With all of the technology in todays world, it is getting harder to keep the attention of students with typical classroom management. By using the new mobile devices and gadgets, there are ways you can keep the students actively involved and still learning at a high level. Things like ipods, ipads, netbooks, cell phones, and laptops can be used in many different ways. A student may take notes on her phone and later transfers them to a laptop where she adds images and shares the document online with her study group, a student who does not understand a math concept finds a podcast to view that visually explains the concept, and during class a group of students create flashcards that they can access from their handheld computers at home. According to a study by Futurelab, an organization that studies how learning will be in the future, says that there are 6 types of learning that could come from technology. More about these 6 steps can be read at http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/FromDistractiontoEngagementWir/192959.
All of these concepts lead to the belief that technology could only help the classroom, but some people have many worries about allowing so much technology. Any mobile device can be really distracting to students. They can use them to cheat, multitask, and find inappropriate context. However, things can be done to help stop these things from happening. Wireless networks can be turned off, you can use filter applicatoins, and you can make contracts with the kids that set rules.
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