Google Lit Trips and Cell Phones

This week’s readings (and listening) definitely gave me some new insights on how to use technology in the classroom.

I must say that one of the coolest examples of technology in the classroom that I have seen in this class so far would be Google Lit Trips. It is a very innovative way to use Google Earth to map out the travels of famous characters from literature. The director of Discovery Educator Network, Hall Davidson, said it best when he said, “Too often in technology there is a lamentable lag between promise and classroom realization”. In the case of Google Lit Trips, there is no “lamentable lag”. Students can create amazing projects with deep examples of how technology can be integrated into the curriculum. This platform engages students like never before. Instead of just pointing to an atlas, like in the ‘old days’, now everyone in class (or the world if you choose to share) can fly down like a bird to the exact location on the planet that a character traveled to. I think this is a valuable exercise whether or not the book deals with historical fact or fiction. As long as the place exists on earth, then it is a worthwhile exercise for a student to be ‘taken away’ and ‘walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’. I think Google Lit Trips would be an excellent tool that could be used for English, history (world history, art history, music history, etc), social studies, etc. I completely agree with Anne Brusca’s quote in New York Children Take A Google Lit Trip that the use of Google Lit Trips will "get them (children) to deeper learning."

Another useful way to engage students and use technology is to incorporate cell phones into the curriculum. The podcast Cell phones In Learning by Liz Kolb was interesting but, I believe, only scratched the surface of what is possible. In one of the examples, a teacher gave their students the option to use a service that converts a voice message into an mp3 and posts it online for later reference (Help! I couldn’t find the company name when I reviewed the podcast). In this case, the students had the option to call in and leave an audio synopsis regarding their homework instead of turning in a written version. I was surprised to learn that only 20% of the students used this option. Initially, I thought that all the students would select this option because they wouldn’t have to turn in written homework. I will admit that I wrongly thought that most students would want to weasel out of having to write. Instead it would seem that a lot of students felt shy about talking or having their voice recorded. Obviously there are other reasons I am unaware of, but 20% seems quite low for a generation that seems physically attached to their cell phones (I should talk!). But even if it’s only a small percentage, I think this is yet one more way to apply UDL to the learning environment. For the students that really struggle with writing, this is a useful way get those students engaged in an alternate way to show that they have absorbed the material given out for homework.