This just in from the Cool Gadgets department: Nokia has released a new camera phone with GPS capabilities! I'm thrilled because I really need GPS - I can get lost in my own neighborhood. But could this also have educational capabilities? This week we're studying ethics, including technology-based cheating methods and how to combat them. One student wrote on her blog that we should not allow cell phones in class because of the possibility that they could be used for cheating. I think that if it is a day when you're going to have a test, then yeah, you should probably have them put the phones away. But there are good uses for camera phones too, especially if they start to carry GPS capabilities. Imagine sending your students on a science scavenger hunt where they follow GPS coordinates to different examples of plant and animal life and then take pictures of what they find there. That's just one idea, do you have any others?
I believe GPS could be a very powerful addition to the classroom, especially in science. And if the students, or at least some of them, already have the technology, then why not use it?
