January 7, 2009: More Teachers Allowing Students To Use Cellphones for Educational Purposes

[Guest guest]

Leading the News

More Teachers Allowing Students To Use Cellphones for Educational Purposes.

Education Week (1/6, Trotter) reported, " New educational uses of cellphones

are challenging the 'turned off and out of sight' rules that many districts

have adopted for student cellphones on campus. " Teachers are increasingly

allowing " students [to] use their personal cellphones to make podcasts, take

field notes, and organize their schedules and homework. " For example, one

Spanish teacher in Kansas " created a channel for her...students to call from

outside of school and record themselves speaking in Spanish. " Educator Liz

Kolb lists " podcasting and classroom-response systems...among the more than

100 uses of cellphones " in her book, Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell

Phones to Education. According to Education Week, " One key to the

cellphone's usefulness is the wealth of Web-based services that have cropped

up recently, not necessarily marketed for schools but generally free in

their basic versions. "