Interview: Cell Phone Project

I recently interviewed a student teacher, Jessica, who student taught under Mrs. Jacobs at Central York High School (my school) this past spring. Jessica is preparing to be a French teacher and finished her student teaching experience back in March. Though she is no longer at Central, I was able to get in contact with her over the phone to ask her about a cell phone project she had told me about while she was student teaching.

Jessica had used cell phones as part of a project in which students would showcase their learning of conversational French language, including vocabulary and grammar. Though the project was relatively simple, it did incorporate cell phone technology in a way that was familiar to the students. Instead of speaking a scripted conversation in French in front of the classroom, Jessica had the students first write out a script of a voicemail they might leave for a relative, family member, friend, etc. (the students had to pick their contact). Then, once scripted, students were required to use their cell phones to leave a voicemail on Jessica's phone using their script. I asked Jessica if she would offer any other options to students who might not have a cell phone. She replied,  "If a student did not have a cell phone, he/she had the option of using a simple land line phone to record the voicemail."

 I also asked her what some of the pros and cons of the project were. She told me that by having students write out a script first, she was able to see that they had done the prep. work before recording their voicemail. She said, "I was very specific with the requirements to eliminate any confusion or excuses for not doing it." Because of this, she didn't really have any technological issues, and neither did the students, given that they were simply leaving a voicemail.

She didn't get much parental feedback, but she did get feedback from her supervisor, who was impressed with her use of technology in the classroom. He did share some concerns about giving out her cell phone number to students, and suggested that in the future, she have students leave a voicemail on her school phone instead. Our school promotes the use of technology and our school policy only specifies against the use of cell phones in the classroom. Since students were using their cell phones on their own time to leave the voicemail, they were not violating school policy.