Cell Phones?
March 8, 2009 by mlower
Bring up cell phones in a classroom, and guaranteed everyone joins in the discussion. Most of our districts have restrictive policies which frankly aren’t working very well. Students have become experts in texting while the phones are in their pockets or behind books. There is a growing belief that instead of trying to restrict them from our rooms, that we need to recognize their value and teach students a responsible way to use them. They already provide a variety of tools for the students to use and that list keeps growing. Evan Abbey recently had a blog posting that stated it was time that districts begin to realize that they are valuable tools and we need to be working with students on how to use them appropriately in an educational setting. His post contains pros and cons of their usage along with other interesting links on the topic. Read about a school in Texas that has all of their 5th graders using cell phones in the classroom as teaching tools. Is your district ready to shift its focus?
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I read that there are programs that are using cell phones as ESL tools. I cannot recall where I saw the article, but your blog post reminded me of it. If I recall where I had seen it I will be sure to post it.