Ken Halla knows a thing or two about using technology in the classroom.
For the past 5 years, the 22-year teaching veteran has worked to transition his ninth-grade World History and AP Government classrooms into a mobile device-friendly environment where students can incorporate the latest technology into the learning process. Along the way, Halla created three of the most used education blogs in the country—“World History Teachers Blog,” “US Government Teachers Blog,” and “US History Teachers Blog”—to help fellow humanities teachers incorporate more technology and more device-based learning into their own classrooms.
“Not every classroom can get a laptop every day, so [devices like smartphones], even if you have to pair up, become something useful for teachers,” Halla says.
“The number of kids with phones has just been blown out of the water the last couple of years,” he adds. “Two years ago, if any of the kids in my room had a phone, it was a dial-phone that maybe they could text on. And now it’s all smartphones.”
According to data compiled by the research firm Nielsen, 58 percent of American children from 13- to 17-years-old owned a smartphone as of July 2012—an increase of more than 60 percent over the previous year. And with over 50 percent of mobile phone users in America now using smartphones, the numbers only seems to be growing.
With their easy internet access, a multitude of education-friendly apps, and the ability to be used at a moment’s notice (after all, what smartphone-owning teenager would go anywhere without their phone?), smartphones have all the tools necessary to boost student learning.
Here are Halla’s top tips for using mobile devices effectively in the classroom.
