algorithms. I always like to throw in a fun question that is not related to the content to connect to students and lighten up the discussion.
Don’t have time to incorporate a discussion during class time? There are many discussion boards accessed via cell phone that can be utilized as a resource both synchronously and asynchronously.
The students are more connected to one another, I am more connected to the students, and the students are more connected and interactive with the material.
Overall, online discussion boards have proven to be an extremely important resource. It has provided a space for anonymous and low-stakes writing along with peer feedback. Most importantly, it has fostered community in the classroom. The students are more connected to one another, I am more connected to the students, and the students are more connected and interactive with the material.