LOL! Is this how you curb texting in class?
March 25, 2010 by Jake SimmsPosted in: Cell Phones
Just how disruptive can cell phones in the classroom be?
So disruptive that schools in Kansas recently banned students from wearing hooded sweatshirts (or “hoodies”). That’s because students were texting each other in class with their phones hidden in their hoodie pockets!
Pretty impressive, when you think about it. But then kids who spend hours on end texting should know exactly where the keys are without looking.
Teachers and administrators got sick and tired of warning students to turn their phones off. Hence the hoodie ban.
Here’s what the editors think about this topic:
Scott’s take: If cell phones disrupt education, why not ban the root cause – the cell phones themselves? Many administrators would tell you the answer is simple: Parents would scream bloody murder.
In fact, parents commonly text or call their kids during school hours. And their common excuse is, “What if there’s an emergency and I’ve gotta reach my kid?”
Guess schools don’t have landline phones anymore. Or an intercom system. Sigh …
Carol’s take: Banning cell phones isn’t the answer either … and not just because parents would complain.
First, history shows us that students with cell phones have helped school safety. Remember the Virginia Tech shooting? During the chaos, students used their cell phones to call for help. They took pictures, which were later confiscated by law enforcement. This footage helped school officials and law enforcement piece together what happened — and how it can be prevented in the future.
Second, technology is a part of life in the 21st century. Rather than ignore that fact, school officials should allow cell phones in school — and teach students to use them responsibly.
Bottom line: This school’s on the right track. It identified a specific problem and eliminated one way students use technology irresponsibly.
What’s your take? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Tags: Cell Phones, disruptive behavior, handheld devices, hoodies, school clothing ban, texting
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March 29th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Make the use of a cell phone a requirement for class participation. Have students use them for calculations, looking up URLs pertinent to class discussion, fact checking, researching in situ as you teach. Imagine if you not only allow use, but require it! Students might actually see the utility of learning instantly or they might just turn phones off altogether just to annoy the the teacher. Either way, behavior will change.
March 29th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Carol, you have to understand that part of the classroom management plan for K-12 schools is to foster development of children. They may act like little pimply adults at times, but they still need to be guided with rules. Structure is absolutely vital — otherwise the end result is a bunch of self-entitled, excuse-making unmotivated drains on welfare. The rules imposed in a K-12 setting would not apply to what we consider more mature young adults attending classes on college campuses such as Virginia Tech.
Sex-obsessed adolescents are not going to use cell phones responsibly. Instead, they’re going to sext at every opportunity. Whatever the gadget, whether mobile phone or PSP or jelly bracelets, if it’s not part of the curriculum and it’s disrupting academics, its use should be discouraged.
Carol, I’m confused about your point of view. Your summary statement is in complete disagreement with your thesis and supporting arguments. Are you advocating cell phone tolerance or is the school correct in denying their use?
Re: the article, it seems like mobile phone jammers would be more effective than a ban on hoodies. They’re relatively inexpensive (as compared to the daily operating cost of a school), and discourage the disruption with no hurt feelings.
I can’t say that the ban on hoodies is absurd, though. Sometimes educators have to improvise solutions that wouldn’t be relevant to any school or system other than their own. I’m sure there are some obsessive parents who will want to fight The Man(R) and his militant oppression of their little angels. But as an outsider with nothing invested in any Kansas City schools, I say, do whatever works.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Isn’t this the modern day equivalent to writing and passing notes? Did teachers ban pencils and paper in classes 30 years ago? Or forbid long sleeve shirts and pockets because notes could be hidden there?
I think a better route would be to engage kids in a conversation up front about what kind of environment is most conducive to their learning and then establish some ground rules for behavior based on their input.
Even so, there will always be kids (people) who flaunt established rules. Authoritative execution of the rules through punitive consequences is only one strategy for how to respond. And it isn’t generally the most effective response.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Why not make the class more interesting so students will want to pay attention. During tests or other times when communication should be banned, have students put the phone on desk top in view of teacher. Use of phone at those times is equivalent to any other form of cheating. With the current administration’s plan to do away with the 3R’s as core necessity of education, maybe it will not matter what kids do in class, anyway, as long as they are happy.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Thsi si the dumbest argument ever. Just ban ‘em. They have no place in school. Parents can call the office. Teachers can text the police if a Virigina Tech occurs again.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
This is not just a problem in K-12 schools; I’m a college instructor and had repeated problems with this despite repeated warnings until I started throwing the cell phones out the window into a snowbank. I’ve not had a problem since.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Glad to hear that punishment is not effective, so we are just going to let the students do whatever they want to do.
Punishment deters some, slows others down. It won’t eliminate the problem, but will certainly reduce it. Imperfection doesn’t mean abandon the tool- no approach is 100%.
I teach in college, and some days I let the kids text and compute, other days I ask them to cut it out- and they generally do. Younger kids need a more management.
The hoodie ban, the jammers suggested above, banning use of cell phones during class time except in case of life and death emergency (which to an 8th grader is a pimple outbreak), all will help.
It is hard to be a shepherd, but we owe it to the kids to get them ready for the real world.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Wow, texting successfully without looking at all! Why in the world would educators NOT want to harness such enthusiastic and skillful use of modern technology?! There are countless ways that cell phones can be harnessed in support of educational goals, and in engaging kids where they already are. It’s time to stop being frightened and intimidated by kids’ embrace of digital technology and step up to utilize it.
It’s easy enough to require kids to place the phone in front of them on the desk when its use is prohibited, and to require documented parental consent and student-signed agreements in exchange for privileges (which can then be revoked at the first inappropriate use).
Blanket prohibition does not curb inappropriate behaviors; it never has, and it never will. What’s more, it denies the opportunity to teach anyone – kids or adults – the essential skills of self-discipline, self-control, and self-protection.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
My question- if a student is sitting there reading a text during my class- then replying to it- how can you think that student is absorbing what is being said out loud compared to what they are reading? I agree- let the parents call the office and the office can get a message to them. I’ve had too many students get a text or VM from a parent or friend and then they get upset or huffy about something while sitting in class. Their whole demeanor changes and you know they aren’t in the frame of mind to be thinking of class room work no matter how “interesting” it is.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I teach college students, and many of them use laptops in class;,some use their smart phones as ‘palmtop’ computers for taking notes. So my challenge is is determining when they are using the machines for classwork.
At the beginning of each semester, I distribute a document that tells students that, if I believe that they are too distracted by their electronic device, I will call on them. And will call on them. And call on them again, until their answers demonstrate that they are focussed on the class. I found that two or three embarrassing silences from students were enough to get everyone to toe the line.
Again, I can’t say that this would work for the young ‘uns, but it is worth a shot.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Make class more interesting? Ha! The problem is that some students just want to be ENTERTAINED constantly, even if it means they miss out on class discussions and don’t take any notes. If they can’t learn some self-denial and increase their attention spans, they’ll grow up into the adults who stay still when the light turns green because they’re texting (waiting/paying attention is boring) and waste their employer’s money because they’re watching movies on their laptops when they’re supposed to be at a conference. Or worse: they’ll lose out on jobs to young people who aren’t texting constantly and/or surreptiously plugging earbuds into their heads when they’re supposed to be paying attention.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
It’s amazing that hundreds of thousands of students have graduated from high school and college without the use of cell phones! I tell my students to turn them off and a few of them do. I threaten to confiscate them for the class period if I catch students using them. That works for a few others.
Emergencies?? Parents can call the main office and someone will come and get the student if it’s a true emergency (just like in the old days). A lot of emergencies are simply – stop at the store on your way home and get x, y, and z! Or they’re just texting friends. And then they wonder why their grades are low. Yet it’s the teachers who get blamed for kids not learning!
Wait until they get out into the “real” world and try texting while they’re supposed to be working. See how far that gets them!
And speaking of the real world, while they’re in school, that it their real world and they need top be present in it and not playing with their phones!
March 29th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I agree with Marcus Pohlmann! Cellphones and texting – without proper guidance (rules) has gotten so out of hand. Even laws to prevent driving and texting seems to enrage so many people. This is insane! Are people THAT self-indulgent when it comes to common sense?! Valerie has the right idea! Toss ‘em out of the room where they belong. There is not a reason in the world for cellphones in the classroom – unless it’s turned off and out of sight. As for Steve’s comment about their ‘usefulness’ in the event of an emergency – come on, this isn’t something that happens often and isn’t a valid reason to have one turned on during class. As I stated, turned off and out of sight – but there IF an emergency arises.
I believe texting is contributing to the ‘dumbing’ of America. You no longer care about spelling, grammar, etc. This will eventually spill into everyday lives – including on the job. Worse yet, the biggest offenders don’t seem to care. And what a shame there are so many parents who will DEFEND their child’s lack of good judgment while in class. We’ve created a monster with technology and there needs to be rules, guidelines and proper etiquette in their usuage.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Cell phone jamers are illegal under federal Law.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Just as an interesting note, some schools have a policy similar to the following:
Allow students to bring a mobile phone to school. Require them to leave it in their locker. If a phone is discovered during class, even if it is powered off, regardless of the reason, confiscate the phone and require a parent to come pick it up from the vice principal in the office. Additional correction can be administered based on the frequency of these violations.
