This holiday, I happened to be listening to a conversation between two educators about the prevalence of cell phones in schools. I thought they would complain about kids texting all the time and becoming insular; however, much to my surprise, nary a negative comment about cell phones was made. To be honest I was a little shocked to hear them describe how many teachers in their schools use cell phones to distribute pop quizzes. Apparently, there is a quiz program where once you begin the quiz on your cell, you are unable to navigate away from that page until you submit it to ensure that students aren't cheating by googling for answers. One of these educators also described how a particular teacher in her school texts her students if she sees that they are struggling with a particular concept. This way, the student isn't embarrassed in front of his/her peers and feels more comfortable "talking" to the teacher from the comfort of his own seat across the room. Moreover, if a topic is of particular interest to a student, he or she can google it on his/her cell and find media on the net that, if appropriate, can be shared with the class to improve upon their collective understanding. To give them the benefit of the doubt (although, it wasn't discussed afterwards) I am pretty sure these educators are also well aware of the negative effects of cell phone use.
Am I a dinosaur already? Are the days of "no cell phones in class" a thing of the past? I just don't quite know what to think about it. I guess distributing quizzes digitally would save paper and those without a cell could perform them the "old fashioned way;" and a student may improve scholastically if he or she can discuss things with as teacher in a way that is more comfortable via text message. It just feels weird. What do you think?
-J
