Monday: 

  • Middle school principal  blogs about it his smart phone purchase over Christmas break.

Wednesday: 

  • Middle school teacher reads principal's blog and decides to give cell phones a try in the classroom.

Thursday: 

  • Middle school teacher consults with district media specialist (Kathy is a rock star, if you haven't met/followed her yet) who sets him up with our district PollEverywhere account and shares a link with him about cell phone use in the classroom.
  • Middle school teacher comes up to my office to explain it all with comments such as... "I told the kids I might be the only teacher in this school that does not own a cell phone, but it's time we start using them responsibly in our classroom" and "Tomorrow, the kids in my class will bring their phones.  Two of them do not have phones and they're going to use a laptop from the computer cart so they're not left out.  They walked out of the room excited."  
Vocabulary word definitions will no longer be scripted by the teacher.  Instead, students will come up with a common definition based on the resources at their finger tips.  

Students will no longer raise their hands when they want the teacher to slow down.  Instead, they will push a button on their phone to set off the ring tone.  

I'm told these were both student ideas.  I'm looking forward to visiting this classroom tomorrow (Friday) to see it in action.  The excitement I have is not centered on the technology tool -- it's about the change in pedagogy, the change in control from the teacher to the student.  

It's amazing how one post can make a difference.