As my own observation shows and this gif demonstrates, students have their own hand-held devices that are constantly out and being fiddled with during class. As teachers, we might as well face the fact that these devices are here to stay and find ways to have students utilize them in class.
While observing in my theatre class, the students were assigned a monologue project in which they had to find and present monologues. I would have sent them to the library or provided them with monologue books to aid them in finding their pieces. They, however, went straight to their phones, located their monologues on Youtube, and found scripts for them on Google. I was amazed. They did the same thing when they had to find music to use for their upcoming lipsynch project. I think that we tend to believe that students aren't as tech savvy as they actually are. Finding ways for them to use the technologies they are most comfortable with in the classroom is something to give thought to.
There are also a lot of websites that allow students to respond to survey/quiz questions in class by texting their answers with the program then calculating and displaying the results in real time. I think websites like these are much better than those clicker things. You don't have to pass them out and collect them back and worry about them getting damaged or stolen. Again - simple solutions.
I also like the wireless carts that allow laptops to be used in the classroom. While computer labs are nice, you have to deal with moving to the lab before class starts and then back to the classroom afterwards before dismissal. This is very disruptive. And there area lot of free programs for theatre that can be easily loaded onto school laptops.
Relying on students to use their own portable devices is a way to keep their interest and keep them involved. I know I will be looking for various ways to use what would normally be disruptions in the classroom as an aid to teaching.
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