This encourages the parent to discipline the kid, encourages the kid to use the phone responsibly, and still allows the kid a phone for emergency use before or after school.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
This is an interesting debate to me … and one which is so circular as to astound geometry. The issue really has nothing to do with the cell phone, but class room attentiveness. Several variables are in play here, ONE of which is class room distrtaction. Another is how INTERESTING the teacher makes the subject matter.
If parents require their children to have a cell phone for emergency purposes, I find this to be an entirely reasonable choice. If this is the case, a pretty simply fix is available to both parent, teacher and student … THE CELL PHONE INVOICE. If parents want students to have a cell phone, and then crab at the teacher for their darling child’s poor grades, why not make the invoice a standard piece of the parent-creature conversation?
The teacher can demonstrate that texting in class was commonplace (from the invoice) and that this is a question for the parent to address should there be any interest for improved learning and retention, as measured through grades. If teachers’ claim the texting is an enormous distraction, but is not evidenced on the invoice, then perhaps the teacher has some reflection of their own to undertake
It is a little surprising to me how befuddled we all can become (ie parent and teachers) when for every “problem”, there is always a reasonable solution.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I can’t believe I’m reading a piece about a problem in education that has so many horrible sentences. Whoever wrote this needs to study sentence fragments. I’d much rather see my students texting in class than write this poorly. If you’re writing about what Brad and Angelina are up to these days, that’s one thing, but if you’re writing about education, it’s a good idea to present yourself as an educated person. Consider your audience!
March 29th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
To the people who suggested cell phone jammers: Do you not realize those are illegal? Yes, they are available to purchase on the internet, but so are illegal drugs and weapons. If you buy a cell phone jammer, and set it up in your classroom, you are in violation of FEDERAL law, and can and will be prosecuted by the FCC if you are caught doing this.
Banning hoodies or other clothing is not the answer. Ordering 7-12 students to leave cell phones in their lockers is the answer, and it needs to be strictly enforced. K-6 students shouldn’t even be allowed to bring cell phones to school. Anyone caught using a cell phone during a class should have the phone confiscated by the office, to be picked up by the parents! Yes, parents will scream… so what! That gets them into the office so they can be reminded of the rules. If this seams inconvenient, then tell the parents they can remove the child from school, and home-school them. How convenient would that be? Play by the rules, or leave.
Yes, I AM a parent. I have boys in 7th, 8th, and 11th grades. I will not buy them cell phones. My 17 year old has his own, but I don’t allow him to take it to school. He knows that if I ever find out he has taken it to school, he will lose it for 1 month. So far, that is working out just fine.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
My policy has been to require students to turn their phones in at the office in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day. This way, they are free to use their phones to and from school, to arrange pick ups etc. Middle school students are not mature enough to handle the responsiblity of a cell phone in a classroom. They use them to bully one another, text friends not at school, and in some cases have used them to share answers to a test. While I get the “real world” argument from some suggesting that phones are a reality, I don’t agree that it applies in this situation. Children are exposed to the “real world” enough as it is already. As an educator entrusted with the education of a school full of children, it is my job to ensure that they get what they are here to receive: an education as free from distraction as possible. Sure parents may get angry, but their job isn’t education (nor is mine as a teacher to parent). They certainly may advocate for their child, but my responsibility is to advocate for the entire student body and faculty as well. As far as safety management goes, our school has a strong plan developed to meet the needs of the learners. Adults may be able to turn of their phones when requested (on an airplane, for example), but part of the development process is that students will test boundaries, limits, and authority in order to determine their place in the system. It is a natural part of growing up. By banning cell phones in the classroom, we are merely removing a temptation that most are unable to avoid and in doing so, we create a space that is more conducive to learning. After all, that is what they are here to do.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I understand that a disagreement on this one exist, but I can not understand how many think that is a good idea to encourage the constant use of cell phones in class. First of all, in a compute lab, it is easy to monitor the screens of all students to be aware of what they are surfing on the web and that they are on task(for the most part). But with the use of individual cell phones and all the possible apps they are accessable to make it nearly impossible to monitor all of them. Remember there are more than likely 30 plus sneaky teenagers in a room at a time. There is more room for harm then for benifit with the open use of cell phones, not to mention the different finacial situations that exist in my high school.
How embarassing for a student to pull out his/her phone that does not receive texts next to a student that has the latest and greatest super-duper cell phone. One more thing to set students off.
I teach math, and yes I understand that all phone now have a calculator, but remember the brain works too!!! If we teach them that it is as simple to pull out your cell ohone to figure out the 10% tax on a purchase or a tip calculator for 20%, then why would they bother thinking.
As far as the argument about parents, I have gone as far as answering my students’ phones when it says “mom” on the caller id to let the parent know that they have interupted my classroom by calling their student. It is rediculous. I mean let’s suppose there was an emergency and a parent needs to contact there son/daughter. So they send a text message. The student reads it in the middle of English class and then what. They can not just get up and leave because the text says “dad was in a car accident”. They still hace to wait until someone comes to the classroom and gets them.
At the same time, I understand the importance of having them on you person for safety. I would feel better knowing that someone in my classroom can contact the police if really needed.
I guess I do not have a solution, but I feel strongly against students having their phone ON while they are in school. I wish there was a way to interupt all signals except Emergency numbers.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Students do not “flaunt”established rules, they flout them (when they ignore or disobey them). Ugly and incorrect use of English, especially pretentious usage, has no place in a discussion by educators.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
If Ray Kurzweil’s predictions continue to be spot on, we should be planning ahead for the day when students have direct brain-to-net connections and consider ubiquitous access to information a basic human right. Forget “making them pay attention”. How are we going to evaluate their performance? Teaching and learning as we know them will be utterly obsolete within 20 years. How long will it take us to invent their replacements?
March 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Hello,
Our county policy is cell phones are off during school hours of 7:50 – 3:15. We confiscate them in class the first time, giving them back at the end of the period with a warning that the next time it is confiscated, it will have to be picked up by the parent from an administrator. Usually, once is enough.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Don’t the rules start in the classroom? If we keep waiting for the school to impose a schoolwide ban, we’ll be waiting a good long time. A couple of classroom idea that have worked: cell phones are out on the desks and off at the beginning of class – and remain so for the period (Mom can call the main office if she has a concern, and I’ll be glad to explain to her that Junior or Sissy was in class); students who need to use the rest room during class hand over their cell phones – and their ipods, while we’re at it – and retrieve them on their return.
I think it’s important to remember that our students have grown up with this technology; it is part and parcel of who they are. We have an obligation to teach them how to use it responsibly – for example, gathering pictures and info if and when, God forbid, there’s a crisis in the school – as well as showing – and modeling – when such use is irresponsible, or even just plain inappropriate. (NB: WE shouldn’t be using our cell phones on class time, either.)
March 29th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I teach at a University. I do not allow cell phone use while I am lecturing. Students are informed of this at the beginning of the semester. I also tell them that if a cell phone rings during my class, I assume that the call is for me and I will answer it. Trust me, you only have to do this once.
I have answered students phones, asked the caller if they were from the organ donation bank, and getting a negative answer asked the caller to note that the student was going to be in this class every Monday from 1-3 for the rest of the semester and please not to call again at this time until May.
Rude behavior needs to be directly addressed – and cell phone usage while someone is lecturing is just that. I am not a dancing bear in the circus. I am an educator. An students have a responsibility to be engaged in the process – not checking the latest youtube posting. There are plenty of kids that would love an education and appreciate it. I say let the cell phone users leave – take a job at McDonalds, and let the people who would really appreciate an education take the seats in the classes and engage in the educational process.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
At my daughter’s high school, cell phones are to be kept in their locker, turned off or at least on vibrate. The teachers and administrator’s randomly do “checks” to ensure the kids don’t have their cell phones. (They check back packs, jackets and puses) If they are caught with them or they are caught ringing, they are confiscated, the parent is called and $20.00 has to be paid to get the phone back! This acts as a deterrent in two ways-the kids don’t want the parents to know they had their phone when they weren’t supposed to and who wants to pay 20 bucks!!?? So far this has been working
March 29th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Bribe them with candy… i.e. trade your cell phone during the class period for a piece of candy. Kids will do almost anything for a Dum Dum lollipop!
March 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
We home school so this problem is moot for us. But the heart of the issue here is being engaged in the learning process and can multitask effectively. K-12 and college this is all an issue and even in the work place. I have been in many meetings where attendees are doing the “blackberry prayer” instead of engaging in discussions.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Okay, it’s time for educators to learn some of their own lessons, namely those about statistics and risk. The odds of any child — or even school — being involved in the kind of horrors that afflicted Virginia Tech are very small. Rather than trying to manage risks given such an event occurred, I think schools would be better off preventing the events themselves. The rationale for having cell phones tries to minimize risk given such an event.
