We have all seen the student looking at their lap, with their hands below the table, not paying attention, and ask them to, “give it here.” The student begrudgingly hands over their hot-pink-plated latest version of the cellular technology to the teacher, only to be picked up at the end of the day. And, most likely, you’ll hear a depressing ‘ughhh…’ from the student (and her friends). Even at one point in time during my student teaching, when my cooperating teacher was out of the room, I had confiscated at least seven cell phones!! Now, that I think I have a little more control of my classroom, this does not happen as often, but it is a serious issue. 

Now, I think that I have at least figured out a lot of the of the questions when it comes to teaching– and that is really where I need to start. One question that constantly keeps coming up is about cell phones. Cell phones in the classroom is a scary thought for most teachers, and I readily admit that I am guilty of this same thought. I immediately think of all the bad things that could possibly happen; quiz answers scooting from second hour to fourth hour, pointless and distracting rumor mills, and cheating of all sorts! But, how different are any of these actions from the “old-fashioned” note passing I did in high school? I think that I want to let my students loose, but we have (as a faculty) decided to crack down on cell phones in the classroom and just take them away at all cost. We have even gone as far as to rewrite the high school policy book to make the policy even more hard-lined.

When it comes to rules, I know we need to be consistent, but I don’t want to take away from their ability to use the tools in their world around them. I call a cell phone a tool now, as we can do so many knew things with cell phones. As stated in the video embedded above, students are walking around with very powerful computers in their pockets (albeit hidden and nonetheless forbidden in most districts).  What rules can I develop in my classroom in regard to cell phones? Is it possible to reign the students in and have them use their pocket computers effectively without losing complete control of my classroom? 

 I think that this upcoming year will involve some sort of allowable cell phone usage in the classroom, but we will not be texting answers or calling friends. Rather, I will allow usage of some of the (using a Mac term in honor of my new iPod) ‘apps’ to benefit classroom projects. Students could use their super-compact-super-accessible mini computers as microphones to integrate recorded voice into the classroom, snap pictures when we don’t have access to a camera, and use ringtones as background in our movies, commercials or multimedia presentations. I say these ideas, as I know that the majority of my students are all cell-phone equip. 

Hopefully allowing this will help  me to use their cell phone as a tool, as opposed to a vice to hide from instructors. What do you think?

Edit: I just found another tool to use student cell phones in class. On Voicethread,  students can use a generated toll free phone number (after hitting comment on a created Voicethread) and can call that number to add voice to your presentation.