A big difference in a cell phone with text messaging and a doodle pad is the opportunity to share test answers with someone in another class. What high schooler wouldn't rather text message his/her significant other than listen to a lecture and take notes?

I think Debbie's comment is the same thought that many educators have. My response is that we need to look at the types of assessments we are giving students, and strive to make them more authentic. We need to use formative and ongoing assessment methods (not just summative assessment that is so high-stakes) which students CANNOT FAKE. Which they have a very hard time cheating on, or can't cheat on at all. Performance based assessments, and group as well as individual projects which result in the creation of different knowledge products, need to be utilized more than simple multiple choice tests. We all know the world is not multiple choice in the simple way our tests assess: it is complex and multi-dimensional. Our assessments should be messier. The result can be a more authentic educational experience, and cell phones can fit right into that model.

Wesley Fryer
Lubbock, Texas
www.speedofcreativity.org

The sharing of answers bit is a result of the type of meaningless tests we've devised. I can't imagine a student messaging long essay type answers and the other then rewriting them in her/his own words.

As for messaging the significant other rather than listening to a lecture, walk into a lecture or a performance that engages a student. If their attention is grabbed, you don't see much text messaging going on. Some always will - but, then, so does note-passing, whispering and doodling.

Heres a small incident - although not necessarily representative: Roger Schank lectured at a conference here (here is Pakistan!) where the school system organizing the event for hundreds of its teachers also invited high school students. Through the lecture students loved it (cell phones had been taken away to prevent disturbance). The very first student I met after the lecture said "I wish I'd had a cellphone. I'd have broadcast the lecture to my friends in another school."

Passing notes or attempting to cheat on exams is not something new made possible by the cell phone. Kids have been passing notes, writng on their hands and shoes, and finding ways to communicate with each other in class for generations. Wesley is partially correct. If the evaluation process were better, the issue would probably go away.

I would add that school is one of the few places where the worker is expected to complete tasks and demonstrate competence in doing so, without help of any kind. Most supervisors frown on colleagues who are unable to seek help in a timely fashion. Most workers find themselves interacting with others and collaboratively constructing solutions to tasks regularly.

In the social world, again outside of school, people connect constantly and through a variety of electronic and traditional unplugged means. Only in school are kids urged to be quiet in class. Indeed, in my daughter's middle school lunch area, lunch duty aides yell at the kids to be quiet. Do YOU eat your lunch silently next to your peers?

I think Ron's brilliance is his recognition and adoption of the main communication channel that his students use. (Did you know many students think of email as 'old school'?) When every new technology points to communication and collaboration, I grow weary of the predictable dark interpretation, offered by an educator, about how new technology (cell phones, podcasts, etc) will enable kids to cheat or otherwise disengage with the teacher's agenda.

There is definitely a digital divide in this country and it is growing. It is the distance between digital culture (not exclusively a "youth culture" by the way) and school culture. I say, "You go, Ron!"

I disagree with the general thought of "many educators" completely. I don't feel the article suggests that students would or should be allowed to use thier cell phones during a test. If a student wants to cheat or pass answers it is going to happen cell phone or not. This would be to suggest that students only recently began cheating and passing answers during the cell phone "era." As we all know that is not the case. Students are not going to cheat because they have possession of a cell phone. They are going to cheat because they are cheaters.

A recent survey reported in eSchool News stated that some 95%+ of teachers now use e-mail and 30% use it to communicate with students The problem is that very few STUDENTS use e-mail to communicate, but rather have moved on to texting or IM-ing with their cells; once again, most teachers are playing catch up where technology is concerned Hats off to teachers who are willing to meet kids on their own tech turf!

To: Ron Smith

I like the idea of changing problems into solutions. I think your ideas about using cell phones with students are very good. I'd lke to know what are your classroom rules about having cellphones?
Randy

Randy,

My rules on cell phones in class have evolved, much the same as the rules for cell phones anywhere else. My class is generally a noisy place. I play the stereo, kids have their iPods going, there is much discussion. In that environment, if a kid needs to make a cell call, they just ask me if it is ok, much like you might do in a similar situation. If they get a call, they usually say "Hey Mr Smith, it's my mother. Can I take it?" to which I almost always say yes. If I get a call during class, I use the same judgements. Everybody is on task, and if I'm not lecturing, I take it. Same with calling out.

I think in this case the issue is not the cell phone, but courtesy. I treat my students with courtesy, they treat me with courtesy, and I expect them to treat each with courtesy. What I am trying to make is fully-formed, functional adults. It seems to me that if I want them to act like adults, then I should treat them that way. I believe that students will do whatever you expect them to do. Expect them to be wild and rude, they will be. Expect them to act like ladies and gentlemen, and they will.

As an advocate of the pencil, if you are unaware of it, take a read on the book entitled "The Pencil" by Henry Petroski. Even Henry Thoreau advocated for the pencil, and his father was a pencil maker.

We are no longer teaching future factory workers. The Digital Age is here. Figuring how to incorporate technology in our lessons (in a meaningful way) is no longer optional.

In five years the cell phone as we know it today will be antique. If banning or adapting are my choices, I choose to adapt. Stay in control, but adapt.