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?
It's a weird situation we have with the cell phones, isn't it? Because on the one hand we all want our phones for emergencies, but we all use our phones for things other than emergencies. And, if the students are going to have them whether its allowed or not, why not embrace that they have them? The phones have all these resources on them, so why not use them? The only issue that I have with using the phones in the classroom is what to do if someone does not have a phone. We can't require it because it is expensive to have one. I would love to do polls like we did in CEP, but I don't know what I would do if a student said their family couldn't afford one.
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