8 Ways to use Camera Phones in Education
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Yesterday I came across an article about the listed off ten ways to use a camera phone. As I read through this list I realized that a lot of these would be useful in education. It really got my brain turning too. The past couple of years have seen an explosion of cell phones. As I walk around campus now almost everyone has one, and more and more younger kids are getting them as well. Most schools ban them, but some are starting to see the potential. The average phone now a days has more computing power than many of the computers of 10 years ago. So… how can we harness that power in education? Let’s start with the camera phone since there are no additional fees associated with its use.
Here’s my list of 8 things you can use a camera phone for in the classroom, in no particular order.
1. Whiteboard/Blackboard Archive
Do you ever get done with a class and look at the board with regret because you have to erase everything you or your class just created? Snap a quick picture and archive that for future use. You could even post them on a class discussion board, wiki, blog, webpage or even just e-mail them to your class for review.
2. Handheld Scanner
This one I take directly from the article.
Remember those old spy movies, where the secret agents captured documents with a tiny secret mini-camera? Now we all have one. Believe it or not, photographing documents works.
I don’t recommend stealing information, but for random paper information, notes … you can snap a picture to capture the data.
3. Reminder List
Sometimes you see something that jogs your memory. Take a picture of that thing as a reminder of what you need to do.
4. Learn Student’s Names and Faces
One of the biggest struggles we have as teachers is learning the names and faces of the constant rotation of students coming through our classes. Take some time at the beginning of the year to photograph the students, or even better yet, have them take pictures of each other and e-mail to you if they have that capability.
5. Security/Liability Device
I hesitate adding this one in here, but we all know crazy things can happen in the classroom. Sometimes you may need to take a picture of something happening, or something that happened to protect yourself and your students.
6. Assignments
Depending on the subject you teach, it may be appropriate to send the students out one day to take pictures of nature, people or other things. Try to think of ways to use the phone. Just using the phone in an assignment will help students be more excited about it. Remember, there’s nothing wrong with using technology as a motivator. It works great with these digital natives. 
7. Instant Blogging
This is one of my favorite options. If you are a blogger or have a class blog/website you can set up an e-mail address that you can post directly to that blog. You can give that address out to students or use it yourself.
Granted, you need an internet connected phone for this, but I had to add it in. It is so awesome to be out in the middle of nowhere posting to a blog, archiving.
8. Memories
We all know we get attached to those we teach and often we don’t want to forget them. Take some pictures throughout the year and print them out at the end of the year for a scrapbook or collage. Five, ten, twenty years from now those pictures will bring up dear memories.
Jeff VanDrimmelen
Joe Dale has an interesting article where he references this list and adds his own list of 10 Ways to use Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom.
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2007/06/how_to_use_came.html
Jun 6th, 2007 3:18 pm
Jeff VanDrimmelen
I am a couple of days behind and just got around to reading Will Richardson’s post about a middle school in NYC that confiscated cell phones of students. From his entry:
“First, it teaches them that they don’t deserve to be empowered with technology the same way adults are. Second, that the tools that adults use all the time in their everyday lives to communicate are not relevant to their own communication needs. Third, that they can’t be trusted (or taught, for that matter) to use phones appropriately in school.”
http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/i-lost-something-very-important-to-me/
How ironic. Here are some appropriate uses of cell phones… let’s teach them!
Jun 6th, 2007 3:57 pm
Doug
I think this great knowing that society is giving everyone a chance to succeed. I am excited that with the technology that is out there, it’s about time for edcucators to see the importance of how cell phones can be used in more ways than one! I also think that homework assignments can be sent to students via phone text. This works as a day planner for students to reflect on when not sure what’s going on, or perhaps if you miss a class, then you’ll have it via the cell phone!
Oct 10th, 2007 3:39 pm