geek.teacher

While I know a lot of us who like edutech are already on board with the realization that the mobile phone is the computing platform of the future for teens (and us, if the number of new iPhone users on Twitter is any indication =), it now appears that advertisers are more and more looking to get into the game:

Among the predictions: Mobile phones in the United States will surpass the popularity of desktops for teens. Only an estimated 20 percent of teens currently own a smartphone such as the iPhone, but mobile phone and content companies are counting on the idea that smartphone adoption will spread fast among teens in middle America and other areas.

Most schools of course, including mine, ban cell phones right now, but the question will increasingly come up as to whether or not this stance is either feasible or pedagogically sound.  I strongly recommend you check out From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning, which is a great blog devoted to ways to use cell phones in the classroom.

Things I’m doing instead of blogging these days:

• Paperwork (wrapping up IEPs and RRs)
• More paperwork (getting grades ready)
• Tagging things on delicious.  Thanks goodness for setting it up to autosend to the blog, or this place would be a barren wasteland.
• Twittering.
• Going to Wizard World



• Going to the Devon Horse Show



• Taking adorable pictures of kittens



• Did I mention the paperwork? (getting all of my files organized for turning in)

Monkeys control robots with their minds

Robots could soon rove Antarctica

I always thought the Apocalypse presented an either/or scenario, as in “either Planet of the Apes or Terminator.”  Little did I suspect that it would be both!

It’s funny how you can be so surrounded by an idea that the counter-argument never even comes to mind.  Considering that I will frequently throw my self into the role of devil’s advocate, I find it frankly embarrassing that I never thought to challenge the common wisdom that cell phones in school are the enemy until I recently saw some thoughts about it at the Conference recently.  The ridiculousness amplifies itself when I consider how much I use my iPhone for…well, everything now.  Thankfully, some people out there, smarter than I, challenge the conventional wisdom and give me ideas that I can use in the future.  Check out this NY Sun article where Lisa Nielsen talks about ways to use cell phones in the classroom, which, of course, one can’t actually do when cell phones are banned.

Finding Lisa’s blog there has now brought me up to 37 education blogs I’m following.  Considering a month ago I know that number was below ten, that’s a whole lot of new and interesting info to pop up for me.  Hooray!