Using Cell Phones in the Classroom

© Hill Street Studios/Blend Images/Corbis

According to an April 2010 study by the Pew Research  Center:

“Cell-phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends, with cell calling a close second. Some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004. Those phones have become indispensable tools in teen communication patterns. Fully 72% of all teens -- or 88% of teen cell phone users -- are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters.”

The chart below shows the frequency of use of texting in teens compared to other forms of communication.  This study was from 2010 – just imagine what the stats and numbers would look like today!

As I stated in my previous blog post, our students are being born into the digital age.  My nephew was playing Angry Birds on my sisters’ iPad when he was only three years old.  He is now in Pre-K and knows how to call me and we FaceTime on a regular basis.  The amount of technology and digital knowledge and prowess that young children possess these days is kind of scary, especially for us older teachers who are practically Digital Immigrants. As such, cell phones in the classroom seem like a foreign concept to most of us, who went though our own schooling either without even owning a cell phone or feeling perfectly content to leave them in our lockers or backpacks.  We survived school without cell phones, so our students should, too.  There’s no reason for students to have cell phone in school. Right??  I'm not so sure...

According to the article “Cell phones in the classroom?  No!  Students need to pay attention,” cell phones distract students from the learning content and administrators and legislators have every right to ban cell phone use in schools.  The article quotes Dr. Baron, who is executive director of the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning:

"A classroom is many places at once," she said, "a room for sharing ideas, a space (literally) for contemplation, a setting for social interaction. None of these functions harmonizes with intrusion from the outside."

On a Fox news segment called The Buzz: Cell phones in School, news anchors debate whether students should be allowed to bring their phones into school.  One anchor sites the Columbine tragedy, claiming students need access to cell phones for security and safety reasons.  The other two anchors argue with her, claiming that cell phones are a distraction and a source of cyber bullying.  None of them mention the possible useful or effective teaching strategies that could emerge from the use of cell phones in the classroom.  Check it out below!

And in this video segment, from NBC Action News, a university professor,  Dr. Kathleen Kilway, explains why she bans cell phones in her classes to avoid distraction.  I think it is important to note that a university setting and a primary/secondary public school setting are two very different scenarios, but her points of contention are certainly interesting to note.

On the other side of the argument, many teachers are choosing to ignore the school or district-wide bans on cell phone use and are encouraging their students to find creative and innovative ways to effectively incorporate cell phone use into the classroom.  These teachers seek permission from their principals and administrators to allow teacher-supervised and educational use of cell phones.  The results seem to be very positive and encouraging!  In the article, “Teachers use cell phones in the classroom,” Lisa Nielson, a New York based teacher and author of the blog The Innovative Educator claims: 

"We think school should be preparing students for real life—and in real life, people use cell phones. If you're making an artificial world inside the school, you're not preparing them for the real world."

© Jim Craigmyle/Corbis

Additionally, using cell phones in the class room makes sense because even though many students don’t have access to computers or the Internet, most of them do have access to cell phones, or friends and parents who have cell phones.  Schools that don’t have the latest technology could benefit from allowing students to utilize some of the awesome resources made available with cell phones.  Turning the phones into educational tools and encouraging students to use them in positive and effective ways dissuades them from using them as a distraction tool. 

In this excerpt from the book, Toys toTools:  Connecting Student Cell Phones toEducation, Liz Kolb offers two successful case studies of teachers incorporating cell phones into their classrooms, as well as a lesson plan example for how to use cell phones.  For example, one teacher used polling and electronic response apps for quizzes and study guides, taught her students how to create and update blogs via their phones, and utilized Twitter to follow a line-by-line reading of Romeo and Juliet.  (SO COOL!)  Another teacher employed QR codes to facilitate a scavenger hunt using GPS codes.  In another article, “Cell phones increasingly a class act,” cell phones are used for research and searching purposes to look up facts about political candidates, “record themselves speaking a foreign language, text an answer to an online quiz or send themselves a homework reminder.”  Jill Bullo, principal of Wheaton North High School says, "It's one of those things — if you can't beat them, join them.”

© Will & Deni McIntyre/Corbis

There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to the cell phone debate.  Based on my research from this week, I have come to a few conclusions.  First, I think the decision to ban or not to ban cell phones should be a school wide policy, based on each individual school’s population, needs, and circumstances.  Moreover, I think principals and administrators should be open to new and innovative uses of technology, including  cell phones, and should give their teachers the opportunity to examine these new learning tools and apps.  I think teachers and education professionals should start educating themselves on all new technology and digital devices available to them, including cell phones, and take advantage of professional development conferences and training seminars that deal with these topics.  We need to start speaking the language of the digital natives.  Finally, I understand that in some classrooms and some schools, cell phone use might not be possible.  If the students are unable to stay on task and stay focused, if they are unable to follow the rules, if they do not all have the appropriate access to the technology – these are all reasons that may impede cell phone use in the classroom.  But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.  The potential benefits of utilizing cell phones and fostering digital communications skills in our students is a truly worthy cause and should definitely be explored.