Cellphones in the classroom oh my!!!

Ideal world: 30 working laptops for every student
Realistic world: 18 laptops with 15 working well.

This past week, on wednesday I had my spanish 10 class working on a prezi project about their favourite sport and player. My school has carts which contain 18 laptops. Normally I need to book the library and what we call the "COWS" [computers on wheels]. But because a number of teachers are using technology at my school, the day that I had plan to have my students work on their projects there was one set of COWS and the library was booked.
Solution??? What was I to do with 30 students and 15 working laptops?? Well for starters, I luckily had a computer in my classroom so that made it 16 computers but still 14 students to worry about...Well then it dawned on me, why can't I have my students who have internet connection on their cellphones, use it to do some research on their sport and player.
Now I have always been quite hesitant about having my students use their cellphones, but I found it actually came to my rescue. Who knew that cellphones when used accordingly could be so useful in the classroom?
For the first time my students were all engaged and working very hard on their projects. I couldn't believe my eyes on how engaged and how focused they all were. Occasionally someone asking me if their Spanish was correct or how you would say something.

Not only were my students learning and practicing their Spanish this day but they were also learning about technology, many had never heard of prezi and were quite fascinated on how it worked.

I also learned a big lesson this day, that if students are showed how to use technology accordingly for example cellphones are not just for talking or texting but can be used for school work, they learn so much better!

Projector,Laptop and GREAT WIFI

I love having a projector, laptop and great wifi connection in my school, as it makes it easier to show my students clips or websites that I would like them to use.  For  example for Halloween and the Day of the Dead (November 2nd) I showed my students the following videoclips, which I found through other websites such as www.miscositas.com. It has been fabulous to have access to great wireless connection! I hope to continue showing my students websites that can help them with their Spanish.


Halloween:





Day of the Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kimX-rwPmyk&feature=youtu.be

Using voki with Spanish students

This is my first post: On thursday I showed my spanish 11 students how to use a website www.voki.com so that they can start sending me vokis/avatars using their voices, it's quite a neat site!! They can use their phones, if their computers don't have microphones, not sure yet if there is a long distance charge, but once my bill comes I will know. My students were very excited and really enjoyed the lesson, they even asked if we can use the website again.
The microphones I had at school didn't work so instead I had my students using the text, which they really enjoyed but I'm sure they would really like to record their voices. I'm hoping that they can e-mail me as well as each other using voki in the target language.

Here are  some samples.

Using the phone:



Using Text:







Advantages:
Can help students practice their pronunciation/spanish
students can send vokis to each other
I can reply to my students using vokis and they can reply back
easier and quick way to assess oral aspect of the language
can use the phone to record the voice (unsure about charges)

Disadvantages:
voki was a bit slow when I had my students login
not all students may have computers/laptops with microphones
microphones at school don't seem to work with website