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A Collection of various school policies around the country. 

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A Collection of various school policies around the country. 

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We’ve collected cell phone policies from schools around the country to help you create the right policy for your school.

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In this article you can see a problem discussed is that the cell phone use of teachers is causing a distraction. However cell phones are also becoming part of a teacher curriculum.

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Dear Principal Hotline,

Cell phone use at our middle and high schools is creating a distraction from learning. I'd like to say this is our students' problem, but it's actually teacher cell phone use! I expect teachers to model good cell phone protocol when it comes to school. But, who wants to monitor everyone's use of them? I also don't want to take them away. Is there any common ground here?

Basically, how can I make sure teachers are teaching instead of being on their phones?

Sincerely,

Turn It off and Teach

Dear Turn It off and Teach,

Are your teachers really using their cell phones during instructional time? In some ways, this seems like a really clear issue. If staff are using their phones in inappropriate ways during their work time, the consequences should follow your standard escalating disciplinary system.

Where it gets muddy is determining whether the usage is inappropriate. I've worked in buildings where classroom phones don't work properly and teachers have had to use their phones to reach each other and the office throughout the school day. Sometimes school support staff text each other so their sharing of vital information doesn't interrupt student interaction with material. Many people use similar tactics during IEP or staff meetings.

My point is that our phones are obviously phones, but they're also tools, and your staff are trained professionals. Smartphones have saturated our culture and, especially for staff in their thirties and younger, phones are the instinctual first step for solving problems.

Is your speech pathologist using an app to determine whether her student would benefit from that additional support? Is your tenth grade history teacher looking for an instructional video while she's proctoring an exam because her students are finishing earlier than she'd thought? Or is your seventh grade teacher calling to schedule a dentist appointment in the middle of a geometry lesson?

Taking personal property away from adults is not a solution.

Part of finding a real solution is obtaining answers to the above questions. Without context, acceptable behavior can seem inappropriate. Taking sweeping disciplinary action without first asking why can also destroy goodwill among your staff. Increasing teacher access to technology may eliminate some usage. If your adware is blocking a website like Instagram, your teachers are going to find a way around it, and that's probably going to involve a cell phone. When teachers are using social media to teach students, it can be very educational.

Regardless of the reasons, it's worth having a general conversation at a staff meeting about appropriate and inappropriate usage and following up individually with people you've witnessed using their phones during class time.

And by all means, if anyone on your staff is kicked back with their feet up playing Candy Crush on the clock, do what you need to.
Each week, our brave school leadership expert answers your toughest questions about the daily adventures and challenges we all face as we strive to make our schools great places for kids to learn.

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Principal Hotline: How Can I Manage Teacher Cell Phone Use?

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Cell phone use at our middle and high schools is creating a distraction from learning. I'd like to say this is our students' problem, but it's actually teacher cell phone use! I expect teachers to model good cell phone protocol when it comes to school. But, who wants to monitor everyone's use of them?

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This article follows a teacher and her journey and experience with different policies of cell phones. One of which is about the double standard that teachers hold for their students. The example she uses is a trip to the White House where the adults are asked to silence their cell phones and yet 3 or 4 phones go off and nobody says anything. Another example of this would be movie theaters. I personally hear cell phones go off all the time regardless of the people around them.

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May 2015 | Volume 72 | Number 8
Teaching with Mobile Tech

Larissa Pahomov

Not long ago, most districts banned cell phones in school. Some schools still enforce such policies, but in others, students can use cell phones for personal communication within reason and employ these devices for learning. Many educators sit somewhere between banning phones and incorporating them into teaching. Many of us, myself included, are finding our way on how to let students appropriately leverage this tool. Four scenes from my teaching life illustrate how my thinking about cell phones has evolved-and suggest how school policies might evolve so we can guide students in their cell phone use.

Scene 1. Teaching in a No-Phone Zone

It's 2007. I'm student teaching at a charter school in South Philadelphia. The school has a zero-tolerance policy around cell phones: If a student is caught with one, the phone is confiscated, the student is suspended for a day, and a parent has to come retrieve the phone.

This threat keeps the majority of students from bringing their phone to school-or at least helps them remember to conceal it. Teachers can't tell who has a phone, and most of them don't care as long as they don't have to deal with it. There are still infractions, however. In the middle of a lesson, my mentor teacher catches a girl texting and has to hold the phone-a flashy model that blinks red and blue-in her hand until she gets back to her desk.

A few months later, I hear a ringtone go off in a corner of the classroom. The room titters a bit. I've only been lead teaching this classroom for a few months, and the magnitude of what I'm supposed to do next makes me panic. I glare in the general direction of the noise.

"I didn't hear a phone, did I?"

"No, no," several students reply, as though being accused en masse.

