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me and my iPhone (and the larger potential for learners)
(This post actually has resources. Scroll down to skip my little love story.)
I’ve never been a real gadget girl. Perhaps I’d never met the right ones before. But this was the year I fell in love. Twice. First it was my Kindle.
Late last month I bought my husband an iPhone for his birthday. Could anyone blame me for getting in on the plan?
Anyway, even though our relationship is still quite new, I am in love. Until it rings, I often forget it is a phone. I want to name it. (Suggestions are welcome.)
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My daughter, who understands my need for green accessories, bought me a new case for the holidays. (The above pic represented the one drawback I have found. The iPhone cannot take a picture of itself!)
So let me count the ways:
- My very favorite thing is access to my various email boxes. I no longer rush to my laptop when I get home. I no longer worry about what’s waiting for me while I am out. A quick peek allows me to relax a lot more.
- the camera is incredibly handy
- my access to my Twitter network through Tweetie
- my ability to take both voice and text notes with Evernote
- the little flashlight and nightstand clock
- my handy Google Mobile App. (Okay, it’s less-than-perfect voice search cannot get my name straight. Not such a big deal. I could stop searching myself.)
- my regular Google Search and all of my other favorite Google apps, including Google Earth!
- my iTunes is now portable
- my iCal sincs with my phone. I am more organized
- the very wonderful Pandora internet radio is a click away and I am discovering new music everyday
- Shazam allows me to identify music I like that I catch playing anywhere in earshot
- I can catch up with YouTube videos (my kids are always borrowing the phone to show me new stuff)
- Wikipedia Mobile is awfully useful in an on-the-road information pinch
- I can use this tool for accessing ebooks. I am just discovering Stanza for books old and new and for document storage! The connection to Feedbooks, offers a library of thousands of free titles.
I am beginning to discover how much I have yet to discover.
I’ve also discovered that I am approaching this technology like the typical tech newbie, by discovering the apps that make my own life easier and more connected. Only now that I am hooked am I thinking about what this means for my practice.
Clearly, it’s bigger than me.
In the month that has passed since girl met gadget, I’ve discovered a world of support from others who are similarly taken with their gadgets, for the good of learners! (More and more compelling evidence for a kinder, gentler school cell phone/gadget policy.)
Consider the portability of texts, the potential for blogging or taking notes and pictures in the field, the use of GPS for science and geography, the possibilities for organizing learning, the options for the music classroom, the opportunities to collaborate with other learners in geography-agnostics ways.
If you are curious about how you might use your own iPhone for deeper purpose–in addition to the many educational apps–free and low cost–available at the App store, check out:
- OEDb’s (Online Education Database) list of 50 iPhone apps for education
- Kathy Schrock’s experience described in a couple of blogposts: iPhone apps that sinc and Living with the iPhone
- Lucy Gray’s iPhone and iPod Touch Users Group on Diigo
- ReadWriteWeb post on iPhone as ebook reader (imagine the potential for portable texts!)
- Classroom 2.0 Ning’s iPhone discussion
- Elliot Masie’s video on the iPhone and mobile learning
- ScienceFix’s short list of iPhone apps for the science classroom
- Paul Reid’s iphoneined blog
- the iphoneteacher blog from the UK
- Wes Fryer’s Teach Digital wiki resources
- the News Observer’s story on 1-to-1 use of iPod Touch in schools
- Planeten Paultje’s list of iPhone apps for education (scroll down for list)
- Gizmodo’s Best iPhone apps of 2008
Please share your own iPhone or iPod Touch discoveries in your comments!
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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