Second, if a parent pleas about some curriculum feature being insufficiently challenging, or argues that a field trip interferes with some family responsibility, they may have a right to be heard. Otherwise WHO IS DOING THE TEACHING HERE? Schools need to control both their curriculum and their environment.
If it’s possible to confiscate a comic book, however temporarily, surely it’s possible to confiscate a cell phone for the duration of a week, or at least a day. Courts in Cambridge, MA have a policy that if a cell phone rings while Court is in session, the bearer loses the phone PERMANENTLY.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
To the person that suggested using cell phones in the classroom- are you going to provide all students with the same phones? Because at our school, we have many different economic groups- some students may have the latest and greatest and some may not have any at all. Also, in my opinion, students really don’t need to have them in school at all- the chance of a crisis situation happening and a middle or high school student having the presence of mind to call or take photos is miniscule. The only thing that I can personally attest to is that they caused one heck of a mess when we had a bomb threat and the little darlings all called their parents who then came running to the school to “rescue” them, only managing to get in the way of the emergency personnel who were trying to do their jobs!
March 29th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
My husband teaches in a public school — 8th grade. He says Columbine was the turning point in cell phone presence in the classroom. Yes, parents would be unhappy about a total ban, because it would mean that their children could not call for help in an emergency. Unfortunately, those same students also know how to text without looking at the keys, so they put the phones in their pockets like the students described in the article. For those who say, “Just take it away when you see it,” you must understand that the challenge is, with 30-40 students in a classroom, it is almost impossible to see all of the phones.
I teach evening classes at a university. Many of my students are parents, some of them single parents. I cannot, in good conscience, tell them that they absolutely cannot have their phones in the classroom, not when their children are alone at home or with sitters who might need the parents in emergencies. However, when the phones ring, of course it is disruptive. I tell my students if they receive a call or text that they must take, to leave the room. The greatest challenge I face is the younger students who use their phones to cheat. Before the phones, they carried paper or wore ball caps with answers on the bills…a cheater will always look for some way to cheat.
So now, when we take a test, I make them leave their backpacks and all other materials at the front of the room. I tell them if they have a cell phone, they must put it on their desks face-down. If I see a phone face-up, or if I see one that is not on the desk (someone looking at it below the desk level), I will refer it to Student Judicial Review for disciplinary procedure. By having them place their phones on top of their desks, I reduce the number of students I need to watch…I focus on the ones who don’t have their phones on their desks.
Like some other individuals who have commented, I am inclined to embrace technology. My department forbids laptops, so I must follow that policy. However, I don’t necessarily agree with it. If we utilize it effectively, we give them many more skills for understanding the concept that learning can take place in many environments, not just the classroom. But then, I am not your average college professor. My classroom is not about “me.” It is about engaging students in the learning process and lighting a fire of enthusiasm that energizes them to learn more on their own. Professors who are egocentric in their attitudes are more inclined to think that they themselves are the only means of communicating information to students. They are insulted by absences, late arrivals, and other sorts of “affronts on their lectures.” Perhaps if we were a more student-centered educational culture, we might find that students engage more when we connect with their realities (like, technology) instead of trying to force them into a mold that should have been broken long ago.
I do admit, readily, that K-12 has completely different issues. However, embracing technology needs to happen there, as well. Cheaters will cheat, talkers will talk, and note-passers will pass notes, whether they are paper or technology driven. I do not believe that the technology itself is to blame, and eliminating it only forces the issue into a different realm.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Setting aside the legality or otherwise of cell phone suppression – if such a system were simply linked to the alarm system so that it is inactivated when the alarm goes off would this not alleviate most fears over (very rare) extreme crises in the school?
March 29th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I teach at a community college, and my policy has been for them to turn their phones to vibrate and ignore them during class unless they notify me before class they have some type of family emergency that requires them taking a call during class. It has worked pretty well. I also encourage use of the cell phone in class, when I use a poll that I’ve created on polleverywhere.com. I don’t get too jumpy about laptops, because I’m assuming students are looking at my notes with the power points when I’m lecturing. I’ll call upon students who seem distracted to see if they’ve been paying attention. It works often to the point some students have quit using a laptop and printed the power points in advance to take notes.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Carol, Virgina Tech is an institution of higher learning not a middle or high school. Which I am in all frequently. Most college students are at their instructors mercy as to the classroom. The idea that a middle or high school students needs to use a cell phone in school is ridicules. It has always been an issue with certain segments of this population not being able to act responsibly. Why not just let them bring their game systems and use them at will? Educators are not responsible for teaching children proper etiquette. That in some cases will be reason for lawsuits for some parents that think their children do not have to conform to societal norms. One of the local schools in our area put up transmission blockers for cell phones. The building sets significantly off the roads and blocks the frequency that cells phones operate on. Making them useless to the students, faculty and staff once they reach a certain area outside the building. This was the result of an emergency that occurred at the school and many students phoning home. When emergency vehicles arrived they could not get through because so many parents were already their blocking access to the building. I’m not anti technology, however, without proper etiquette taught to the children that bring them, the school systems are left to fight this battle with little or not directive from the families.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
This is just the kind of PC crap that has been really upsetting me lately. I dont understand why general punishments are being put on everyone rather than punishments or consequences given to those who abuse privledges? Why should kids that dont even have cell phones or are respectful enough not to use them in class be banned from wearing their favorite hoodie (which probably is their prized posesion) just because the administration doesn’t want to deal with and angry kid or a rude parent?
My office recently banned all electronic devices from being brought in to work. Including cell phones and ipod’s… I find this to be a total cop out. In stead of punishing those cought texting or making personal calls on work time you punish everyone. I usually keep my cell phone on vibrate on my desk in case my childs daycare needs to get ahold of me. I dont make calls and i never text. I am not disrupting anyone.
To me this is right up there with bad parenting. Follow through with the rules you set and punish those who deserve to be punished in stead of taking the easy way out and revoking everyones privledges…
March 29th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I say put a blocking device on top of the school or ask the cell phone companies to create dead zones around schools. I am sure this is possible since they can do almost anything now
. Cell phones are nothing more then a way for students to bully others and plan their social life before, during and after school. The example of using phones to save lives during shootings is not a valid reason there is less then 1 shoot shooting a year. Second, the gunmen from those tragedies would have been identified without the phones. Cell phones cause more trouble then they do good.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
I am one of those parents who sends their child to school with a cell phone. However, I do not text during the day and would only leave a message if it impacted my daughter’s trip home, bus or car pool. We have needed to communicate regarding after school activities and transportation. I want her to have a way to communicate with me AFTER SCHOOL. She attends a private middle school where the students ARE REQUIRED to leave their phones in their lockers during the day. If I needed to contact her during the school day, I would call the school office or send her teacher an e-mail. To my knowledge this works very well for all concerned.
As a student and as an instructor, I have seen plenty of rude cell phone behavior by adults in classes. It is difficult to expect better behavior in our children than we exhibit ourselves. We set the example constantly and they are watching.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
I teach college. In my syllabus, I state that cell phone use for any reason,
including texting, is not allowed during class; if students violate this, they
are docked 10 points for each infraction. I also tell them that I will not
disrupt the class to remind them when i see them texting. I will simply deduct
the points on my grade sheets and note that on their next written assignment.
I sugget that their best strategy is to have their phone on the desk so I can see
it. If they have their hands in their lap, are looking down, I will assume they are
texting and deduct points. Again, I tell them I am not going to take extra energy
and time during class to deal with this; it is their responsibility to make it very
clear they are following the policy.
This works.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Lot’s of those hoodies worn by high school students are from colleges they’ve visited or aspire to attend, and there’s much value in the visual reminder of the idea that college is cool… Take off the hoodies, and you’re left with a lot of T-shirts that in general carry a lower proportion of positive messages and require policing. I’m not sure what an unbuttoned flannel shirt with the tail hanging out suggests, but it sure doesn’t say “Harvard.” Pants have pockets, too – What’s next, school uniforms that look like prisoner’s pajamas?
March 29th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I am a high school teacher and a parent of a 9th grader. The school I teach in leaves phone policy to the classroom teacher which is very inconsistent. I agree that student’s personal devices are a huge distraction in class. If the district will not take a stand on this subject parent’s need to take control of there child’s phone use. PARENTAL CONTROLS is offered through most phone services. For about $5 a month parent’s can turn phones off/ON at certain times of the day and night. The service includes safe #’s (Parent’s siblings ect…) that will still be able to have full use even when it is turned off to all other incoming/outgoing calls and texts. There are other perks like minute allowance and blocked #’s. This service can be controlled through the web and changed anytime. I have decided that this information will go out with my parent information next year!!
March 29th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Wow. Lots of responses to this problem pose no real answers, but have certainly led to a lot of debate about the issue. I can add to the debate and offer only a small suggestion for a solution. I believe that the cell phone usage in this country has gotten completely out of hand, and that the schools are simply experiencing something that is problematic to society at large. However, if we can teach these students about appropriate usage at a young age, maybe we can ultimately have a positive effect, and this communication tool can be relegated to being just that; a tool, not our addiction.
