Reflective Journal #5: Drawing and Cellphones

I have such a lousy drawing skills, so when we were asked to express what we think about learning communities only through drawing, I thought to myself "wow I'm done with this activity I can't do it". It took me less than a minute while I saw my friends getting started with their drawings to realize that if they can do it, then so can I. I started drawing stupid things and then it turned out to go just fine, I was able to express a couple of things I had in mind; the group work, the peer tutoring, use of technology, teacher being the support system for the students and the safe environment - which i expressed by the trees and my colleagues thought it was about field trips. rotating the drawings among the rest of the class helped me to gain insight about what each one of the class thinks. moving on to talk about what form of technology we use inside our classroom; I thought about what i really use inside my classroom - which is basically the projector and occasionally the smart board - and i felt "is it really enough?" and hearing friends discuss their frustration about the lack of support from school administrations toward providing technology in classroom made me feel that i'm not alone in this, there are people out their with the same frustration. and then the idea of students using their cellphones as a means of learning seemed unappealing to me, as the first thing that they will do is go straight to their bbms, because i put myself in their shoes, i'm a technology addict, the first thing that i'll do inside the classroom if i'm allowed to use my phone is to go through all the messages that i received while i was away from the phone. But making students use their phones as a part of the learning process is out of the box, and makes teacher get out of his comfort zone, risking the chaos that occur with this approach, but again, chaos can come out of any idea that is tried for the first time, and eventually when it's tried more than once, experience is gained towards handling all the problems that were first faced, and the outcome would be meaningful, fun learning experience for the students ans success for the teacher. So i guess i may try that approach soon :) :)