If You Can't Beat Em, Join Em: Cell Phones and the Classroom

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune this week on the 11th, a number of schools in local districts have started allowing the use of cell phones in class, citing that it is time to embrace the technology because it is so overwhelmingly present in number. In fact, according to the story, the Pew Internet and American Life estimate that 75 percent of all high-school age students have cell phones.

These districts have begun making strides to offer training to teachers to help them integrate cell phones and other technology use in the class, much like at a conference in New Jersey this week. Does this mean that we should, as budget concerns  in both public and private education, both college level and below, embrace the idea that students should now provide their own technology? Would such measures open the door to helping students to learn or have more open dialogue with teachers and peers?

I believe such measures are indeed a good step simply because it allows kids and adults ( parents, teachers, siblings, family) to share technology, share it responsibly, and to most importantly learn from each other. This could, hopefully, point towards fixing some of the technology driven media potholes that have developed as technology has stratified current generations. It also adheres, I believe,  to a more centralized locus of authority for the communities and schools at a local level, which can then be developed into levels of the new etiquettes and social rules we are developing in using new media and its various tools.