Cell phones have become something about which the users are mindlessly obsessed. It isn’t a matter of making school subjects “interesting” as some have suggested. There is a real societal problem that has been created with the constant access to a communication form that can be carried around in a purse or pocket. Students are simply too distracted by this new entertainment. We wouldn’t allow miniature video games in school; why are cell phones that different? If they could keep their hands out of their pockets and contribute to a classroom, then there wouldn’t be a problem. Obviously, they haven’t yet acquired that skill. If there is a family emergency, a school is well equipped to contact the student in a relatively short period of time. It also sounds as though parents are further complicating the issue by texting their children at inappropriate times. Perhaps they should be schooled in appropriate usage of phones??
I have seen people, students included, spastically grabbing their phones without even thinking about it. They interrupt conversations with others to answer or text on their phones, rudely dividing their attention, and it has thus become socially acceptable to leave the person to whom they were speaking hanging there waiting while the other person finishes playing with his or her phone. Both students and adults leave them on in inappropriate places, including classrooms, where the phones and texters are disruptive– even in the college setting– constantly checking their phones as though the world will end if they don’t. People have forgotten how to spell, punctuate or write even simple sentences, which I have personally witnessed in a college setting. And while an English teacher may find this essay-comment less than perfect, the kind of mistakes I’ve seen include not capitalizing at the beginning of sentences, differentiation of simple sentences, as well as the use of common texting abbreviations. And that only touches on the lack of skill that I’ve seen.
People don’t seem to know HOW to pay attention, and why should they with this new and constant form of entertainment? But school isn’t a place of entertainment, and while we do need to make the subject matter interesting, we also need to do so without sacrificing the passing of knowledge. It is a place to learn, and is sometimes difficult. This means that students with no attention span (which seems to be the norm these days), may actually need to learn how to apply themselves and work without it always, always, always being fun! If cell phones are disrupting the process of learning, which I have personally witnessed, then banning them may actually teach them about appropriate usage.
The problems are not confined to schools either. There have been a number of times I have witnessed people texting at work, sometimes while I waited for them to complete a service task for me. Inappropriate usage has become an indemic problem. The common attitude would suggest that doing your job, paying attention in school or socially engaging in conversations with the people around you is no longer as important as texting to your friends or family. When these people are fired, or receive a bad grade, they seem clueless as to why that happened! In fact, they are angered and feel they are entitled to be able to do as they please; that is not do their job/shcoolwork correctly, and still receive a paycheck or good grade. This doesn’t even touch on the shallow friendships of young people in today’s society. There have been several polls that indicate that students’ technology is more valuable to them than good friends. This contains many of the precursers to a severe social collapse. While I remain uncertain as to what we can do, I would suggest that curbing cell phone usage while in school is a good place to start. If that means we have to ban them to accomplish this, so be it! At the same time, students need to be taught that this will, and needs to carry over into a work environment.
Quite frankly, I think we have a lot of work to do. The first step is recognition. I’m uncertain at this point if we will even be able to move into, let alone beyond that stage.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
I teach at a college that recently adopted a campus-wide “all electronics off during class” policy. Some (most) professors leave their own cell phones on in case of emergency–we have a campus wide emergency contact network. The students still try to text during class, but that’s easy enough to spot and I confiscate the phone until class is over. (If the windows in my classroom could be opened, I would definitely use the snowbank idea.) Ultimately, students need to answer the question, “What am I here to do?”
March 29th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
This is a subject matter that is close to my heart. I’ve been working on a dissertation on this subject and have found that students would love to use more technology enhancements through their cell phone in the classroom while teachers do not believe it will be a valuable tool and more of a constant distraction.
This discussion leads to one issue: Control. Some people have argued that if the teachers made the lessons more compelling that students would pay more attention. However, this argument is not valid. Students are going to be attracted to the technology in the classroom no matter what the teacher may be doing.
So, why not enhance the curriculum with the cell phones? The main problem here goes back to control. We don’t know what the students are going to be doing with their phones during class. We can supply them with a boatload of websites to visit and internet based “flashcards” for them to access for studying and we can even offer them text tests where when they give an answer to #1, the question for #2 is text messaged to their phone. However, what’s to prevent the 16 year old student from accessing porn, sexting with their girlfriend, and spending their entire day off task?
With any technology, there has to be some limitation to what capabilities are allowed in schools. Until some company can determine a way to “secure” cell phones in schools, it will never catch on as an instructional tool.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
It is in my syllabus and I make sure it is heard loud and clear in my class: CELLPHONES OFF! And that does not mean set on “vibrate”. Off is off. First violation, student is asked to leave the classroom and if he/she wants to return, bring four dozen doughnuts to class. Second violation, sushi for the entire class. Can’t afford it? If you can afford a cell phone you can afford doughnuts or sushi for the class. The first offense usually does the trick for me, but some students see it as a cat and mouse game. If there is a third offense, then the student will have to text me the final in class.
Thus far, it has never gotten past the first violation. Darn! I love sushi!
Emergencies? Come on, get real. What are the chances something will happen in the next 45 minutes of class time that will warrant your immediate response? In a three hour class, I provide a 15 minute break where they can check their messages.
There is something called phone etiquette and I will not tolerate disruptive and disrespectful behavior.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Please, if cell phones are of such help in a Columbine situation, just think how helpful it would be if we gave every student and M16 instead of a cell phone. Cell phone should be turned off and kept in lockers during the school day!
March 29th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I’m at a large state university and this is a problem everyday. I tell them to put them away. I point them out to the entire class. I take breaks and tell them that re-rentry into the room represents their agreement to leave the phones “Off.” Nothing works very well. The most effective strategy: I tell students that I am often approached by potential employers, investigators doing background checks for the military or government jobs, etc. I tell students that I will make a point of telling these inquirers of their behavior which I will characterize as rude, inappropriate, grotesquely childish, dishonest and grossly unprofessional.
This works…..once in a while.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Did you pass notes in class when you were in school? How disruptive was that for teachers? Well text messaging is how students “pass notes” in class. Did you doodle on your paper when you were taking notes in class? Did your mind drift off? Did you do your homework for another class while the teacher was lecturing? Today’s students grew up on technology. Their doodling is when they are on their laptops or cell phones in Facebook or something else. Some people have to be multitasking at all times. Just because the are texting or doing something else, it does not mean they are not listening. Teachers today have to learn how to engage the students to keep them from drifting off.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
This is an interesting conversation. We are having an significant problem with bullying via cell phone, and we have had sexting occuring in the past. I am waiting for someone to take a photo of one of our students nude, in the locker room, for everything to erupt. Our school is very lax about cell phones. Unfortunately, the disadvantages of the phones far outweight the petty, silly instructional advantages. And when we require cell phone use in our classes, what do we do about the students who have no phones?
FYI–I have a cell phone blocker in my classroom and I use it. I realize that the phone companies have arranged to make these illegal in the U.S., but I will be happy to be a test case. This is my stance: All organizations that want to do business within our school buildings have to get permission from the school district. No cell phone company has yet obtained permission to do business in my class room. Until then, no cell phone company will be allowed to make money from my students while they are in my class.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
The FCC needs to create an exception on cell phone jammers for K-PhD level education. With an
exemption and individual classroom jammers, permission could be selectively granted to the students
depending on the activity going on at the time. This would be a win-win for all. Without exception,
the jammers could not be used if they interferred with communication outside the educational facility.
Most professors I know would buy their own if made legal.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Wow, when I saw the article title I kind of wondered what would be written within it? So I read it, and have since read many of the discussions. Seems that we are all over the radar with this topic. I guess I see it as an opportunity to educate students on how to properly use the technology. Instead of banning clothing, which I cannot believe some parent group has not challenged yet, address the issue. The issue is proper use of technology. This reminds me of the issue I have with schools banning/blocking websites such as facebook or blogs, it should not be about the technology rather it should be about how the students are using the technology. Is it not the job of the school to teach students how to be contributing members of society, a society that includes cell phones?
March 29th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Thanks to Teri for elaborating so eloquently on the scope of this problem.
Since I teach economics, I use texting as an example of wasteful use of resources. If they are paying for the class, and then distract themselves by texting, they are in fact wasting time and money.
Additionally, I explain my cell phone prohibition policy as an example of the role of incentives in a market economy. To make incentives clear, I make a point to not call on students who are texting. I say that students who text are not part of my class. They just sit there, like the empty desks. Class participation carries a grade in my courses. Hence, cell phone use in class is costly. Supplementary policies include a penalty for a ringing cell phone during an exam (-10 points for the first ring and -20 for any ring thereafter.)
When I discuss unemployment these days, I raise the question ‘who get laid-off first, the one abusing texting while at work or a responsible worker who concentrates on doing her/his job?’ Everyone replies, ‘the texter’.
