Cell Phones in the Classroom?

To many in this next generation, cell phones have become another appendage- always in the hand, pocket, or bag of all students, at all times. With such a focus on cell phones, educators, Kimberly LaPrairie and Dr. Lautrice Nickson, propose 10 ways for students to use their phones in the classroom. The following ten suggestions were paraphrased from their most recent article 10 Ways to Engage Students with Cell Phones in the Classroom in the magazine Learning & Leading with Technology. 

1. Allow students to use their cellular devices as a way to answer multiple choice questions using applications like Poll Everywhere.

2. Reinforce vocabulary by allowing students to take pictures with their devices that represent or describe a specific word.

3. Allow students to text sentences with vocabulary words to their teacher's device. 

4. Ask students open ended questions and have them text in their responses. This activity can be accomplished through the use of Poll Everywhere.

 

5. Allow students to use the web browsers in their phone to conduct research in class.

6. Record, create, and edit student video projects  to assess learning outcomes.  

7. Allow students to send questions to their teachers using text messaging. 

8. Allow English language learners to listen to audiobooks to "increase their fluency and comprehension".

9. Send questions in a text to students in a foreign language and have them re-text the translated message back to their teacher. 

10. Allow students with learning disabilities like dysgraphia or dyspraxis to record lectures and class discussions to be reviewed at a later date. In addition, students with writing difficulties can use their cellular devices to take notes. 

Though I agree that some of the suggestions above are viable and engaging activities for students, overall I believe cell phone use in the classroom should be limited.  Using cell phones for multiple choice or open ended questions using Poll Everywhere is a great way to give all students a voice and provide visual representations of data. In addition listening to audiobooks, and taking pictures or recording videos are also activities that could greatly enhance learning. However, because cell phones are small personal devices, ensuring that students are using their devices for academic purposes is a difficult endeavor. With social media use skyrocketing, I believe that a majority of students will use their phones only half-heartedly for academic purposes, with a majority of their focus being devoted to social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snap Chat. In addition, another limitation to using cell phones in the classroom is accessibility. Not all students have access to a personal cellular device and thus would be unable to participate in these class activities. Even if students who did not have their own device were paired up with other students, they would still not receive the same experience as students with their own device. Another problem I foresee in allowing students to conduct research on their cellular devices is that many personal devices lack appropriate filters and privacy settings. This lack of security puts students at risk of viewing inappropriate material, or interacting with online predators. 

The use of cell phones in the classroom could meet all NETS-S student standards as it promotes creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, information fluency, digital citizenship, and digital fluency. In addition, using cell phones in the classroom also meets NETS-S teacher standard 1 (promoting creativity in the classroom), standard 2 (developing digital learning experiences) and standard 4 (promoting/modeling digital citizenship). 

LaPrairie, Kimberly, and Lautrice Nickson. "10 Ways to Engage Students with Cell Phones in the Classroom." Learning & Leading with Technology May 2013: 36. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

NETS-S (2014). In ISTE NETS-S Advancing Learning in the Digital Age. Retrieved February 12, 2014