Cell Phones in the Classroom

      It is hard to even imagine life without them these days. Everyone seems to have one and there is always one either ringing or vibrating... Cell phones. It is distracting anywhere you hear them, but especially when you are trying to learn or teach in the classroom.  In many schools they are banned, do not even bring them in the buildings, but after the Columbine incident and 9/11 school districts are realizing that they are okay to have in case of emergencies.  In most schools the rule is keep the phones out of sight and off in the classrooms, but they have been a problem in the classroom with many students texting during class.This has led to passing answers on tests and bullying  along with the normally use of holding a conversation with a friend.
      Some schools are joining the phone use by bringing them into sight in the classroom. Some teachers use programs that have the students text in their answers during class which gives them instant results to see the polls on the different answers. The cell phones today have access to the internet and dictionaries to teachers and instructors have their students use them quick results at their desks.  Schools that are incorporating the cell phones into learning say that the management has improved. When you tell the students to put away their phones they are put away and gone until asked to take them out again or until class is over.
    My thoughts and feelings on this topic are mixed. Yes, bringing the cell phones into the classroom is a  good way to connect with the students digital lifestyle, but I think that there are other tools and better tools to use other than the cell phones.  Students can handle putting away their cell phones for a class period and even for the whole day, even though they may think they cannot, they can. I do find them distracting, I know that it is for me and during my classes my phone has to be on silent and in my bag. When it is out of sight it is easier for me to concentrate on the lecture. I do understand though that in schools that are having large issues with the cell phone use bringing them into the classroom would be more appealing and have a better outcome rather than the authoritarian stance of banning them from the school.
   I found a good internet source that talked about the advantages and disadvantages of having cell phones in the classroom, Teaching Today, a lot of the ideas from this post came from this website. I also found a video on Youtube that shows the issue of cell phones in the school from a negative to a positive. Check it out!



image is from googleimages.com from enviroblog.org