"If I did, it would be turned off by now, right?"

They nod their heads vigorously.

I had few other cell phone infractions to deal with that year. But teaching in a school where phones were forbidden-and knowing that many schools enforce similar policies-led me to this question: How do cell phone policies affect education equity?

This isn't a question most educators ask themselves. Cell phones are often treated as just another thing to manage. But the wide range of policies that exist across state lines, or even within a single district, reveals how privilege, trust, and responsibility are unequally meted out among today's students.

For example, even though New York City public schools banned student cell phones for years, the ban was only enforced in buildings with metal detectors. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently ended the ban, admits that his son Dante always carried his phone to his high school, Brooklyn Tech, which doesn't have metal detectors. For students whose learning environments don't offer them that level of trust, options are limited. They can risk sneaking their phones into school, leave them at home, or check their phones at a nearby drug store-for a fee. As a result, students who are already economically disadvantaged have to pay money for an inferior version of the privilege more advantaged students get free, just like when check-cashing services take a bite out of the paychecks of workers lacking a bank account.

Such policies stratify the haves and the have-nots when it comes to who can access technology and information. With an ever-evolving landscape of electronic devices, we need to be aware of what message our policies send.

Scene 2. Playful-but-Serious Guidance

It's 2009, the start of my second year teaching at Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia. The school has a one-to-one laptop program, and students have possession of their laptops 24 hours a day. We have an online course management system and an open-arms approach to device use in general. The environment is a world away from my student-teaching placement.

That doesn't mean I've got everything figured out, however. My first year, I'd taken a laissez-faire approach to how my students used technology in the classroom. The results were pretty messy. Students started class by writing in a paper journal for 10 minutes, and soon several students asked if they could listen to music on their phones while they wrote. That seemed reasonable-until I watched students devote 10 minutes to making the perfect playlist. Students who didn't have music on their phones protested; some got out their laptops for the same purpose. Suddenly, devices were everywhere.

This year, I'm trying a new approach. I don't want to go back to the draconian rules of my student-teaching school, but my students need some guidance. On the first day of school, I make this speech:

I'm not the cell phone police. I have no interest in controlling what you do or don't do with your cell phone. It's your property, and in the end you have to learn how to use it appropriately. Speaking of which, do you know what the cell phone rules are when you take the SATs? When you're in the exam room, if your phone so much as buzzes, you get thrown out of the exam, your scores are cancelled, and you lose the money you paid for the exam. That's four hours that you have to separate yourself from your phone.

This year, we're going to work on getting you to a place where you can manage your cell phone use. Think of me as your coach. We'll be doing some strength training, starting with the beginning of class, which will be tech-free time. Whenever you come into the room, the expectation is that you get your journals out and put all technology away. That means no phones on your desk, no phones shoved between your thigh and the chair or hanging out on the windowsill. A lot of you are already there. But some of you-I'll be honest here-have an addiction. You can't separate yourself from your phone for 10 minutes. If that's you, let me be clear: you have a problem. And we're all here to help you.

I've given a version of this speech every year since. The question about the SAT policy gets students to respond and then to gasp when the truth is revealed. Likewise, the statement "you have a problem" elicits giggles from the class: They know exactly who hasn't yet developed control of their cell phone use. The line "we're all here to help you" is playful, but it sets the right tone: This is an effort based in caring, not enforcement.

This playful-but-serious approach works in an environment where leaders trust students, which we do at Science Leadership Academy. But an experience I had after teaching for several more years helped me ponder why many educators don't trust students to use cell phones for learning-like they would trust adults.

Scene 3. A Double Standard?

It's 2014. I've been at SLA for seven years and have written a book on the school's pedagogical approach. I'm speaking at the Future Ready Superintendent Summit, organized by the U.S. Department of Education and hosted by the White House. One hundred superintendents from around the United States are there, all dedicated to integrating technology use into their districts. Much of the morning is spent in an auditorium adjacent to the White House, going over the logistics of the event we'll attend in the East Room, where President Obama will say a few words. Every single person has a smartphone or tablet out during this time, and our liaison reminds us to put our phones on silent before we enter the White House.

Sure enough, after we walk over to the White House and settle in the East Room, somebody's phone goes off. The room doesn't do anything in response-although I recall thinking "wow, that person's stupid"-and three more phones ring in the hour before President Obama enters the room. (Mercifully, no devices sound during his speech.)

When speaking on a panel later that afternoon, I contrast our situation in the East Room with that of many students. "Did anybody get thrown out of the White House today because they forgot to put their device on silent?" I ask. "Did anybody's parent have to come pick up their phone?"

To get to the point behind my rhetorical questions: Why is it easy for educators to deny students privileges that they allow themselves; why is it acceptable to mete out to minors a punishment that adults would laugh at?

