Cell Phones in the Classroom

The other day my CEP teacher said something that I found to be really interesting, he said cell phones can be used in the classroom to take polls and check for the students understanding. This was astounding to me! Cell phones in the classroom, how weird. I mean usually teachers are yelling at students when they pull out there cell phones in the classroom. So I did a little research to find out what cell phones are used for in the classroom. I found a very interesting website which tells us the obvious reasons cell phones are banned from classrooms, but it too tells us how cell phones are useful in a classroom. Here is the site http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/cell-phones-in-the-classroom , check it out!

Majority of highschool and even middle school students have a cell phone they carry around with them. I found that cell phones can be used to text message in a constructive way, teachers can make polls or multiple choice questions and have the students send a text message of which letter they think the correct answer is. This is neat because as the students send in their answers they can see the chart change. Also every student is able to participate and no one is embarrassed if they gave the wrong answer because no one knows who answered what. I like the thought of this because the students all are learning and their confidence is not jeopardized in any way. I feel also believe by taking polls of what the students think is the correct answer allows you as a teacher to know what your students are understanding and what they are not understanding.

So yes I agree that cell phones can be productive, yet at the same time they are a huge distraction to the students. So I am not sure on where I stand exactly when it comes to implementing cell phones into teacher lesson plans. What do you think about this? Are you for or against using cell phones as a use of technology in the classroom?