Getting students signed up for free Quizlet user accounts (false start!)

In the week before our first computer lab meeting, I had the bright idea to have my Freshman English students signed up for free Quizlet accounts using their smart phones.  Bad idea.  Even though they have used the website or app before on their smart phones, it did not go well at all.  

One reason is that the app language is in English, so it was not easy for them to understand what to do. Some were signing up using their Facebook accounts, and some created new accounts with usernames and passwords.  Trying to monitor 24 students doing all this at the same time was quite stressful and not very effective.

And slow cell phone signals and wifi in classroom caused some smart phones to jam up.

I quickly realized that  trying to do it this way was a bad idea, so we stopped right there and then and moved on.  

The takeaway is to do it in a computer lab, very slowly and clearly, leading them through the process on the Quizlet website.  Another option would be to use my smart phone mirrored up on the TV screen.

Smartphone Apps for Educators

Here is an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education titled "6 Top Smartphone Apps to Improve Teaching, Research, and Your Life."

Welcome to Teaching with Smartphones!

My name is Rich Bailey, and I teach English for the Center for English Language Education at Asia University in Tokyo, Japan.

For the last few years, I have been exploring how to use Anki, a spaced-repetition flashcard program, in and out of the classroom at my Teaching with Anki website.  It has been very interesting and rewarding work, and now I would like to broaden my perspective and look at other uses of smartphones in teaching.

Smartphones and related devices are rapidly becoming the dominate form of technology in society, and as educators, we need to jump on that train or get left behind!

While there are a thousand and one ways that smartphones can be used in the classroom (attendance apps, feedback devices, etc.), my main focus will be on figuring out ways that teachers and students can use their smartphones to improve and enhance the process of learning a language - in this case, English.

Hopefully this site will become a place for exploring and sharing ideas and information for teaching with smartphones!