Cell phones in the classroom

Via NSBA’s Daily Weblog:
Cell phones in schools are becoming quite a hot topic. The general feeling seems to be that students can carry them around but that they really aren’t allowed to be used.

Since the events of 9/11, many schools have relaxed their policies to allow students to have them, but require the phones to be turned off during the day. Parents like the idea of being able to get in touch with their children if an emergency arises. But today’s cell phone technology offers text messaging and picture taking features that could lead to cheating and privacy invasion.

However, many people have pointed out that in an era of budget cuts, where technology costs are a huge piece of the budgetary pie, many students are walking around with their own personal devices that can serve as a PDA, provide access to the internet and email, and also work for instant messaging. Wouldn’t schools be foolish not to find a way to take advantage of this?

Teaching Today has an article about some of the positive things cell phones can be used for in an educational environement. They can be used as Digital Cameras (what school really has enough digital cameras to go around?), Dictionaries and as calculators amongst other things. There’s no question that there are issues involved. However, cellphones aren’t going away. We’re quickly approaching the point where in many schools 99% of the students will have a mobile phone or communicator of some sort. We need to be focusing on how to make positive use of them, rather than becoming obsessed with how to prevent use of them.

4 Comments

Marissa ed205
11/24/2007

My husband teaches at a school that has banned cell phones in the classroom. This was started due to cheating with text messaging during tests and quizzes. I agree that schools are strapped for money and this could be a no cost tech tool, however not all kids will be able to afford cell phones with all the tech gadgets. The internet is usually an extra cost and in a district with a large number of the students on free and reduced lunch who are we to expect parents to buy a phone that has internet access which can cost upwards of $200 or more and the service can range from $25 per month for basic service to $50 per month for internet. Though I think this is an interesting option for schools, further research should be done to prove the worth of cell phones for classroom use.

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Jen
7/7/2009

Cell phones are not necessary in the classroom. They cause more of a distraction than they are worth to attempt using in the classroom. Not every student can afford one as mentioned before. At my school, we confiscate them and require the parents to come pick the device up. Parents also have to sign a form at the beginning of the beginning of the year saying that their child will havea cell phone at school. Kids are using them to cheat through texting or taking questionable pictures/videos that are getting posted on the internet. I don’t think kids need cell phones before high school but elementary school teachers are having to now deal with the issues of cell phones!

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