Cell Phones Useful in Class?

Back in 1978-1979 I was in my final year of college and was teaching part time at a small private school.  I have always been fascinated by electronics, and a bit of an early adapter.

At that time, the big technology issue for classrooms was the use of calculators.  If children used calculators in class, they would never learn basic skills like adding up columns or doing long division.  Now I happen to think that knowing some basic manual calculation processes is a rather useful skill, but I doubt that very many modern job interviewers ask about one’s ability to add up long columns by hand.  They do, however, very often ask about keyboard skills, sometimes including the number pad.

During that year I kept the very local controversy alive by bringing my 50 step programmable calculator to the classroom and teaching many of the kids to use it.  Even those who thought a regular calculator might at some unknown future date have a place in the classroom were pretty certain that a programmable calculator would be out of the question.

Now, of course, we use computers on a regular basis and some colleges even supply them to all their students.  But what about the much maligned cell phone?

Well, according to TECH.BLORGE.com at least one teacher is making cell phones an integral part of classroom education.  And I say more power to her and those like her.  I think the time will come when it will be standard for anyone, including schoolchildren, to have a means of communication on their person at all times, and that will include the classroom.

Too many teachers teach as though they are preparing children to live in a classroom.  I think that will be less and less viable.  They’ll need to absorb the skills they will use, and whether we like it or not, that will mean becoming completely comfortable with a computer, and yes, probably with an ever-present cell phone, or whatever replaces it.