Cell Phones in the classroom

(Okay - this is me procrastinating on my research and writing for my doctorate class.....)

Let's admit it - most high school/college students have a cell phone and they DON'T put it in their locker during school or leave it in their dorm room. If my own children are any indication, that cell phone is glued to their body in some way or another so that there can be instant texting at any moment. I myself have become an avid texter in part because I know I will get an immediate response from my daughters.

Clearly, cell phones are a problem in school - cheating, inattention - lots of issues. But I read this article by Audrey Waters entitled Texting in the Classroom: Not Just a Distraction. Waters offers some great resources for using cell phones in the classroom as a teaching tool. There are a couple she lists, but one in particular caught my attention because I know how much 'clicker's' are used in classrooms for polling, review, etc. and I also know how expensive these devices are. In this educational era of no funding, why not get the same ability to poll students using a tool they all have (cell phones)? Poll Everywhere seems like a great alternative. Anyway, read the article - it has a couple of other good suggestions for getting those cell phones to be an educational tool.

Alright - procrastination over - back to reading research and writing. Sigh.....

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