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The Edutopia Poll
by Sara Bernard
A few weeks ago, New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced that he intends to enforce his city's ban on cell phone use in schools. The ubiquitous devices are prohibited on New York's public school grounds, as they technically have been for years, but now Bloomberg says he will send police to campus to confiscate them, and angry parents and policy makers have risen in protest.
Those in favor of allowing cell phones on school campuses say they enable families to keep in contact during school hours and can be vital in emergencies. Those who object to students carrying cell phones claim they are a nuisance and a cheating device and can even be a danger. (Some, for example, claim they can be used to organize gang activity.) Where should schools draw the line? We're interested in your opinion.
how will we ever live without one?!!\
you think i can live without
mine.you think i
actually can?well
guess again.!
i dont bring it to
school so
who cares.i
kno i can live
without but still.
i love it!~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would be curious to know if those people who voted for banning them were actually saying that they are banning the student from even having them in their bags. In my opinion there are too many advantages to having a cell phone than disadvantages. If a cell phone goes off in class, after telling students at the beginning of the year to make sure that the ringers are off before they enter the classroom, I just tell them to turn it off and class resumes. I never have a problem with the cell phone issue.
When "guidelines" are provided, there is ALWAYS going to be an interpretation of those guidelines. The only giudeline that can be effective is to "turn it off, until you leave the building."
NO MEANS NO... simple...not confusing and provides no room for "...but I was just_____"
Our school system came to a descision after fighting to ban them from our schools. Phones are allowed on campus, but have to be powered off, not on silent and not on vibrate, during the entire intructional time. We have had teachers injured from confiscating phones, administrators overwhelmed with returning the phones to parents, and parents upset over the safety of their children. It is a new world and we have to find new ways to preserve and maintain the learning atmosphere.
Not only should they be allowed, they should be required- and furnished by the school if needed. They are an up and coming technology- totally adaptable and usable in an academic environment. Embrace them. Have students use them to take photos of project related things to upload to Flickr. Call each other to discuss team projects. Text message quiz answers to teachers. Call odeo to record podcasts.
Come on Bloomberg, join the 21rst century.
I think students and parents ought to be included in the formation of the usage guidelines - not just the teachers. Sharing in the dialogue should help alleviate negative perceptions by all parties, and most importantly, provide "ownership" and support for the resultant guidelines.
Before the conversation goes too far, please note that there are two other postings in the edutopia Spiral Notebook blog on the subject of cell phones in school. You may be interested in reading what's been posted in the ongoing conversations before you weigh in.
In his post, A Pencil Is a Word Processor, Ron Smith says, "...Most teachers are well aware of cell phones — mostly as a nuisance in class, where educators spend a lot of time taking them away from students. Well, you wouldn't take their pencils away, so why confiscate cell phones? Instead of taking them away, I started leveraging them as tools for my classes...".
In Ron's second posting, The Ringing, he talks more about the cell phone's text messaging feature and how it allows him to connect with his students.
I agree with Ron's overall strategies and he seems to have control over what's happening in his classroom. In one of his responses to comments he says, "...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."
Can't say it any better than that.
Cell phones, just as any other emerging technology which allows increasingly sophisticated levels of near-instantaneous communication, can be seen either as an intrusion or an asset, because, in reality, it is both. I agree with those who see the "glass half full" in terms of how to harness its power in school. The rewards and consequences for its use within school need to be consistently applied. Burying one's head in the sand and/or having a gut reaction is useless.
Parents need to go through normal channels to contact their children- the adults in the school are there to protect the children- they need to be notified if the parent needs to contact their child. Teenagers have difficulty leaving their cellphones alone. If they could, the phones could be allowed in lockers or bags, shut off until they leave school, I haven't noticed any teenagers able to do that. And, yes, they can cause dangerous situations- students use them to notify each other of the location of security or others they want to avoid. We made it through school before cell phones, they can too.