Day 2: Activity 1.
I have an iPhone 3.
- I think that this device has great apps that can foster learning activities but I am not sure if learners (at least my learners: grade 5, 7, and 9) are able o focus on thinking tasks without distraction, because of the large number of apps for entertainment that the device offers. However, one of the major affordances of iPhones is the friendly and intuitive nature of its apps.
- Through iPhone learners can be assisted in using their memories of experiences in the real world, and in applying their learning to authentic problems as they face them as the device offers different apps for recording their experiences (voice, video, photos).
- Through iPhones users are able to follow social rules, use agreed symbols and languages, focus on interpersonal communication, and receive feedback to see how communication is received as this devices offers social networking apps that can promote these kinds of activities. iPhone 3 can use WIFI, cellular, 3G. This fact enables users to interact and collaboratively share learning experiences through the web.
David William Price 8:38 am on November 16, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for your post.
If you could “lock down” an iPhone to use certain apps and nothing more… how might you use iPhones with your students to do the kinds of learning you list in your post?
As a side note, what do you think of “scaffolding” attention management in order to help kids build their abilities to stay on task? I read a journal article in the Winter about a classroom where the teacher circulated through the students to keep them on task while they used technology to accomplish set goals.
Angela Novoa 1:13 pm on November 16, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David, scaffolding would be a good idea. I think that on Social Studies (my subject) we could use the apps for recording (either video, photo or voice) to make stories about a previous research or a fictional story about the characteristics of a period or a place. They could also record stories related to civic education. Yesterday I found on a website that iPhone will release a game-app (created by two chilean engineers) about Mapuche ( an indigenous culture of Chile). Learning about indigenous cultures or any other topic related to Social Studies through gaming would be awesome.
Angela.
Everton Walker 2:53 pm on November 16, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Angela,
They are really easily distracted and it will take a lot of discipline for them to concentrate. It’s almost impossible for me to get some of my students to focus in class. They are overwhelmed by the various apps at their disposal. The saddest thing is that many of them only use their phones for social networking and are clueless about the educational benefits.
Everton
David William Price 12:58 pm on November 17, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Distraction is a symptom of high anxiety and in psychological parlance would fit into “avoidance”. Anxiety reduces availability of working memory, reduces the effectiveness of the brain’s ability to maintain focus (“inhibition”) or to switch focus based on what task is most important (“shifting”). One approach is to focus on reducing anxiety first to provide students with the working memory they need and to enhance the function of their inhibition and shifting abilities to stay on track.
Studies show that a combination of anxiety management and scaffolding anxiety management through exposure help learners manage their anxiety and improve their performance. There is also an area called “implementation intentions” where learners create if-then scripts where they plan ahead of time for what may distract them and how they will deal with it… apparently those scripts work very well for test anxiety. Worth looking into!