Cell Phones in School

      This is a broad view of what roll the cell phone plays in classrooms. Back when I was in middle school and high school, we never used our phones, except maybe three times from sixth grade to twelfth grade. Now, I hear my friends in high school talking about how they use their phones to take quizzes or participate in online activities. That old saying "back when I was a boy (enter phrase here)" applies for many of us 90's babies who grew up with technology and learned along the way. Now, students come into middle and high school already fluent in technology.

     Anyway to get the students involved in learning is a great idea, but is having phones for this purpose really such a good idea? It is so easy to have a students sit in the back of the class, or just far enough away from the teacher as to get away with texting a friend, going on Facebook or Instagram, or surfing the web instead of participating. Although, if you are doing an activity like Kahoot! where the teacher can monitor the number of students participating in the activity and even who is not involved at all. Of course, the teacher does need to setup some guidelines for using phones in class so they do not abuse the privilege. Maybe do the activity at the end of class so the teacher does not have to deal with phones being left out or getting the class to refocus on the lesson. No matter how the teacher sets out to accomplish these goals, it is up to the students to have the maturity to participate and not to abuse the system. If the activity is for a grade, even just participation, it gives the students more incentive to be engaged in the learning that is going on around them.