Cell Phones in the Classroom

      This week i have explored the idea of whether we should use cell phones is school to better educate the students and to bring in a familiar technology into the classroom setting. This issue has been debated since cell phones have been put in the hands of younger and younger students that now it is typical for a middle school student to have a cell phone. The pros of bringing cell phones into the classroom is that students can look up meanings of words, use them as calculators or even do research by going onto the internet to look up information on websites. If a student cannot remember a math formula they need to use on a worksheet they can quickly look it up on their cell phones. This makes it easier for students to do projects or paper that involve looking things up on the internet because not every school has a computer for every student, but since almost all students have a cell phone they could look up anything they wanted at the palm of their hand. This means that students will have easier access to the internet and have the opportunity to work on projects, which will in turn allow students to really be creative where there is no limits to their learning. Smart phones especially can be beneficial for the students because there are so many applications out there that can enhance student's learning abilities, such as google earth, dictionaries, 'words of the day', conversion tables and the list goes on... With the way cell phones have taken off and been developing at a rapid pace, most students, I believe, will have a smart phone in the next 5 years.

    The cons of having cell phones in classrooms are that they can be a huge distractions during a lesson because students are able to hide their cell phones out of the sights of their teacher to text their friends or play games. Cell phones going off in a classroom can also be a distraction, which used to happen on a regular basis in my high school and also occurs in some of my college classes. Another problem with cell phones in the classroom is that it is an easier way for students to cheat on tests. Students can text their friends and ask them for the answers or if they have a smart phone or a phone with internet access they could look up the answers to problems on a test.

   I think that if we educate the students on the appropriate uses of cell phones in classes and model to the students how a cell phone can help students learn even more and how cell phones can enhance their abilities to find out more that they could be very good for the classroom. Distractions, cheating, and inappropriate uses of cell phones will always be a problem in a classroom as long as students own cell phones. As long as we show students the proper way to use a cell phone in the classroom and find a way for the students to respect you enough to not use their cell phones in class in ways that are not helping their education that they could be very beneficial. For now though I think that not every student has the access to a cell phone, and one that could be used in a classroom because most cell phones that students have are just for talking, texting and taking pictures. I think for now cell phones should be kept in students lockers or backpacks until more research has been done with cell phones being used in the classroom and the correct ways to use them in a school setting.