Smart Phone Technology In The Classroom?

Technological changes have always affected the classroom. For example, in my own career I have used films, video tapes, DVDs and now I play videos over the projector from a netbook computer. Every couple of years we get a new photocopier which has lots of new features. Also blackboards, gave way to overheads, which have since been replaced by power point projectors and even, in some classrooms interactive white boards, like a Smart Board. But all these technological changes were teacher oriented and designed to improve the learning for the whole class. The satchel of student’s tools, however, has remained fairly static. Paper, binders, pens and textbooks have been around for generations. Computers are used in school, but mainly for specific technology courses, or to work on projects. We have not yet reached the point where students, at least at the primary and secondary level, come to class with a notebook computer. And yet there is a technological tool, which is not part of the lessons, but is nonetheless impacting the classroom.  How do we deal with these pervasive, handy, cool and powerful tools known as smart phones?

The approach in most schools today is to ban cell phones from the classroom. They are considered, at best, a distraction from the lesson and, at worst, a high-tech way to cheat. But trying to separate students from their phones is a challenge, partly because of their size, and partly because they have become a lifeline for students. Adults, too, find these little machines very handy and also have trouble putting them away. I have to confess that at times during a meeting, I read a text message, and shot off a quick reply, and I have seen other adults do this as well. Generally in these instances its use has not been at all disruptive. In fact, it can be argued that the cell phone often allows people to be more productive, especially when it allows them to be in two places at once. In these cases the cell phone is being used as a tool that helps you get the job done or allows you to multi-task. But when we start pulling out our phones during family devotions, concerts, or church services we may need to reassess our motives and perhaps join the local “cell phone-aholic” anonymous chapter. Most educators would argue that the classroom is another setting in which cell phones are hugely counter-productive, as students do not need another distraction.

If students could be trusted to limit the social networking in the classroom setting then smart phones could become crucial to education. Smart phones and other such devices could be used in the classroom to enhance the learning by making information instantly available. But in the way education is typically dispensed, is it difficult to get students to limit their use to educational activities only. Perhaps the real problem is not the cell phone but the way that school is typically set up. Maybe schools need to be set up more like a work environment where tools like smart phones and notebook computers are seamlessly integrated into the process, where teachers are more like consultants than instructors.

I wonder where the, cell phones in schools, debate is headed? Will the government start to allow schools to set up cell phone jammers, or will students be required to turn in there cell phone at the door when they arrive in the morning? Or perhaps it will just continue to be another source of disruption in the classroom? Or maybe, it is such a huge shift in technology that it will force schools into a new paradigm of learning? At the very least the issue is not going away.