Classroom Tech

Last month my wife and I upgraded our cell phones. We got cameras and nice flat designs to help us look a little more hip as we struggle to learn how to text. Now we are only about five steps behind everyone else who has an iPhone or Blackberry.

So why am I telling you this? It’s because as slow as I am at age 35 to embrace mobile technology, I realize that I must to survive in this new mobile world. As an aspiring teacher, I also think cell phones can be great classroom tools if only school boards, administrators and mayors did not treat cell phones like a Puritan book burn. Most school districts have policies banning student possession of cell phones. Here are two banning examples: Bethlehem Area School District and Allentown School District. I ask why? It is a losing battle.

About 79 percent (17 million) of teens in America have a mobile device, a 36 percent increase since 2005, according to a recent survey by CTIA, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunication Industry. These teenagers would not have these phones if their parents did not want them to. So if parents trust their children, shouldn’t schools? Please do not give me the tired “cheating” excuse. If students want to teach, they will find a way by either writing on their palms, texting on their phones, or diving into a Dumpster like Bluto and D-Day in “Animal House.”

I was telling our teacher, Randy Ziegenfuss, about my belief in cell phones being an untapped tool, and he agreed, even though his school district bans them too. Mr. Ziegenfuss then sent me this fascinating webinar, “From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning,” by Michigan educator, Liz Kolb, who likens a cell phone’s versatility to a Swiss Army Knife. Ms. Kolb admits she had an epiphany about cell phones after she wrote her school district’s policy banning them. It She talks about how cell phones, no matter how advanced or primitive, can be used for podcasts, field trip research tools, and even how students can sum up Shakespeare in 160 typed characters or less.

If you do not have time to listen, here are Ms. Kolb’s cell phone tips to keep teachers out of trouble: First teach students that they have no right to privacy when using a cell phone because what they say, text and send can be accessed by law enforcement and lead to embarrassment. Next, don’t break your school’s policy on using cell phones; try to create podcasts and other mobile assignments students can do on their phones outside of school. Get parental permission because “standard fees for text messaging apply.”

There is one important piece of information Ms Kolb did not talk about: price. Parents, not taxpayers, pay for these phones. So in this bad economy, cash-strapped schools need to tap this free technology instead of forcing students to hide it.