I am happy to report that ever since I instituted these disincentives, texting and other cell phone use are down to a minimum in my classes by the second week of the semester.
While on the topic, let’s talk to our students about not texting while crossing streets, riding their bikes or driving their cars.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Hoodies–I have to laugh! They’re not only good for hiding the phones and making it look better than the hand in the pants pocket (as was suggested) but they’re also an artful way of hiding the ear buds and wires for ipods and such. So it’s another thing to watch for. I’d almost say–it’s their problem–but we have grades and parents and all that to deal with so i’ts an issue. Do I want to have to peer into hoods? Obviously not but in the name of diversity or whatever, we allow hoods up in classes. Silly. Even if they have a prestigious college logo.
In college, if they’re not disturbing others, it must be tempting to let natural consequences take over but at lower levels we’re supposed leave no child behind. You know, I do my best but I’m not more compelling than their favorite music or their best friend many days.
Cell phones are not needed in classes, period, but it’s almost amusing to see kids ‘use them as clocks’ which I can understand but we have great big ones. Yes, they need to adapt a little, not just teachers.
It seems we still have the old issues and the new ones too. Talk about multi-tasking!
March 29th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I teach at a community college. I only ask that the phone be set to silent, vibrate sometimes makes noise as well. I frankly don’t get too unstrung about texting during class, largely because if they text constantly their grade reflects it virtually 99% of the time. There’s a lesson. I mention that texting during class hinders their grade and makes it difficult to concentrate. I also mention that texting once or twice during class really isn’t that big of a deal as far as I am concerned, but if they text constantly it may distract others or them. They are also told that if they are distracted by texting and ask a question that indicates they were not paying attention at all, it is embarassing to them. This is made moreso because I usually answer the question by saying “when you were reading your text message, we….” I usually know who the frequent texters are and I will occasionally mildly embarass them in class by making comments about “the answer to that problem or concept probably isn’t on your cell phone or in a text message.” They know whom I’m talking about.
I agree with the individual who indicated that some instructors/professors/lecturers are entirely too egocentric. Learning is not about only listening intently to the instructor for the entire duration of classtime. I am long enough in the tooth to know that even quiet students who are looking forward can easily have their minds elsewhere. Hell, I even do that myself when at a conference or presentation.
My phone is on me at all times in class, set to silent. When I am in a lab setting, I will occasionally glance at the list of messgaes and infrequently respond to a message from my children–particularly when their school day is over. This is done rarely and always when I have no students with questions, needing help, etc. etc. I have also been known to stand directly over students and watch what they are typing or reading. Usually a few discreet comments OUTLOUD about the content of the message takes care of that. I also joke to my students that they need to model good cell phone behavior for their instructor, otherwise he will start following their lead and it will be downhill from there.
Sometimes one needs to model responsible use of the phone instead of simply banning it.
I find that after a few weeks the blatant overuse of the phone dies out in my classes.
K-12 has a whole different set of issues with the phone than I do in higher ed.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
My kid’s school sold the kids on the reason for banning all electronics during the school day and for the most part, they bought it. Cell phones are kept in lockers. Kids are reminded that who they normally text are in class too and they can certainly learn to wait until passing period if it is REAL critical or after school for the normal text conversations. It is OK to have rules and enforce them. Getting the kids to buy in and believe just makes it all work easier. Parents were not even notified until the kids came home and said they couldn’t have cell phones during the school day. I never heard of a single complaining parent.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
All cell phones must be in the off mode for students. If a staff member is expecting a call and have a cell phone, they may have it on vibrate but must not talk on it in the classroom or in front of students – that is just rude. If students bring one to school it must be off and kept in their back-pack which is left in the classroom or locker. They should not have them out in the school building during school hours 8:00-3:15. If it goes off, it is confiscated and given to the the principal, the first offense, the student may pick it up at the end of the day after sign for it. The second offense, the phone stays in the principals office and a parent/guardian must come pick it up. We have a sign posted at our entrance that all cell phones must be off or on vibrate only when the person is in the building – this is for safety/security in case we have a lock-down. We cannot have cell phones going off. What we use has worked for our school. If a student is caught texting in class that could lead to zero on the work if “grade” related and/or it could lead to a suspension depending on circumstances. We take such distractions seriously.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
My niece told me last year that hoodies are banned at her school in Ohio because students text inside their pockets, so this is not a new problem. They have not had to do this at my children’s school, though. They simply have a policy that if the cell phone is seen during class time, the phone is taken away. The kid gets the phone back at the end of the day for the first offense, but after the second or third, the phone is confiscated for the rest of the school year. It seems to work.
As for Steve, who makes a blanket statement that teens will not use their phones responsibly – I beg to differ. Contrary to what you seem to believe, there are indeed “good teens” out there who are responsible and abide by the rules. I hope Steve does not work with children with his attitude!
And finally – as a parent I would indeed be upset if cell phones were banned entirely. Having a cell phone is a safety issue. My teens drive, and I require them to carry a cell phone in case of emergency. Many teachers allow kids to take out their cell phones during a designated time to enter assignments. And several teachers have had one of my kids call me for various reasons – permission to attend an event, asking for help with an upcoming event, etc.
Kids need to be taught to use their phones responsibly. Requiring them to be silent during class time and taking them away if they are being used at inappropriate times seems to work. Give the kids a little credit.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
This an example of weak authority confusing specific cases with the rule: students are supposed to pay attention in class and not be communicating with others (outside of the appropriate ways). Banning an article of clothing because it is used to flout the rule is a classic mindless-authoritarian response. This often leads to an escalation of rule-breakers and rule-makers which winds up eroding the authority of the school. We’ve all hear the satirical responses like “What next? banning lose fitting shirts?” This is also bad because, although it makes life easier for the teacher, it doesn’t do much for the student.
Part of a K-12 teacher’s job is to teach students *how to be students*, so when they get to college they have the tools and discipline to pass classes. It doesn’t matter if they are texting, whispering, passing written notes or using sign language – the students are failing to pay attention in class. It is tough to get adolescents to focus for more than 8 minutes (the amount of time a TV show runs between commercial breaks
but training them to do that will be far more valuable than cracking down on phones.
Someone mentioned incorporating phones in class – that would be far more useful than adding more items to the banned list.
March 29th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
In my one-on-one music lessons, I make them turn the phones off– not silent– off. They have actually had the audacity to read messages from friends while the private lesson is in progress. If they can’t control the urge, I remove the temptation. I have also instructed them to buy wristwatches so they don’t have the excuse of needing the phone to tell time. In my classroom classes, I tell them I want the phones out and on the desk. They do comply. (When I was a grad student, one prof said in his syllabus that if our phone went off in Music History, we would be Music History history. Humor helped everyone get it.) It’s shockingly disruptive and discouraging for the teacher.
March 29th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Our new principal repealed our cell phone ban about six months ago, allowing students to talk and text between classes and at lunch, but not during class time. In that time, we have seen the instances of texting during class rise, the blatant disrespect toward teachers increase dramatically, and teacher morale drop significantly.
He tried to give the kids an avenue to check messages without disturbing class, but they abuse it. Teachers have stopped confiscating phones used during classes because the kids get them right back and text again the next day, if not later the same day. They seem to have the mentality that they have the God-given right to do what they want when they want to do it, and they are not afraid to tell their teachers where to go and how to get there.
Needless to say, I’m polishing up the ol’ resume. Several teachers in my building are planning to leave or retire. I’m not a bad teacher, but I need to be able to conduct class and be supported by the administration. It’s just frustrating.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
I read a lot of people trying to give answers to accomodate student use of cellphones. Such things like, “teach them” how to use it responsibly (sorry, I didn’t know that was our teacher’s job) or, let them use it in class to do Calculations, etc (what about the poor kiddo who can’t afford a cellphone?). I even read one halarious comment that said something to the fact that it can be used as safety such as in the Virginia Tech shooting incident (guess she didn’t read about Columbine shooters using their phone to gain entrance into the school with all the weapons).
Here is the reality, YOU CAN’T MONITOR WHAT THE STUDENTS USE THE PHONE FOR! If you use it for educational purposes, like we do for computers, then you must regualte its use and be able to gain access to those properties when a problem arises, like we do on our school computers that the students use. YOU CAN’T DO THAT WITH A PERSONAL PIECE OF PROPERTY!
As an assistant principal at a large high school, we have seen student’s cell phones used for:
Taking pics of tests, texting answers to tests, taking pics of nude people in locker rooms/showers for others to view, using it to detail plans to skip school, using it to make drug deals, using it to record fights…shall I go on?
