Silencing cell phones on campus

Aside from intelligent design and other political bombshells, one of the most hotly debated topics in public schools is how to handle mobile phones. In addition to the obvious problem of distraction, the proliferation of student phones has been linked to everything from cyberbullying to teen depression.

Most recently, New York City has taken the issue to new heights because of the size of its public school system and the nature of its tactics. Police units have set up metal detectors throughout the city's 1,400 schools, according to the Associated Press, and more than 5,000 phones were confiscated from April through the end of summer school.

Such crackdowns across the country have even prompted legal action among parents groups, many of whom claim that their children need phones for safety reasons. And with some estimates that as many as 3 out of every 4 middle-school students carry mobile phones, this debate has only just begun.

Blog community response:

"Cell phones are a great tool which I am sure in the future can be utilized as a tool for education, but we as educators must be more realistic in the fact that students are not using it as a tool for learning. They are using it as a tool to talk to friends, which are also in class, or cheat. As great as technology tools can be, their proper use needs to be curved in the right direction and until then, they should not be a part of a student's daily life within a school environment."
--Sniperfilms Frogger Blogger

"Understandable concerns aside, some bloggers are suggesting that insteading of banning, we should be encouraging pupils to take advantage of the powerful functions of mobile technology to assist learning. Lynne Horn from Tobermory High School has been asking her pupils to record themselves practising dialogues and chanting verbs on their mobiles which they can then email to themselves or copy to CD."
--Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom

"Never mind that cell phones didn't work during 9/11. Never mind that parents are acting out against Education like idiots (we've had parents come in and complain that teachers won't let kids talk to parents on cell phones during class). Never mind that parents are not held to the accountability as teachers. Just remember, the cell phone will make it all better."
--A Passion for Teaching and Opinions