Mobile Devices as Classroom Clickers

Cell Phones in Classrooms?


For the longest time this was mostly taboo.  For many years I felt the same way.  Cell phones were a distraction that took students attention away from the very important lessons I was trying to impart.  Gradually over the past 3 or 4 years I've had a change of heart and now, with a few limitations, completely support students using cell phones in class.  Why?  That's simple.

• First, if students are distracted it may actually mean what I'm teaching isn't interesting for them.  Maybe instead of looking at THEM I should focus on how I can make my classes more dynamic and student centered.

• Second and probably more important call phones can be an incredibly powerful learning tool.  

• Finally if I don't teach student what the appropriate use of their mobile devices are who will?

One of the most engaging ways to get kids learning on their phones is to use them for formative assessment.  The website www.polleverywhere.com allows teachers to set up multiple choice and free response questions that students can answer by texting.  The class responses can then be displayed in real time.  Students use their phones to provide teachers with formative assessment.  Its fast, its engaging and its easy!


Teacher simply create a free account and then start making up questions.  Students than respond to questions by texting or emailing a code to the polleverywhere website.  The responses can viewed by the teacher or the entire class in real time.

Showing students how to use their mobile devices for more than just facebook and youtube is a powerful educational tool.  This is just one simple example of a way to get kids using mobile devices in a way that won't frustrate or infuriate their teachers!