More On The Use Of Cellphones In Schools

I found more on the topic of cellphone use in schools at http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=10277#comments.

Here is my comment below:

The topic of cellphone use in schools is one that I feel has only two possible sides: Those who get it and those who will wonder in the future why they did not get it sooner. It is one of my frustrations that we get sidetracked in such disagreements and faill to see the world outside of our schools changing and at the same time fail to take on the challenge of teaching our students how to use all of the resources at their fingertips in an educational context. Are we not doing them a disservice if we continue to let them look at cellphones solely as a vehicle for social interaction?

Or maybe we should just add this to that lengthy list of items that we as educators "do not have time to do."I prefer to see opportunities rather than obstacles. I do have to say that this conversation came up at my school last year and we changed our policy to allow cellphone use at the discretion of classroom teachers who see the potential that they hold http://burlingtonhigh.blogspot.com/2009/05/bhs-discussing-change-to-cellphone.html.

I am sure that we will have our bumps along the way with this policy, but I think that taking such risks is well worth it. Isn't this what we want our staff and students to do? I cannot wait for the day where we start asking ourselves collectively how we could have been so narrow-minded in our thinking about these tools. I encourage people to read the report by Carly Shuler put out by the Joan Ganz Cooney center in January called "Pockets of Potential - Using Mobile Technologies toPromote Children’s Learning"