Cell Phones in the classroom

Cell Phones in the Classroom Interview

   As part of my Internet Tools in the classroom class, I was to interview a teacher and have them share their experience of using cell phones within the classroom. Because our district has a strict policy that students are not to have cell phones during school hours, most teachers have no tried using cell phones as an instructional tool. After asking around quite a bit, I was able to find a teacher who attempted to use it in the classroom. She shared with me some of the pros and cons of her attempt to implement cell phones in the classroom. 

  Janet Hook is a 7th grade math teacher at Milton Area Middle School. During her first year with the district, she was asked to attend a conference on how to implement the use of cell phones within the classroom. After attending the conference she received permission from the principal at the time to pilot some of the free services she learned about while at the conference. One of the requirements that Mrs. Hook needed to meet in order to use the cell phone programs was to have approval from all parents for their children to use the cell phones for school related activities. Janet said in all the classes she tried this with, she never had more than 75% of parents agree to allowing their children to use the cell phones for in-school activities. This was a problem because not all students could not be actively engaged. She did allow students who didn't have a cell phone to participate to share with another student, but they still weren't able to have the full experience, so this was a drawback for her.

    Janet decided to pilot two types of cell phone services: Polling and Text Reminders. Mrs. Hook shared that it had been quite some time since she used the services, so she doesn't remember the specific names, however, she did share with me some details of her experience.   Due to the fact of that we have a strict no cell phone policy in our district, Mrs. Hook decided to pilot the experience with her smallest class. Her class consisted of 7-8 7th graders. She used the polling site to have the students answer some math questions throughout the class. Most of her polling questions were taken from Studyisland, a site our district uses for benchmarking purposes. She shared that one of the strongest benefits of students using the cell phones in the classroom was the interest and engagement generated by the opportunity. The word of this opportunity quickly spread and many other classes quickly asked to have a chance to take part. Although the students were engaged, students quickly began to take advantage of this opportunity by using their cell phones for reasons other than class related activities. Due to this fact, and the fact that she has the opportunity to use CPS clickers for the same type of feedback, she decided to stop using them in class. This not only allows for all students to be involved, but also takes away the opportunity for students to take advantage of using cell phones in the classroom. 

   Ultimately, Janet shared that her favorite aspect of using cell phones in the classroom was the student excitement and engagement generated by the use of the technology. She did share that this same type of engaged excitement is generated by the clickers and the kindles she has available in the class. Janet stated, "Most people tell me technology needs to be used with a purpose, not just for the sake of using technology. But why not just for the sake of using technology if it means students will be engaged." I had to agree with Janet on this. If her students are more engaged using technology, why not do the best you can to implement technology in the classroom as much as possible.