Reflection on Cell Phones

Joe Hoffman
Cell phones in the class room
Cell phones are a tool, employed by our culture with wonderful success. They are perhaps just as important as computers, TV’s, and automobiles, to the productivity and forward movement of our economy. The integration of cell phones with education has happened already and as is often the case, will not be reversed. I do not think it is a good idea to have students freely using their cell phones while the teacher is lecturing, but then again isn’t that what we all do when we are stuck in a meeting or conference.
The cell phone is to the world of communication that the calculator is to math. It is simply a tool allowing us to work faster, harder, and more efficiently. Imagine doing complex math equations and functions without a calculator. The level of communication and networking taking place in the lives of our students is so far above and beyond the level the school is functioning on its no wonder schools don’t allow cell phones. It’s about like a math teacher who is teaching the multiplication tables and says “no calculators”, and with good reason of course. Calculators would make it to easy thus none of the students would actually learn the tables, but the students are all math geniuses compared to the teacher and are simply bored out of their minds.
That’s what the teachers and administrators are missing. The students are on a totally different level than them. Restricting the use of the most dominant communication tool of the real world, can in no way prepare them to function effectively in it. Clearly as with all things there must be rules and boundaries in the class room, and it has been demonstrated to work quite well in other settings. Elementary and high school teachers could take a lesson from collage instructors who often encourage the use of technology like phones in the class room.
Students if given the opportunity will use these devices to supplement and improve upon what is being taught to them. While a teacher lectures for example on US History, the student can check the validity of what the teacher says right there and challenge some thing they feel is untrue or find the answer to a question that the teacher did not know or didn’t wont to answer.
This is how real learning takes place. Simply soaking in what the text book or teacher says, can only give you a small piece of the big picture. I feel that students should be encouraged to employ all forms of technology at all times.