First Class Ice Breakers Using Mobile Devices

I previously wrote about the importance of beginning a class focusing on the learners in the room as opposed to the content to be covered in Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content.

Most classes, starting with about middle school, begin the school year with reviewing the content to be covered, expectations regarding grades, and other academic information provided by the teacher or instructor.  The human or social element is often disregarded.

What is interesting is that most learners enter the classroom wondering who is in the course.  They want to know about the teacher and the people in the class not what material is to be covered. What this says to me as an educator is that it all begins with a social connection – between the educator and the learners, and between the learners themselves.

All of my classes, regardless of student age or demographics – elementary gifted students or graduate students, begin with ice-breakers and team-building activities.  I recently developed a passion for using students’ mobile devices to do so as this devices have become natural and personalized extensions of students’ “selves.”

What follows are several of the mobile-driven ice-breakers I recently used in an undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relations.  I also include some student reactions to these activities.

Cell Sharing

• Ask participants to locate a photo, song, or video from their mobile device that best represents them.
• Each person then shares his or her media and the reason it was selected.
• For photo or video sharing:  Pass the device around so all students can view the image or use a webcam to project the image onto a larger computer screen or whiteboard.
• For sharing of music: Attach portable speakers to assist with the sharing of songs so others can hear them.

Student Reflections about Cell Sharing

Several students stated that this was their favorite activity of the class.

I thought it was awesome that you wanted everyone to show the class a picture or type of music that had meaning to us. By doing this we got to see and learn a little bit more of our peers.

We did a photo/audio thing which was my favorite activity because we got to learn a little bit of everyone’s lives

Question Selector

• Participants use a random number picker to select a number from one to 145.
  • Online
    • http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/
    • http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html
  • Blackberry
    • http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/18863?lang=en
• They then answer the question that corresponds with their number on http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Question_Cup
• Answers are posted on a Sticky Note Board such as Wallwisher or Wifitti.
• The answers can be projected on a whiteboard (if done face-to-face) or students can view the answers via their own computers (face-to-face or virtually).

Texting Interviews

• Randomly pair students (can be either face-to-face or virtually).
• Ask them to develop questions that they would ask to help them get to know someone better.
• The pairs text their questions and answers back and forth.
• Interviewers summarize what they found out about their partners and posts their partners’ names and this information on a Sticky Note Board such as Wallwisher.

Student Reflection About the Texting Interviews

I enjoyed the texting exercise. It’s pretty cool when your teacher lets you use your phone for the activities especially since I got to learn more about my partner.

Student Reflections About the Ice Breaker Activities

I think that those games helped us get to know each other and were a very good ice breaker to help us know who our class mates are.

We played many activities and I believe that they all helped in breaking the ice between us all. We were able to get to know each other easier and faster than in a typical classroom environment.

I learned to communicate better instead of hanging back in a corner.

Although we all come from different backgrounds and cultures we all related quite well and by learning about each other we can start to establish friendships