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CHICAGO
— With the election weeks away,
Fremd High School
teacher
Jason Spoor
asked students in his government class, some of them
first-time voters, to research local candidates vying
for office.
They
would have 15 minutes and one learning tool: their cell
phone.
"If
you are driving down the street and headed to vote, you
don't have a computer at the touch of a hand. You have a
cell phone," Spoor told his students last week.
The
lesson would have been impossible in the past. But with
cell phones tucked in the book bags and pockets of
three-fourths of today's teens, many high schools are
ceding defeat in the battle to keep handheld technology
out of class and instead are inviting students to use
their phones for learning.
Under a
teacher's guidance, students might record themselves
speaking a foreign language, text an answer to an online
quiz or send themselves a homework reminder.
"It's
one of those things — if you can't beat them, join
them," said
Jill Bullo
, principal of
Wheaton North High School
, which plans to review its policy this year.
As a
first step, Wheaton administrators allowed students to
use cell phones before and after classes last year,
instead of requiring them to be powered off at all
times.
It is the
latest twist in the debate about how schools react to
the gear that students carry with them every day.
An
estimated 83 percent of 17-year-olds across the country
have cell phones today, according to a report released
in April by the
Pew Internet and American Life Project
. That grew from 64 percent five years earlier. Among
all high school-age students, 75 percent have them.
Younger
children were less likely to have cell phones, research
showed. But even among 12-year-olds, 58 percent reported
owning one compared with 18 percent in 2004.
Across
all ages, nearly eight of every 10 students surveyed
carried their phone with them to school every day, the
study showed.
"Every
year, it seems to trickle down one more grade
level," said
Liz Kolb
, author of "Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell
Phones to Education."
Confronted
with such widespread use, many schools are redialing the
rules.
Educators
say they attempt to balance the opportunity to boost
student learning with the concerns of classroom
distractions or cheating.
"If
I was teaching a class and all the students had their
phones and someone was texting them or they used the
device to communicate with other students about material
on a test ... that's when it becomes problematic,"
said
Greg Fantozzi
, principal of
Kaneland High School
, where teens must stow their phones in lockers during
the school day.
What's
more, many phones come equipped with cameras and video,
which make teachers and administrators "a little
nervous about potentially bad things they can do,"
Bullo said. "If it were a simple phone, it would be
different."
Still,
York Community High School
Principal
Diana Smith
plans to sit down this week with students to talk about
the possibility of their using cell phones for academic
purposes. The
Elmhurst
school currently requires that phones remain off during
the day.
"What
we know about kids now is they are used to having so
many sources of technology available to them,"
Smith said. "I think we need to be in step with
them on it."
In
writing new cell phone rules, some schools offer
training seminars to show teachers how to make good use
of the gadgets.
Glenbrook North High School
now provides sessions for teachers on "how can you
leverage what they have in their pockets,"
technology coordinator
Ryan Bretag
said. They have similar primers for students. The north
suburban district began allowing students to use cell
phones at a teacher's discretion when they revamped the
personal technology policy last year.
Glenbrook
senior
John Cram
pulled out his phone during a lab experiment in his
material science class this fall. He wanted to measure
the porosity of a cupcake. Using the camera in his cell
phone, Cram took a picture, emailed it to himself and
then imported the image to Photoshop where he could more
precisely measure each air pocket to calculate the
cupcake's porosity.
"It
was out of necessity, really. It was just a natural
step," Cram said of turning to his cell phone.
Science
teacher
Nathan Unterman
said he allows students like Cram to use their cell
phones during a lab or class exercise just as they might
use a Bunsen burner or microscope. He draws the line at
tests, though.
With
teens so attached to cell phones — "they are
basically glued to their hands," one administrator
remarked — several schools also make it a priority to
teach students how to use the devices responsibly.
This
semester at
Deerfield High School
, students for the first time are allowed to use their
phones in hallways between classes in a pilot program
that also focuses on telephone etiquette, said the
school dean
Dan Chamberlin
.
"They
have to make sure it doesn't vibrate, ring or ping in
the classroom," said Chamberlin.
Students
will be disciplined if they arrive late to class because
of phone conversations, if they use them to cheat or if
they act inappropriately, such as cussing or talking
loudly. Last year, when phones were banned, students
would leave class to use their phone in the bathroom —
"the place you wouldn't want them to use their cell
phone," Chamberlin said.
Administrators
will review how often students are disciplined, how
often they are tardy to class and whether cheating
occurs with phones before deciding whether to make the
policy permanent.
This
year,
Township High School District 211
rewrote its policy that prohibited cell phone use during
the school day after "literally thousands" of
students landed in the dean's office for misusing them.
The northwest suburban district — which includes
Fremd High School
— now allows students to use them in designated areas
like the cafeteria and front foyer as well as in
classrooms under a teacher's guidance.
Just two
months into the school year, 76 students have been
referred to the dean's office for cell phone misuse
across the district's five high schools. By this time
last year, 202 violations had occurred, said
Daniel Cates
, assistant superintendent for administrative services.
On a
recent Wednesday, Fremd students huddled in groups to
research candidates for state and federal office, their
thumbs dancing across the palm-sized screens. Of the 31
students in class, only one did not have a cell phone.
Others had two.
"Double
productivity," senior
Lucas Lassila
quipped, holding a cell phone in each hand.
For
students who forget their phones or don't have one,
Spoor makes phone-related assignments group activities.
Some educators said they keep a cell phone or iPad to
loan students for classroom use.
Teacher
Jason Spoor
said he asks students for their email address and cell
phone number at the start of the school year. Spoor —
who asked the teens for pointers when he first bought an
iPhone — said he often texts a reminder about big
assignments and he invites students to text or email him
in return.
"Look,
this is just a part of who we are now," Spoor said
of the personal technology. "It's a tidal
wave."
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