I guess it's a 'feeling' I have. Maybe it's some articles I've read lately about recent updates to cell phone policies in Jessamine and Henderson counties. I see friends and co-workers blog and tweet about their devices or the latest apps for their devices. I have blogged and tweeted about cell phone signal boosters as well as the federal laws against jamming cell phone signals. If you found your way here searching for the answer, I'll report that I don't have it. I will say this, though. We need to have a healthy respect for both sides of the debate, no matter which side on which we find ourselves.
Why on Earth should we allow this? Vicki Davis does a good job of making the case in her blog. Before reading her thoughts, I hadn't considered the comparison between scissors (not allowed on airplanes but allowed in school) and cell phones (allowed, at some level, almost everywhere while being discouraged or denied in most schools). She also mentions safety, ease of information access and makes the assumption that we're "fighting a losing battle" because of the demands of parents.
I think we're all familiar with the concerns about cell phone use in class. Equity of access should be very high on that list. As a frame of reference, my personal cellular phone has no data plan and only the most basic of texting plans. My work cellular phone has a data plan, but no texting plan. Not every student would have a cell phone and I can only assume that this would hinder their educational use in some of the same ways that we've seen with computers for some (versus ALL) of the students. We've seen news articles related to cheating on exams, videoing or photographing inappropriate things, and any number of text-related issues, including but not limited to student/staff relationships and boundaries being crossed (find your own link here, they're all too common).
As I stated earlier, one thought running through my mind is that both sides have valid points. I've read several articles, along with comments following those articles. Many writers and comment posters argue their point without at least acknowledging the validity of the opposing viewpoint. State law requires that districts have a policy on the possession and use of personal telecommunications devices, so school districts have a right and responsibility to address this in some fashion.
It's a complex issue and I don't want to pretend to oversimplify the matter, but I keep coming back to one theme when I think about issues such as this one or Internet filtering. Much of the controversy centers around what I'm going to call "time on task".
I was a good student, but I wasn't particularly interested throughout Algebra II class. If I had possessed a cell phone with Internet access or some similar technology, I would have been very tempted to avoid focusing on the class. Was this due to the content? Was it due to an ineffective teacher? Was I a poor student for being so easily distracted? Whatever the case, students today are often going to drift off-task if given the chance. They did it in my day as well, perhaps with note-passing or games of paper football.
I'd say teachers today have it tougher than in times past, due in large part to the increased number and types of distractions available. Students have grown up multi-tasking, absorbing information in soundbytes and with a constant need to be entertained (since they're being marketed to in the same constant fashion and via all sorts of media). There's pressure on schools to change and to embrace this world where knowledge is at our fingertips and learning may need a focus on the ability to properly discern and apply the knowledge available.
I'll avoid that rant for now, but suffice to say that this is a very timely topic and worthy of consideration. We should take an honest look at where our stakeholders are: students, teachers, administration, parents and community. Keeping our content relevant and keeping our classrooms on the task of learning is a challenge made (easier or tougher or both, insert word here as needed) by the access we're afforded to current technology.
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2 comments:
My comment about the time on task thing: True, if you'd been in Algebra II and had access to the Internet you might have used it. But if you'd had a magazine ABOUT computers you might have read it instead of focusing on class as well. Should we outlaw magazines in schools?
For me, that whole argument misses the point. So do concerns about cheating on tests. If a teacher is monitoring a class well, both of these issues become non-issues.
That's not to say I'm in favor of cell phones in class. My concern, though, as you mentioned, has more to do with equity of access. Not EVERY kid is going to have a cell phone in school (though I read somewhere that every kid will by 2012), and even if they all DO have a cell phone, they're not all going to be the same. With that being the case, I'm not sure how you could attempt to utilize cell phone instruction in school without leaving some students out or being forced to provide alternative lessons for those students.
Outlaw magazines in schools? No. 'Outlaw' magazines during other instructional time? I'd say that was occurring when I was in said Algebra II class.
I think some teachers would struggle to monitor a class full of cell phones well, even with the most valiant of efforts. That inability to monitor might discourage adoption, as would the equity issues stated.
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