Does your teacher let you txt in class?
Does your teacher let you txt in class?
"Take out your cell phones," says Spanish teacher Ariana Leonard. She begins sending her students text messages in Spanish: Find something green. Go to the cafeteria. Take a picture with the school secretary. Leonard's class at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel, Florida, is one of many schools incorporating cell phones into class lessons. Spanish vocabulary becomes a digital scavenger hunt. Notes are copied with a cell phone camera. Text messages serve as homework reminders.
"I can use my cell phone for all these things, why can't I use it for learning purposes?'" Leonard said. "Giving them something, a mobile device, that they use every day for fun, giving them another avenue to learn outside of the classroom with that."
"It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today," said Dan Domevech, executive director of the nonprofit American Association of School Administrators. "The kids are much more motivated to use their cell phone in an educational manner."
Today's phones are the equivalent of small computers — able to check e-mail, do Internet searches and record podcasts. Meanwhile, most school districts can't afford a computer for every student.
"Because there's so much in the media about banning cell phones and how negative phones can be, a lot of people just haven't considered there could be positive, educative ways to use cell phones," said Liz Kolb, author of "From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning."
Even districts with tough anti-use policies acknowledge they will eventually need to change.
Seventy-one percent of teens had a cell phone by early 2008, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That percentage remains relatively steady regardles of race, income or other demographic factors.
Teachers who have incorporated cell phones into their classes say that most students abide by the rules. They note that cheating and bullying exist with or without the phones, and that once they are allowed, the inclination to use them for bad behavior dissipates.
"Kids cheat with pen and paper. They pass notes," said Kipp Rogers, principal of Passage Middle School in Newport News, Va., "You don't ban paper."
Rogers started using cell phones as an instructional tool a couple of years ago, when he was teaching a math class and was short one calculator for a test. He let the student use his phone instead. Twelve classes, including math, science and English, now use them. Students do research through the text message and Internet browser on some phones. Teachers blog. Students use the camera function to snap pictures for photo stories and assignments.
Classes often work in groups in case some students don't have phones.
Jimbo Lamb, a math teacher at Annville-Cleona School District in south-central Pennsylvania, has students use their phones to answer questions set up through a polling Web site. Instantly, he's able to tell how many students understood the lesson.
"This is technology that helps us be more productive," he said.
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- Posted on November 30, 2009
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Its cool how they can use their phone during school hours,but I would not like my teacher to let us do that because it would be to much distraction.I bet some of these kids use their phone for other things more than learning.
Cool! I wish I could use MY phone in class! that would be supercool. Even if it was used for learning lessons. it would be faster than using computers because you wouldnt need to type in your username and password everytime you log onn.
No my teacher does not let us text in class I have no clue why a teacher would let you text in class. I bet a bunch of kids grades go down because most of them are probably play games or on the web instead of focusing on what the teacher is teaching plus who pays the phone bill.
This seems like a good idea but I don think this is a good idea. The reason I think this is a good idea is because you are having a faster way to looking something up. Also, I think this is a god way to remind you to do your homework instead of remembering. On the other hand I think this is a bad idea. The reason being is how does a teacher know if someone is texting or if kids are texing eachother to get answers to a paper. It would be cool if my teacher let everyone use their phones but I still am on the fence if this is a good or bad idea.
THAT'S AWESOME! I wish we could use cell phones in class! Well... at least in Spanish. That's such a cool idea how the teacher took advantage of kids these days that are addicted to their phones and used them to make them learn. Hopefully we get to do that too!
This article is very useful for us kids, because it informs us about the usage of cell phones in other school or classes. It would be very cool if we were allowed to use our cell phones during school for learning purposes. Although, in our school we are not allowed to.
My teacher doesn't allow us to use our phone during school, I wish we could. But, what if a student didn't have a phone or texting? That would not be fair to that student. But when you look at it the teacher is letting them use their phones to learn. So I have positive and negative feelings on using cell phones in school.
This is so crazy! My teachers say texting is bad, and we need to be more social. I can definately see this plan backfiring because so many kids won't use it properly. Kids will use hem to talk or play games. Learning should stick to the books. Texting is not the correct way to learn.
No, In our school we are not aloud to text because teachers think that textign ruins our education. I agree but also i disagree with that. Cell phones can get distracting but at least have cell phone time at the end of the day.
no but we should be able to text and use are phones in school and in class because sometimes we need them instead of yelling across the room we can text everything it would go Lot faster in school and we should get are work done on are phones.