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I used to be a massive advocate of using mobile phones in lessons; the ways they could be used are just endless. I had students use them to research topics; find the answers to a question we didn't know, even as voting devices. I used them just rarely enough that students didn't take it as a given and rarely tried to use their phones for uses other than I intended. I even use them to avoid printing off sheet after sheet of homework, instead having students take a picture on their phone (with the added bonus that they can't lose the sheet).

Learning takes place in formal classroom settings and in informal environments where opportunities to learn are sometimes episodic, occasional and even accidental. They can come in a museum, a park, a zoo, on television, in computer games, or through a cell phone. We explore these environments to find new ideas that will engage children in very active ways and create an opportune moment to learn something new.

"Although many schools ban smartphones, the reality is that many pupils have them hidden away, or are an integral part of their lives once they leave the premises. The 'Selfy' phenomenon is clearly here to stay, but this video (created by London-based design and animation studio weareseventeen) illustrates how we can easily be distracted with our devices, missing out on the world around us - which could be useful for a discussion / assembly activity within schools when talking about online use or safety:"

tools to create fake emails, iPhone text conversations, Tweets, Facebook, newspaper clipping

Voice recorder / Voice mail for blogs, wikis, web sites, etc.