Do Cell Phones Belong in the Classroom?

Mobile devices are ubiquitous in American high schools, and their use is harder to regulate than old-fashioned note passing. But here's why teachers should be paying closer attention. Two U.S. high school students compete in the LG Mobile Worldcup Texting Championship. According to a Pew study, American teenage girls send an average of 100 messages a day. (Reuters) If you were to drop in on most any American high school these days, what would you see? Most schools allow students to have cell phones for safety -- a reaction to the Littleton, Colorado, high school shooting incident of 1999. At a time when middle-class homes are filled with computers and mobile devices, schools are grappling with the question of how much technology to bring into the classroom. But whatever a school's approach to technology, cell phones seem to be nearly ubiquitous. In some cases, schools have actually embraced cell phones and incorporated them into their teaching. So what's the solution?

Lift the Cell Phone Ban Cell phones could become the next big learning tool in the classroom. So why have schools been so slow to embrace them? Without a doubt, cell phones can cause serious disruption in the classroom. From urgent text messages flying across the room to lessons interrupted by rap-song ringtones, these gadgets are responsible for nationwide frustration among educators. And, in extreme cases, students have used their cell phones to cheat on tests and harass other students, even during class time. Cell Phone Solution between the alarms, calls, and text-messaging, it’s easy to see why some classrooms have implemented a no-cell phone policy. Craik’s program started with a discussion in the staff room between the school’s principal, Gord Taylor, and teacher Carla Dolman. Testing the Watersinitially, only about 40 percent of the class had cell phones, but kids who had them were willing to share. Principal Taylor agrees. Taylor’s colleagues have been more enthusiastic.

N.J. schools go BYOD: Students get green light to use cellphones in class Come September, High Point Regional High School is going BYOD. Short for Bring Your Own Device, BYOD is a fast-growing business trend quickly taking root in schools. Just as businesses allow employees to use their own mobile devices, school officials are giving students the opportunity to use their phones, tablets or laptops in class. "We’re changing the way we teach," said Robert Zywicki, director of curriculum, instruction and technology at the Sussex County district. "It’s about getting the kids access to the tools they need to compete in our global society." High Point Regional is one of the state’s newest members of a growing BYOD club. It’s a dramatic departure from the previous approach that banished student smartphones to lockers and backpacks. But it comes with some tricky issues. School is the perfect place for these lessons, proponents say. "We are teaching digital citizenship. "To ignore (the devices) seems almost silly," he said.

Citation:

Robert, Earl (2012). Do cell phones belong in the classroom. Retrieved from by estherpepin Mar 9