We have talked about the use of technology in the classroom before. However, as you may imagine, the topic is virtually never-ending.
The topic today is cell phones. Do you use cell phones to teach? I don´t. In fact, I ask my students to turn theirs off. Why? Well, this may have happened to you: the phone rings in the middle of a listening activity and distracts everybody, students are more aware of the girl-friend´s call than the class, they say their boss (or a potential customer) is calling them about work, a friend of theirs rings them to say hi, and so many other situations. The best thing is to turm them off. However, the world is wider than what we can see from where we are standing, and maybe we can put those cell phones to work for us instead of against us.
Below, I am posting a link to the British Council´s e-magazine Teach English (every new issue is always announced on ELTeCS PERU) where there is video of a teacher who gives his ideas on how to use this gadget. I must confess, they are interesting and will try them out in my class, see what happens.
Take five minutes to watch this colleague. How do you like his ideas? You may well change your mind about cell phones.
I hope you like it.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/tips/mobile-learning (video)
Cesar Klauer