Ban’em! We take the phones up and charge $15 to return…doesn’t deter a whole lot though since mommy and daddy will pay.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I teach at a top university and can tell you that texting is a serious impediment to teaching and learning; and this isn’t just opinion. Read work and research by Harvard professor Tony Schwartz. There is new research suggesting that multitasking and texting robs mental focus more than pot smoking. This was profiled recently in Frontline’s documentary “Digital Nation”. I think there are advantages to technology, but there is now a generation of students how cannot focus. Another good source is the book “The Dumbest Generation” -One of my students, an English major said he never read a complete book in high school and relied solely on SparkNotes.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
This notion of an emergency stems from our addiction. It’s because our mind controls us and not the other way around. Seriously: I worked this past summer to stop excessive email and texting and my mind kept going “what if something happened” and inventing imaginary problems. Many generations went to school without a phone and many students around the world go to school without a phone. I don’t watch TV or play video games because my parents (both runners and active) made my brothers and I go outside and play sports (after school). These habits carried over into adult life.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Why don’t we take a different approach to this problem and “SEE” how it looks.
What do you think students and parents would say if their teacher spent 10-20 minutes of their classtime in the front of the room TEXTING not teaching? (and NOT class related)
Do you think we would have to hear the BS excuse “Its his/her right to have a cell in class in case of an emergency”???
NO!!! You wouldn’t you would have MAJOR UPROAR from both students and parents! “How dare that teacher waste my childs time!” “Who does he/she think he/she is having personal convesations/business during MY or my childs class time! The teacher is there to do a job and that is TEACH NOT TEXT!” This is but a small and POLITE sample of what you would hear if a teacher dared to do what students do.
SO WHY NOW is it OK for them? Why allow parents to make excuses for them?
Isn’t the Students JOB TO LEARN and pay attention? They ARE NOT doing that if they are texting, surfing the web or other Non-academic activity on their electronic device. Lets face it NO K-12 grader is using their cell for academic purposes in class (maybe with the exception of the calculator), and if you believe they are there I have a Bridge here in Bkly for sale real cheap!
Employeers CAN and DO ban electronic devices form their offices/place of work all the time. Isn’t education and school, the preparation for the real world? Why then are we giving our youth a distorted view that in the reral world you can get away with whatever they want! That they do not have to abide by rules.
I do not think we can BAN them outright from schools as there are many cases where they are vital and yes they are part of our society now, but everything has a time a place. The classroom is NO PLACE for a CELL PHONE! Can we ban their use during class time YES, and we should! Anyone caught using one for any reason aside from an emergency situation should have the phone taken and not given back until the parent comes to pick it up. (and even then it should be conducted OUTSIDE the classroom, No-one needs to hear or know your personal business, nor should they be subjected to listeing to your business when they have a class lesson to learn.) Repat offenders should then incur a fine for subsequent violations 3 violation pay a fee or serve detention, 4-5 more sever fine longer detention, furthur violations = suspension and then expelled. It is not about the 1 student using the phone this behavior effects the entire classroom dynamic so ALL students are impacted by the behavior, it demonstrates that the teacher is not in control which underminds student confidence in their instructor which fosters more disruptive behavior, because “Hey if I can get away with it I will”.
Parents who have a problem with this policy and complain about it should have it played out to them when they come to pick up the childs cell phone. The administrator or teacher should have the parent waiting there in front of them while the teacher/administrator talks or texts ignoring all pleas or comments from the parent until they are significanlty aggitated, then simply turn around and say “OH was I disrespectful to you, well I am only demonstrating to you what your child does to me in my class.” “Oh you mean I was supposed to be paying attention to what you were saying? Why your child doesn’t seem to think what I have to say in class is important so why should I think that what YOU have to say is any more important?” I’m sure you will hear the old “your an adult you should know better, he/she is still a child” the proper response is simply “You are a parent you should know its your job to teach your child respect and appropriate behavior?!”
I teach Adult Ed GED classes 19+ or older and I have a little more freedom than most teachers I have a simple policy in my classes. Cell phones are OFF or on vibrate I do not EVER want to hear ANYONES phone ring in my class, 1st cell phone I hear go off or text I see you get a warning 2nd time GET OUT! If your cell call or text is more important than your education than your priorieties are wrong and you should be home attending to your precious cell not wasting my and your classmates time attending to your cell when you have TONS of learning to do. Yet I do have an understanding that sometimes emergencies do arise (especially since a good # of my students have children) In the case of an emergency call from home I know parents MUST take the call. DO IT OUTSIDE MY CLASSROOM! “Hello, yes hold on please” while you get up and leave the room quietly. These emergency phone calls are a once in a blue moon occurance and I tell them such, NO-ONE has an Emergency phone call every week never mind every day and if you do then you need to be HOME dealing with the situation come back to learn when you are ready and able to do so because it is apparent by your current situation that you have way to much going on at home to devote 100% to your studies.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:18 am
There are so many issues mentioned here, among them:
Jess said: ‘Teaching and learning as we know them will be utterly obsolete within 20 years’.
Mama Girl said: ‘It is about engaging students in the learning process and lighting a fire of enthusiasm that energizes them to learn more on their own’.
Zac said: ‘So, why not enhance the curriculum with the cell phones?’
I have taught mathematics at university for 32 years. In the past 10 years, I have seen the result of using calculators from the early grades. It seriously impedes learning ‘real’ mathematics, which in turn interferes with higher-level thinking in all subjects. Talking about ‘enhancing learning with technology’ is bunk. To really learn, one needs time for introspection, and the training to do so.
When I was an undergraduate 35 years ago, US students in the junior year of college were doing the same level of work as college freshmen in Europe, India and Japan. Since then, we have introduced innovation and change on a regular basis, and performance is even further behind the rest of the world. It is worth noting that most of the successful education systems use the old, technologically-sparse methods.
This lack of performance has spread. Now my colleagues in all disciplines are noticing that many students cannot and do not read at all. With the web, texting, cell phones, twitter, and the like, this overwhelming stream of information means that all data becomes ephemeral. How does an immature mind distinguish between information which needs to be in long-term memory, and that which will be irrelevant next Tuesday?
Who exactly is generating the new technology that we use? Americans always say that this is the country of innovation, but so very few are doing the work to prepare for that. Many with the talent are crippled by their work ethic, which is not helped by the attitude of so many that the teacher is there to entertain them.
In short, I am one of those ‘authoritative’ professors. I do know better than the students what material is important, and where it will be used. Otherwise, why should students pay tuition that ends up as my salary?
March 30th, 2010 at 2:22 am
I teach College level Comp Sci. *ALL* of my students have laptops, and there is wireless access everywhere. The biggest distractions for my classes occur in the large lectures (100-200 students). Typical disruptive behaviour includes
- talking on phones
- working on assignments for other courses
- playing video games
- email / facebook
- watching movies
- web browsing
Last year I just got sick of it. I gave a standard midterm and only 20% of the class passed! So I went hardcore on them and banned laptops, electronics etc.. They freaked out completely. Apparently they feel that since they are paying for the course they should be able to do whatever they want in it. Not a bad point – except that the behaviour was disrupting other students who did not really want to watch them kill each other in online multiuser games. A good number of students stopped attending (as is their right) after the ban was in place. This course was a write off. Only the real serious students learned the material.
This year I made some changes, which I conveyed to them in the first class.
My policy: you cannot use electronics during class except for taking notes or doing my course work. If you want to take notes on your laptop you have to sit in the front 2 or 3 rows (so I can see what you are doing). All other devices need to be turned off so I cannot hear them. If you need to make a phone call you can quietly stand up and leave.
Enforcement: Each Sunday night I make up a quiz on the current material. Ten challenging questions. If a phone rings they all get the quiz, right then and there. It counts in their grade. If I see someone gaming or browsing or doing anything other than taking notes or working through an exercise, they get the quiz.
If there are no incidents that week we do the quiz together as “sample exercises” the following week (not for marks).
So far I have had to give ZERO of the quizzes in class for marks (one look at the first quiz and they realized that it would be better to work through the questions as sample exercises), and the midterm results are much better.
Note: My justification to them is that if you are not paying attention then you must know everything already. I know this is a stretch – I could just be boring as hell and they just can’t stand my classes (in which case they should leave ordrop as is their right).
Anyway – this may or may not work in K-12. Probably you would get worked over by parents for being unfair or something – but I thought I would offer my solution anyway.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:39 am
There are several Law Schools that have banned laptops and phones in class. I work in a computer lab and if I was not constantly vigilant students would be doing everything BUT their work. I have a friend who is having the same issue in her class, students on laptops or cell phones, instead of being mentally present in class. I do not allow cell phones on in my Lab, or anything but classwork on the computers. If they want to do that they are welcome to leave and let another waiting student use the materials. If this is happening in college classrooms then it is worse in K-12. Middle and high school students should not be allowed phones in class, they have neither the maturity or control. And as several people have mentioned, it is flat out rude.
March 30th, 2010 at 9:02 am
If installing jammers violate FCC rules, then why is there mobile phone coverage there in the first place? I think all schools should be RF sheilded, which would prevent mobile reception full-stop. The problem is rife here in the UK too, but with the addition of MSN live chat, porn being freely distributed to and amongst minors and people using on-board cameras innapropriately in school!
