Mobile Tools for Acquiring Classroom Data

Day 1 of the Mobile 2012 Conference in Arizona continues. In today's second breakout session, Paul Shuster, a teacher and mobile app vendor at Media-X Systems, presented two compelling mobile tools for use in the classroom: mxMobile/eWalk, eStudent, and iNotice.

mxMobile / eWalk

The first tool was MXMobile, a Data Collection App designed for educators. It can be used to track classroom behavior, attendance, notes from home, homework, class activities, and so forth. The app has to be used in conjunction Ewalk® (not to be confused with "Ewok"), a proprietary system for collecting, storing, and analyzing data.

The fact that this app is extraordinarily cross-platform makes it a great tool to make educators aware of. It is available for use on iPhone, Android, Windows phone, and many other mobile devices. The name is MXMobile for iPhone / iPod for androids, and MXMobile HD for iPads.

Below are the steps for building your data collection tool.

1. Building a Data Collection Template. Here you create building blocks or elements that show up in the forms. You can create droplists, radio buttons, rubrics, numeric data text entry, counters and timeers, notes, images, checklists, and checkboxes.
2. Download to your mobile device.
3. Collect data. Once it is on the device, you don't need internet connectivity to see the data.
4. View data reports. Data can be filtered any which way and analyzed in graph form.

eStudent

Another compelling tool was eStudent, an iPad-based tool for monitoring text conversations in the classroom. Text messaging is archived and viewed in real time. The appeal of this is clear: it gives teachers a measure of control over conversations that occur between students via text. It is dependent on Wi Fi, and is based upon the Jabber platform. With posting becoming such a habitual thing with students, being able to monitor rather than prohibit texting sounds like an appealing prospect. There are also tools for creating lessons around student discussions and embedding video.

iNotice

This tool allows aggregation of classroom data and reports from one or multiple observers and teachers. Mobile devices can be used to collect the data, and the report can be exported to the gradebook. Initially used as a behavior tracking tool, Media-X is now working to generalize it so it can be used for a larger range of purposes. Schools and districts with existing databases may not need this, but for schools without an existing database system or districts interesting in adopting one, this stands out as a potentially useful tool.