When I advocate for cell phones in the classroom, I get a lot of odd looks from teachers who are all too often fighting against the devices and loathe every last one of them. So why am I so confident about my desire to include cell phones in the curriculum? Because cell phones are technology, and I teach technology!
Cell phones aren’t new to my classroom. Well, the presence of the device itself may be somewhat new, but the ability to communicate via technology has been present in my classroom since the creation of email. As the old saying goes, “If you can’t beat ‘em, integrate ‘em." (That's how it goes, right?) Integrating cell phones with class content is one way to get this amazing technology to work in your favor.
How can you start integrating cell phones as a teacher? Tools that use cell phones in a productive manor are a start. Tools such as Remind can turn that device into a classroom aide—and you will wonder how you ever lived without it.
I’m a big fan of communication in the classroom. Who wouldn’t be? As a parent, I'm thirsty for information regarding what my children are doing, how they are learning, and what I can do to help assure their success. As a teacher, I want to provide that information to the parents of my students as well. As an advocate of edtech in the classroom, I prefer electronic methods of communication. I know how they can provide a convenient and timely method of sharing information. Paper notes, reports and permission slips are cumbersome. They’re often lost and are a slow means of communication (if a note disappears into backpack-land, it can mean days before discovery).
Cue Remind. With the ability to send messages directly to cell phones, attach files to the message (photos, assignments, presentations, permission slips), and the option to schedule messages for a later time, it simplifies the process of communication. The best part of all is how much parents and students love it!
For teachers, coaches, guidance counselors, advisors, and more, this tool is priceless. Coaches to whom I’ve introduced this tool have nothing but praise for it, and are eternally grateful. As a parent, my children’s teachers send quiz reminders, field trip information and more. As a technology integration specialist, I used it with our district-wide 1:1 iPad deployment to keep our device users informed about WiFi issues, cleaning instructions, and more. As a teacher, I have shared web links to study guides and blogs, used it with Twitter hashtags for awareness to causes, shared technology tips, informed classes of location changes or school cancellations, shared Quizlet flashcards that can be directly opened on mobile devices from the Remind notification, and so much more.
Technology is truly going to revolutionize education in so many ways. The ability to communicate better than ever before is one of the biggest and best changes to come to education.
Cell phones in the classroom? Absolutely. I couldn’t live without them.
tag
* ppcUrlCookiePart1 and ppcUrlCookiePart2 must be called, see bottom of script
* update ppcUrlCookiePart2 and ppcUrlCookiePart2 to match your querystring and form field names
*
*/
//Leave this as true to always use querystring values if they exist, if no querystring will attempt to get cookie values
var ppcUseLatestValues = true; //set this to false to use cookie values if they exist (if false, will not check querystring first).
//function to grab params from cookie
function getCookie(param_name) {
var i, x, y, cookie = document.cookie.split(";");
for (i = 0; i < cookie.length; i++) {
x = cookie[i].substr(0, cookie[i].indexOf("="));
y = cookie[i].substr(cookie[i].indexOf("=") + 1);
x = x.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
if (x == param_name) {
return unescape(y);
}
}
}
//function to create cookie
function setCookie(param_name, value, exdays) {
var exdate = new Date();
exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
//CHANGE DOMAIN BELOW TO MATCH SITE
var c_value = escape(value) + ((exdays == null) ? "" : "; domain=remind.com; path=/; expires=" + exdate.toUTCString());
document.cookie = param_name + "=" + c_value;
}
//function to check if cookie exists and, if so, run the setCookie function
function checkCookie(param_name, param_url_name) {
var param_value = getCookie(param_name);
if ((param_value != null && param_value != "" && param_value != "undefined") && ppcUseLatestValues == false) {
//this means the param name/value pair exists - and we don't want to use latest
}
else {
//this means the param name/value pair does not exist - so create it
//grab values from URL
var pageURL = window.location.search.substring(1);
var URLVariables = pageURL.split('&');
for (var i = 0; i < URLVariables.length; i++) {
var parameterName = URLVariables[i].split('=');
if (parameterName[0] == param_url_name) {
//filter out "#" in case that is in the last URL param
param_value = parameterName[1].split("#")[0];
}
}
if (param_value != "undefined" && param_value != "" && param_value != null) {
//create cookie
setCookie(param_name, param_value, 365);
}
}
}
//function to setup the parameters and save the cookie values
function ppcUrlCookiePart1() {
//setup list/array of parameters desired. names on right should match querystring names
var param_names = new Array(
'ppcSource;utm_source',
'ppcMedium;utm_medium',
'ppcCampaign;utm_campaign',
'ppcAdGroup;utm_adgroup',
'ppcKeyword;utm_term',
'ppcContent;utm_content'
);
//loop through all params and create cookie
for (i = 0; i < param_names.length; i++) {
var param_object = param_names[i].split(";");//split out the cookie name and url name
var param_name = param_object[0];
var param_url_name = param_object[1];
//start the cookie creation
checkCookie(param_name, param_url_name);
}
}
//function to grab cookie params
function mGetCookie(param_name) {
var i, x, y, cookie = document.cookie.split(";");
for (i = 0; i < cookie.length; i++) {
x = cookie[i].substr(0, cookie[i].indexOf("="));
y = cookie[i].substr(cookie[i].indexOf("=") + 1);
x = x.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
if (x == param_name) {
return unescape(y);
}
}
}
//function to check if cookie exists and, if so, fill out the corresponding form fields
function mCheckCookie(param_name, param_field_name) {
var param_value = mGetCookie(param_name);
if (param_value != null && param_value != "" && param_value != "undefined") {
try
{
var obj1 = document.getElementsByName(param_field_name);
obj1[0].value = param_value;
return true;
}
catch (err)
{
return false;
}
}
return false;
}
//function to setup parameters and begin cookie value insertion into marketo form
function ppcUrlCookiePart2() {
//setup list/array of parameters desired. names on right should match hidden form field names
var param_names = new Array(
'ppcSource;utm_source__c',
'ppcMedium;utm_medium__c',
'ppcCampaign;utm_campaign__c',
'ppcAdGroup;utm_adgroup__c',
'ppcKeyword;utm_term__c',
'ppcContent;utm_content__c'
);
//loop through all params and create cookie
for (i = 0; i < param_names.length; i++) {
var param_object = param_names[i].split(";");//split out the cookie name and url name
var param_name = param_object[0];
var param_field_name = param_object[1];
//start the cookie creation
mCheckCookie(param_name, param_field_name);
}
}
//ppcUrlCookiePart1 will grab values from the querystring and save them in cookies
ppcUrlCookiePart1();
//ppcUrlCookiePart2 will retrive values from the cookies and populate the hidden form fields - should be in the onload
try
{
//attempt for Marketo form
MktoForms2.whenReady(function (form){
ppcUrlCookiePart2();
});
}
catch (err)
{
//if error on Marketo form, try loading for regular form.
ppcUrlCookiePart2();
}