The EDM310 Class Blog and Zogby Analytics present interesting findings regarding use of smartphones in this day and age. In summary, it states that the majority of people own a smartphone and need one that contains a camera. The majority of people also use the camera at least once a week. For the students, the phones and cameras are part of their everyday life and have been since birth. They have seen their parents use them for a multitude of uses, in a wide variety of places and because of this they will expect their own smartphone to be used in the classroom.
As far as the teachers, the implications are different. Teachers might find the smartphone a distraction for students in the learning enviroment. Students will use the phones to do everything but pay attention to a lesson. In some regards, it might also make a teacher seem less of an authority on knowledge because a student now has the power to look up any answer.
Part B:
Even though the smartphone might seen as a distraction, it could also have many uses in the classroom. The students could use their cameras to make videos of places they have visited that could coincide with a report. They could aslo use their cameras to take pictures of projects in the works to post to a blog, or they could use them to record speechs to show in a government class.
As a teacher, I do not want to an authority on knowledge. I want my students - yup, even in kindergarten, to take responsibility for finding out information that they do not know. If we don't know something (even if I do), I ask them where we can find out the answer. It might be a book, it might be googling (on iPads or using our projector) or asking an "expert". I am just one of the experts in the class - we have many. I think that it is really important for teachers to share/give away being the source of knowledge in the classroom. Much better to be the facilitator of learning.
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