We could install scanners at the school entrance, which would easily identify a mobile phone, then confiscate it for the day.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Banning an entire type of clothing because some children use the pocket to text is ludacris. Yes lets ban pants with pockets next. You know I have seen some kids put the phone under the shirt and text that way. So perhaps we should ban shirts all together. I mean come on. You don’t go screwing over parents who now have to buy new clothes because the hoodies they bought their children are now not allowed because the teachers are incapable of maintaining their students attention. Kids have always been distracted. They put comic books in their textbooks and faked reading. They passed notes. Now they play with phones. Banning hoodies will merely spawn a new creative way to text. Why are we so quick to ban things? It is a very uimpressive and inadequate solution in my opinion. How about we deal with this the same way educators have always dealt with distractions, do your best to hold the students attention and engage them, reward good behavior, punish infractions. Do your best. Yes some kids may get a text tor two typed without getting caught sometimes, just as all of you didn’t get caught everytime you passed a note to a friend, and in either case is it really that big of a deal?
March 30th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I teach college and yes, cell phones are a big problem.
So, I now warn students that if caught using a cell phone during class I will deduct 20 points from their next exam. Some students complaint about this , but I had the full support from the head of the department.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
When I first came across this issue at the University, I found that a lot of students were using their phones to check the time. Even this was annoying, so I got clocks installed in the classroom. Today’s students do not have watches.
Second texting is not participating. Cell phones are required to be turned off when they enter the classroom. Any one texting is counted absent since they are not present to the discussion.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Cell phone has NO use in schools k-graduate programs. Why should teachers be left up to how to “teach” students to use their phone? Let’s see, reading, writing, math, science, and cell phone use. Come on people! Yes we are living in the era of technology, but it is up to us as parents to teach our kids the responsibility of cell phone usage. I teach a class where students feel they have the right to text, surf, and God knows what on their phones… i have asked the student to leave my class, or have confiscated their phone. Why should I be a cop in my own classroom? Shouldn’t i worry about teaching, not taking up part of my time telling students to stop using their phones?
Cell phones are great in an emergency… however what is the excuse every other day?
March 30th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
I have been enjoying the strong emotions that this topic has generated. I hear them any time I speak to a parent group. HOWEVER, I have not seen information here with RESEARCH DATA showing the impact of cell phone use in class. To that end, there are many studies that demonstrate that “interruptions” lead to a very small decrement in test performance, even when they occur during a lecture. In my research (which I detail in my new book “Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn”), we have used college students and literally flooded them with text messages during a videotape lecture that they knew was part of the class and, further, that there would be a test following the film. One-third of the class (randomly assigned, of course) got no texts during the lecture, one-third got 4 texts (in a 30 minute movie) to which they were asked to respond, and the last third got 8 texts. In addition, we had students write down all the texts they received in addition to our planned texts. The upshot is that, yes, the group with 8 texts in 30 minutes did do worse on the test, but only 10% worse than both the 4-text and 0-text groups who did not differ. So, it does appear that getting a large amount of text messages during a lecture can lead to a small decrement in performance.
Now, having said that, I would like to make two more points. First, if you take cell phones away from these iGeneration children you are asking them to unitask which is totally out of their daily routine. They multitask all day and all night, doing upwards of 7 or more tasks at a time (again, from our research). In terms of multitasking difficulty (again from our research), texting is actually one of the easiest tasks to do in conjunction with other tasks, particularly for the younger, iGeneration. Second, there are, as others have stated, many creative educational approaches that can be used involving cell phones in the classroom. For example, an entire school district in Maine, I believe, has bought iTouches for classroom use and downloaded hundreds of educationally-relevant apps. The kids love them! Other schools break the kids up into groups where one or more students have a smartphone or any phone with Internet access, and pose a question related to the daily topic. The students compete to see who can find information the fastest and also, as time goes on in the “lecture”, the most unique facts from reliable sources. [BTW, this is a great opportunity to teach media literacy and appropriate websites.] In one case the students then texted their information to the teacher who transferred it to a whiteboard. Those students who didn’t have the phones were able to use school laptops or just work with the other students.
Look, we created a multitasking, fast-paced, highly technology-rich environment and now we are asking kids to move from that home environment to a low-tech, lecture based school. It just isn’t fair or reasonable to think that you can engage multitasking kids in a unitasking environment. We have to learn how to bridge the gap between what they do all day long and what we do in the limited time we have them in school. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that research shows that they become more engaged in their schoolwork from home OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL when they can connect socially to their teachers and classmates.
It is a new generation of children who love technology and we need to use those already engaging tools to teach our children. The resources are there. They are free. And now we just need to have the kids help us find them (after all, they are the best web searchers!).
March 30th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Hate to say the obvious….But, go back 30 years and the problem would have been writing and passing notes. The phones are only another tool in being social. I would make all students put their phone on speaker and placed in the open on their desks. That would be just like you were reading their “notes” to the whole class!!
March 30th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I’m seeing a lot of extreme viewpoints on this forum. In my experience as an IT professional at a community college and also at a K-12 district, extreme stances don’t lend themselves to managing technology very well. There must be compromises.
On the one hand, there are those who want to encourage the use of cell phones among K-12 students in class, which is not practical. While cell phones are more and more commonplace among minors, they are not universal. What do you do for the kids whose families can’t afford a cell phone for every child? Are the teachers going to instruct each child how to use each of the thousands of different brands/types of phones?
On the other hand, there are those who are all for cell phone jammers. It has been noted correctly several times by other posters that this approach is 100% illegal. The only difference between intentionally jamming a cell phone signal and physical cutting someone’s phone line is property damage. Cell phone jammers still interfere with federally protected communications. It is, however, perfectly reasonable to have students check phones at the office and to confiscate them if used in class.
I also find it incredibly disturbing that so many college instructors have such draconian policies regarding cell phones. While it is a K-12 school’s responsibility to know where their students are and how to contact them at all times during the school day, it is not the responsibility of a college or university to have such safeguards in place. College students are adults and are responsible for their own actions and must also be responsible for their families in the event of an emergency. I know that most college students don’t yet have a high amount of family or work obligation, but there are still many non-traditional college students who do. At the community college that I work for, the average student age is 25. Making students put phones on silent/vibrate is a perfectly acceptable policy. Making students turn cell phones off is not realistic for those who have serious responsibilities off-campus. It seems like many instructors have very strong opinoions about this. The best advice is to try not to take it personally and understand that regardless of how you may view them, they are adults. College students pay for the opportunity to get higher education and they have to be allowed to sink or swim based on their own merits.
I’m also seeing a lot of dismissal of the campus safety argument. The main reasoning seems to be that these incidents don’t happen often. Should we then get rid of fire drills or tornado drills? I saw one legitimate argument that parents showing up at school will get in the way of police and rescue efforts, which is valid. There should be a phone for the teacher or student(s) in the classroom for use in emergency situations. In my state of residence, it is also a requirement for the institution to maintain a system for transmitting detailed location information when a 911 call is placed so that emergency units know where to respond at. At the higher education level, many colleges are already utilizing emergency notifications via registered student and faculty cell phones and it would be detrimental to that effort to force students to turn off their phones during class.
As far as the clothing issue goes, I feel like it places an unnecessary burden both on the students and parents. Schools will always have requirements that students not wear offensive t-shirts, short skirts, or low-cut tops. A hooded sweatshirt, by nature, is neither offensive nor revealing.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
At our school, we tell the students that if we see or hear a cell phone, it is confiscated. No questions asked. No fussing, no fighting, no punishment. The phone is labeled with the student’s name and turned in to the office. The parents may come after school and retrieve the phone for a $15 fine. Simple as that. It works. Once or twice and the parents become very annoyed and soon join with the teachers in telling the students to have their phones off, or on silent. Every once in a while the school does something fun with the money collected.
March 30th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
I teach undergraduate and graduate students at a university. Texting has become more than technologically passing notes or an alternative to lack-luster classroom entertainment. Texting is a drug of choice under a value system where anxiety over immediacy has replaced the value of being “in the moment.” Students report increasing levels of anxiety when they are not in a position to check and respond to messages. Like alcohol or Zoloft, texting has become an anti-anxiety drug. This drug is a societal issue and not just a problem for students who risk their grades for their addiction.
As others have mentioned texting is pervasive at work, during meeting and while driving. How often have we seen students and Moms so involved in texting that they are totally unaware of their surroundings – a field day for muggers. My personal favorite is pedestrians crossing a busy street while totally focused on their phone. Pray for universal health care and large police department budgets.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:58 pm
First use of a cell phone? It’s a “mulligan.”
Second use per semester? Instant pop quiz for every student EXCEPT the one who got caught.
That usually ends use of them in the classroom.
And as long as it’s on the syllabus and explained on day one, it’s fine.
March 31st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
All these suggestions are wonderful, but there is one big problem, in the state of Georgia, cell phones are illegal for students to have on during the instructional day. Until the law is changed, all these suggestions in this state are useless. Teachers allowing students to use their phones are doing them a disservice. Just like the 18th Amendment taught those in the Roaring 20s a general disrespect of the law by drinking, so to are teachers and parents by allowing them to use or by contacting them during the school day.
