Cell Phones: Agents of Evil or Powerful Learning Tools?

What resonated with me most significantly from this morning’s class was the notion that phones can be a powerful tool for learning. I spent the last 18 months substitute teaching and nearly every teacher I subbed for had a no cell phone policy and it was my job to enforce that. There’s this stigma around phones being an agent of evil in schools and my perspective on the matter has been greatly influenced by our classroom session today. Students have a very powerful source of information at their fingertips, yet cell phone use in schools is usually taboo. An article from the National Education Association titled "Using smartphones in the Classroom" supports the idea that phones, when used appropriately, can keep students engaged and connected in class. The article talks about changing the traditional landscape of the classroom so that there's no designated front where the teacher is stationed. Stationary teachers can lead to students using their mobile devices for non-academic purposes, but roaming teachers can monitor screens and ensure that the phones are being used appropriately. I've been in so many anti-cell phone classrooms that my default setting is to set up a classroom rule of zero tolerance for personal electronic device use. Toward the beginning of our program, I wrote a list of classroom rules and my rule regarding phone use reflected the position of zero tolerance. I'm curious to see what my mentor teacher's cell phone policy will be and how much that will influence my own policy when I become a certificated teacher. I'll be student teaching at Ferris High School and from my experience subbing there, it seems like most of the staff members aren't big fans of students using cell phones. They have a bathroom policy which requires students to trade their phones for the hall pass and that's really the only time their phones should be out. I'm eager to start teaching and develop my own cell phone policy. Undoubtedly it will transform over time as I learn how to incorporate technology into my classroom but I'm excited to start that journey! Also, since apparently I'm the meme guy, I made a meme showing a "student's" reaction to a teacher telling them to put their phone away then proceeding to pull their own phone out. I can see how that would be very frustrating as a student. 

Reference: Graham, E. (n.d.). Using Smartphones in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/tools/56274.htm