I got a new Nokia mobile phone recently – nothing fancy – just a standard model. After years of owning one I had simply got in the habit of thinking that its only pupose was for making calls and the very occasional text message (communication for people who do not really want to talk to someone!) and that all the rest was ‘fancy extras’ that were bundled in with no real thought or design other than make me pay more!
After actually reading the manual… I was amazed to find in my hand a device that can capture high quality images at a perfectly reasonable and instantly usable 1-Megapixel resolution, a video recorder and a sound recorder that ALL save in formats that can embed straight into an Activprimary or Activstudio software. JPEGS, WAV and AVI…
Then to discover that the in-built Bluetooth capability meant that I could transfer the files to the computer connected to the Activboard for NOTHING!!!!! – well – my mind was spinning!
Virtually all the ‘digital natives‘ we teach are surgically attached to their mobiles – yet we are bent on banning them in schools. Perhaps if teachers respected the kids mastery of their devices and showed that there were more creative uses of a video recorder than ‘happy slapping‘ then we can perhaps help bridge the divide between modern educators and modern learners who are all challenged in their own way with keeping on top of new and emerging technology.
Getting going:
- Set up a bluetooth connection between the phone and the PC or MAC… This was effortless on my MAC. Just switch on Bluetooth on the Phone and MAC and ask the MAc to find the device. That was it.
- Take your pictures and videos then choose ‘Send’ (that is what the Nokia says) then choose ‘Via Bluetooth’ – a pop up appears on the MAC to let you accept the file – and moments later it is in the documents folder ready for use on the Activboard. Amazing!
I now have at my disposal:
- a Star Trek tricorder device that I can use for a Science Fiction themed lesson…
- a personal multimedia contribution system for the Activclassroom – ‘you have all got to do a 10 second ‘TV news style’ video report on a topical issue of your choice and Bluetooth it to the Activboard…’
- a data recording tool we can take out into the field to engage every child in capturing digital images, audio and video to use in their own flipcharts
First stop though – revisit the rule about mobiles not being allowed in school!