March 31st, 2010 at 4:44 pm
In the business computer world where folks often try to get around work policies, management often asks us to impose on the fly measures – block this site or take away that selection from a program – to curb bad behavior which only energizes their resourcefulness. So we respond: “There are seldom technological solutions to behavioral problems.” You must address the root cause to change behavior by 1) publishing clear policies about what is appropriate and who presides over fringe cases and 2) enforcing the consequences of violation.
Here, I would respond: “There are seldom textilogical solutions to behavioral problems.” Imposing a solution which is tangent to the problem doesn’t address the root problem, it only makes the offenders try harder. The school should be in control of the classroom. The solution must be policy-based and preemptive. The portable communication device policy must state what is allowed with reasonable elasticity to address changes in technological offerings and implementation, as well as detail consequences of violations. It MUST have sign-off by the student and parent(s)/guardian(s).
That said, my personal opinion is PCDs are in general of no benefit to the classroom except in very, very limited cases where a module or section may directly pertain to the subject. In like manner, there was never a use for etch-a-sketch, walkie-talkies, Pong, Mattel Football, TI-99 and Walkman, but the slide-rule, calculator, TRS-80, PC/Mac, Kindle and iPad did and may find limited, well-defined use.
I like the “turned off on top of desk upside down in plain sight” idea as the closest to the student it should go. It leaves the device in possession of the owner – no chance for theft, damage or loss except by the owner – except in the case of leaving the classroom where it can be placed by the owner in a designated visible location like a pouch near the instructor for control. And, like one poster said this allows the instructor to focus on those that do not have one on the desk. No other reason stated so far – contact for rides, for rare emergency events, appointment changes, etc. – are forceful reasons to have the device active in the classroom. There is other time for that.
March 31st, 2010 at 4:53 pm
my guess is there isn’t a third time per semester, haha. good idea, dale
March 31st, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Students with cell phones + parents who advocate for them to keep cell phones on and actively used in class = a component of the larger problem of parents’ neglect for student progress, growth, intellect, and developent. PARENTS DON’T CARE! They want their kids to work hard, but even they don’t know what that means. They want their children to have “better” in life without any true standard of comparison. But they know exactly the purpose for which they provided their child with a $300+ device that goes through more intellectual processes than the user; it is for “emergencies.” Unless my dictionary is broken, I thought emergencies were infrequent occurrences that required immediate attention due to their potentially destructive nature, not the daily reminder to take out the trash. (Gone are the days of the ‘frige memo. Sigh).
Let’s call a spade a spade. Parents arenow, more than ever, disconnected from the educational process so much that they have no problem contributing regularly to the disruption of the schoolwide environment. They don’t want their students to recieve a quality education so much as they just want to know that their child is somewhere safe during regular work hours. Everything else is the teacher’s problem.
April 1st, 2010 at 12:35 pm
How many times have you been sitting in a faculty meeting and you look around and see your colleagues texting or you hear their cell phones ringing and disturbing the meeting? Teachers are the worst. I know, because I’m one. They show up late for meetings, they sit in the back and whisper the whole time, and they play games with their Iphones.
Funny? Ironic?
Immature. Unprofessional.
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:11 pm
We can always blame new technology for our issues. We are talking about a school room and children. By 7th grade, or before, most kids are totally self involved and the world according to them revolves around themselves and their issues completly. Yes we can impose strict measures to deal with this cell phone issue, but the outside world is using this technology wherever and whenever it can and our kids are just keeping up with this preparing themselves, whether they know it or not, for their future. The world requires a constant awareness of change and the ability to learn and understand it. These changes are constant and if students are to be successful in the real world they must incorporate this attitude/philosophy into their being. Sure it would be nice to enable the teachers to have all the newest technology available for them to teaching with, but the reality is that teachers generally are not that hot to embrace new technologgy that will require them to spend exhorbitant time learning this new information and processes. Just like their students, they are more interested in their own priorities when not working. Children on the other hand are like fish to water, if a friend has it they want it. Self discipline is a necessary requirement for learning, but that should be the parents responsibility to teach .
Of course you could put in a blocking device that blocks all cellular service to or from the camus.
April 4th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
My son can text with his phone in his pants pocket. Perhaps they should ban pants! Really folks, ingenuity is the American way, and kids are no exception. When you ban hoodies, they learn to text in their pants pockets, behind their backs, etc. Why not come up with more positive ways to deal with the issue?
April 5th, 2010 at 2:27 am
Fact 1: Using a cell phone is so distracting that if driving your skills drop to that of a drunk driver! This has been shown in many studies world wide (and even on MythBusters!). Just how well do you think a drunk student would do in class? Attention is focused on the buttons, not the class.
Fact 2: Multitasking is a myth! Many studies have all shown the same thing….. adding more tasks decreases the performance of the previous one(s). There are even a few small studies that show note taking on a laptop or hand held fall behind that of the old tried and true…. pen and paper!
Time to wise up and get your priorities right people! FYI, I am a part time tech school instructor seeing students aged 16 to 75, about 200 per year. I have the power to remove a disruptive student due to cell phone usage, and they don’t get their class fee refunded! End of problem……..
April 9th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Install shielding in each classroom that carries cell phone jaming signals for that classroom only.
Give the instructor the ability to turn it on or off. The kids can still take notes on their I-Pods or
I-pads or laptops they just can’t access the cell tower outside the building.
April 10th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
I am having a lot of trouble understanding those that use or want to use ILLEGAL jammers. These teachers are complaining about the students not following the rules concerning cell phone use, yet can’t follow the law themselves. If this is teaching by example, I think I’d rather not have the students learn that lesson.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:00 am
I would really like to know how many of these comments are from actual teachers. It is really easy to say how something should be done when you are NEVER in that situation. First of all, it should be clear that college and grade school are very different. The same problem may exist, but you cannot find a “one size fits all” solution.
Sure, technology should be used in the classroom to facilitate learning. This does not mean ALL technology of all forms. Yeah, we know what century we live in, but you have to admit that providing a classroom with a Smart Board and making cellphone use part of the lesson plan are two very different things. The Smart Board is technology that will enhance learning. I don’t know about all of you. Maybe you teach angles or gave birth to a few. I love my 132 kids, but they lie to me everyday, all day. If I center a lesson around their cellphones, I am setting them up for failure. They will not do the assignment because they cannot be properly monitored with this type of technology. They are not bad. They are just kids who will do bad things when given the opportunity.
And another thing, cellphones can be used when in danger; but, they can also be used if a girl and a boy want to hook up at a certain time in the bathroom, if students want to fight, if students want to exchange drugs or weapons. They can communicate and organize more harm than good with cellphones. You think your kids come to school JUST to learn, lol (text talk). I guess I just need to make them leave the cellphone on my desk on the way to their seat. That’s like asking them to leave their right arm on your desk. There are students that would choose to be sent home before they turn in their cellphone. It’s not like the student code of conduct is distributed in the middle of the year. All of my students know that phones are prohibited. And, they still break the rules. I wonder what happens when they go home. Sometimes I imagine the parents saying “you know all those school rules…do the opposite!” Of course they don’t say that. Some do something better- Nothing!
Look, cellphones are not the root of the problem. And, it’s not going to help if we turn the classroom into a circus so your little attention deficit adolescent “angles” can stay entertained. It all boils down to adults coming together and working together for the common good -the education of our youth. Parents and teachers and administrators need to work together. If we create rules then everybody needs to enforce them. If the rules say no cellphones in class, then the teachers need to enforce it. Administrators need to back the teachers up. Parents need to support the rules. As a teacher, I feel like the parents are dumping their kids out and wishing me good luck as their cars peel out. The truth is adults don’t always follow the rules. Therefore, we don’t enforce these rules with the children. Then they turn out to be just as unprofessional as the adults that had a hand in raising them. I really appreciate the parents that work with me because their children follow the rules…most of the time.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Rebecca,
I love what your school does:
“At our school, we tell the students that if we see or hear a cell phone, it is confiscated. No questions asked. No fussing, no fighting, no punishment. The phone is labeled with the student’s name and turned in to the office. The parents may come after school and retrieve the phone for a $15 fine. Simple as that. It works. Once or twice and the parents become very annoyed and soon join with the teachers in telling the students to have their phones off, or on silent. Every once in a while the school does something fun with the money collected.”
Fines are very effective!
April 15th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
MySpace…
This post was mentioned on MySpace by Richard Hawkesford….
January 4th, 2011 at 6:49 pm
If students learned to respect educators and education, their need to multi-task during class could decrease. Let them know they don’t have to turn off their cell phones ( in case there is an emergency). But also let them know that they are missing the point of being in class. Attending class should not be seen as a burden but as an opportunity to become smarter. ( Don’t we rank in the low twenties compared with students from China and other countries?). The smart students are not distracted. We just have to keep letting the children ( students) know that being attentive is a lot more fun than texting someone while the teacher is in the room. I guess this is easier said than done. There are some good ideas expressed by others.