While there are many sites that allow you to download images and video from your cell phone, such as YouTube, Eyespot, Flickr, Facebook, or MySpace, less commonly known are websites that allow you to upload images, sound, and video into your cell phone. One of the reasons is that cell phones are more particular about the file types that they accept (for example to view a movie on a cell phone it must be a 3G format, not the common .mov or .wmv file types). But there are some websites that will convert your video files to appropriate cell phone formats, here are two of my favorites:ZamZar
Media-Convert
Then once you have converted your video files to the appropriate 3G format, you can upload it to your cell phone (or your friends cell) using one of the following sites:
Verizon Users (Free upload to any verizon phone, but only 30 seconds per video file)
3 Guppies (Free upload but it takes time)
uKabobs (.50cents per upload, but you can upload fairly long movies)
All of these sites also allow you to upload any sound or image to cell phones as well.
How can this be helpful for the classroom?
Since students are so excited and motivated to interact with their cell phones outside of school, they may be more engaged in a content-based assignment that is for cell phones. Therefore teachers can have students create ringtones (such as jingles or raps that are content -based), public service announcements, weekly news reports, quick science clay animations that represent a concept (such as Mitosis or Photosynthesis) that are "mobile ready." They can upload to their own cell phone and their classmates. Then students can use them to review, since students always have their cell phones with them (sadly we cannot say the same for textbooks or lecture notes), they can review anywhere (even when they are waiting for a movie to start at the theater).
