Journal 9

“Should Cell Phones Be Banned From Classrooms?”
by Josh Allen and Liz Kolb

Both authors discuss their points of view on whether or not they believe cell phones should be used in the classroom. Kolb argues that cell phones could be an asset to help students in school. There are functions on most cell phones that may save money for the school in the long run. By letting students explore the Internet on their cell phones fewer computers may be used, cutting the cost of the extra PCs. Students may also use their phones for the calculator function or as a note-taking device. Kolb argues that since most students carry cell phones to school, teachers should let students use the tool that they already love and are proficient in. Special needs students may also use the phone to assist with their hearing. The author discusses a Web-based program called Jott that enables the student to record a lecture and transpose the audio into text through the phone. The text messaging function may also be used when teachers want to contact parents. The idea is to send out a mass text to parents discussing important assignments due so that they may be aware and ask their kids about school. This would keep parents informed.

Allen, on the other hand, shares a completely different view on cell phone use in the classroom. While Allen fully supports using the latest technology in the classroom, he does not feel that students should be using cell phones in the classroom. There are obvious reasons, such as the fact that a significant amount of students will be doing more than just school work on them. Allen feels that it would be very simple for kids to text each other without being caught, when they should be working on an assignment. Allen states, “Nothing that you can do on a cell phone will inspire students as they make their way into the world.”


Question #1: Do you believe cell phones could be an efficient learning tool for students in the classroom?

Quite frankly, I was laughing to myself when I was reading about how Kolb believes kids could benefit from playing with their phones in class. There were all sorts of things wrong with her explanations. One of her claims was that students could use the Internet. Now, I don’t know about you, but my Verizon plan charges me air time to use my phone Internet. I don’t ever use it for this reason. I could only imagine all of the angry parents who would get their kids’ $800 bill in the mail because the kid went over the 450 minutes allotted for doing school research during class, when their were most likely computers in the computer lab that would have been free of charge. Kolb also believes kids could use the calculator. While the calculator is convenient for tallying up the total amount of my paychecks to write on a deposit slip, I could not see myself using my cell phone calculator for any type of school work activities. They cannot do nearly as much as a TI calculator when students need to find logarithms or square roots. I believe if the cell phone was used as a calculator during math class, most kids would learn nothing. This would give them an excuse to text their friends in class.

Question #2: What are the positives of using cell phones in the classroom?

One of the topics Kolb mentions is disabilities. Apparently, students with hearing problems may benefit from the cell phone. Kolb discusses a program called, Jott, which enables a student to record a lecture with their cell phone. Once the lecture is recorded, the words are transposed onto the cell phone as text. Now, I think this would be a very cool idea for a student with disabilities. This would most definitely enhance the child’s experience in the classroom. Of all of the explanations Kolb uses in her argument, this is the one I agree with and find most valid. I would be more than happy for one of my hearing impaired students to try using Jott.