Smartphones in science classes
As with all learning strategies in class; it's the right tool for the right job. I recently read Practical Work in Science: Misunderstood and Badly Used by Jonathan Osborne. It is a worthwhile read and I highly recommend it. Among some of the ideas that reading Osborne's article sparked in me was the idea of leveraging smartphones for data collection during practical work captured my attention. Being a digi-geek I decided to investigate how this might work and how accurate is the data created. Osborne talks about practical work being used in a science classroom for two reasons: 1) the practical's role in demonstrating a phenomena/ idea/ theory and 2) the opportunity for students to engage in the whole process of experimentation. If the teacher sets aside time for pre-, during-, and post- practical learning then it is a waste of time if a large chunk of that combined time is taken up collecting the data and calculating an answer because there won't be enough time for