A couple of weeks ago I finally caved to the marketing pressure of US Cellular and upgraded my mobile phone by using a bunch of reward points and $30. The new phone is great. I now have two smartphones kicking around my house that I can’t use to call or text, but I can use to take pictures and connect to the web through my wireless network. My guess is that you probably have a similar situation in your own home.

These deactivated smartphones have a bunch of uses in the classroom besides weighing-down papers. If your network administrator will allow it, connect them to your school’s wireless network to use them as response tools during a Socrative activity. Or use them as cameras for the creation of a classroom gallery of presentation pictures. When connected to a wireless network your students could use those phones for manipulating augmented reality layers through Aurasma.

Don’t just chuck that old smartphone into a drawer, re-purpose it. Ask your students’ parents to donate old phones to the classroom for students to use. Just make sure you clear out any old personal data before giving them to students to use.