Chap. 2 - Reality check: Using cell phones in the classroom

High expectations get in the way sometimes, as mine did for this. I was amped up to have my cell phone bias swept back into the 20^th century where, many would argue, it belongs, but “Cell Phones,” the second chapter in “Teaching With the Tools Kids Really Use,” put up a thin argument for doing so. 

Brooks-Young’s suggestions for using cell phones productively in the classroom focus more on the bells and whistles that accompany a cell phone - such as the camera, voice recorder and web access - than actually using the phone as a two-way communication device.  Having read her treatise on the subject, I still think it is safer to have kids use a laptop and share digital cameras than it is to police use of cell phones and risk cyber-bullying and invite obsessive texting into the school day.

Excuse me, while I step onto the soap box:

Since much of parenting has evolved to a “be your child’s friend, not their first teacher” role, and teachers don’t yet have the tools, time and authority to teach/police proper phone etiquette, I’m not ready to acquiesce to cell phones in class.

I can see the plus-side of the designated adult in the classroom using them. For example, I’ve read articles that espouse the rewards reaped when teachers texted students and parents reminders about upcoming tests or homework assignments.  Plus, this role models productive use.

Brooks-Young also failed to address one of the leading concerns of teachers, “What about students who do not have a cell phone?”  There are solutions to this, and here are some suggestions:

ttp://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/10/solutions-for-teaching-with-cell-phones.html

The gold nugget to be panned from this chapter was a paradigm shift in teaching Brooks-Young gleaned from an Australian study:

“It’s more important to measure modern students’ abilities to find information than their abilities to memorize information. "

Now that’s an idea I can get behind.