The typical response would be that students "haven't yet learned" how to manage their technology responsibly and that the learning environment will go to pieces if nobody steps in to manage their development. But in classrooms where the presence of electronic devices is normalized, the focus doesn't evaporate whenever a phone rings. If students can't practice using technology responsibly in a low-stakes setting like school, how will they prepare for high-stakes settings like job interviews-or White House visits?

This double standard carries over to the tasks students use their devices for. In 2012, Pew Research Institute surveyed public school teachers who teach advanced placement courses. Sixty-four percent said that digital technologies "do more to distract students than to help them academically." But 99 percent of the teachers said they use search engines for academic purposes, and 73 percent characterized themselves as "very confident" in their online research abilities.

How did these teachers get to this place of confidence and skill? How did they learn to use these technologies for academic purposes, not for distraction? Presumably, many of them finished school before the rise of online research tools and figured out how to apply their traditional skills within the new medium. Why not model this process for students?

Scene 4. Drawing a (Non-Draconian) Line

The week after my White House visit, I'm managing a class of juniors that has just started a series of book club meetings. Students assemble in their groups, pull out their novels, and begin discussing last night's reading.

While they talk, I'm dismayed by the pervasive presence of cell phones on desks. At most tables, at least one student is texting or swiping through a social media feed while another student is talking to them directly. It's one thing if they're getting distracted while I babble on, but watching students ignore one another in this fashion makes me fume.

"All right, everybody. Stop your book clubs for a moment." The conversations slowly grind to a halt.

"I have an announcement-you're all on notice with your cell phone usage. I don't know exactly what it is with this group, but you have a problem."

Nervous laughter spreads around the room. For a moment, I'm not sure they're taking this seriously, but I press on.

"Starting now, if I see a phone out in class, I'm taking it, and it's going to be mine until the end of the day. You can come pick it up right after school. Consider this cell phone detox."

The vibe in the room is one of slight disbelief ("Damn, she's not playin'"). The cell phones disappear, and conversations restart. I tour the room, tuning into different discussions and occasionally offering a guiding question, while also keeping an eye out for surreptitious texting under desks. Occasionally, a student asks, May I use my phone to look up a word we don't know? The answer is always yes.

After class ends, I feel conflicted. I've drawn a hard line in class just days after I spoke at the White House about how my students can manage their technology on their own. Have I circled back to the draconian policies I despised?

In the weeks that followed, however, drawing that line helped my students start to use their phones appropriately. Sometimes students were grumpy when their phone first disappeared into my desk drawer, but by the time they came to collect their device, they were apologetic. After two weeks, I took them off notice. Now the expectation in this class is simply no phones out on desks: You can take it out and use it responsibly, then back in your pocket it goes. And the list of responsible uses isn't short. Students can look up quick facts and definitions, take photos of notes on the board, add reminders to their calendars, complete assignments if their laptop is broken, and even record moments of joy and silliness. That last one may seem irrelevant to learning, but anybody who has ever sat in a classroom devoid of joy knows that it's anything but.

No Problem

Making decisions and implementing sensible policies about devices takes time and attention. It's important not to think of policies like coaching students to lessen their phone use as solutions to a problem, because cell phones aren't a problem to be solved. (Would we solve the problem of students doodling during class by confiscating their pencils?) As long as we treat students like responsible adults and invest energy in fostering responsible behavior, we can not only accept cell phones in schools, but also use them for learning.

Endnotes

Fifty-one percent of U.S. school principals allow mobile device use in school, according to a 2013 by Project Tomorrow, reported in The New Digital Learning Playbook: Understanding the Spectrum of Students' Activities and Aspirations.

Purcell, C., Heaps, A., Buchanan, J., & Friedrich, L. (2012). How teachers are using technology at home and in their classrooms. Washington, DC: Pew Research Institute.

Larissa Pahomov teaches English at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. She is the author of Authentic Learning in the Digital Age (ASCD, 2014). Follow her on Twitter @LPahomov.

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May 2015 | Volume 72 | Number 8 Teaching with Mobile Tech Larissa Pahomov Not long ago, most districts banned cell phones in school. Some schools still enforce such policies, but in others, students can use cell phones for personal communication within reason and employ these devices for learning.

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Should students be allowed their phones in class?

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Should students be allowed their phones in class?

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In this article it shows two sides of the rule along with giving ideas of how to integrate cell phone use into the classroom through the use of educational apps.

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These days, more and more students are bringing cell phones to class. Even elementary school-aged students have cell phones in their pockets and backpacks.

However, the news of Ontario's decision to ban cell phones in classrooms opens again the debate about whether or not students should have cellphones in school. It also brings up the question of whether it's possible for technology to exist in the classroom as a learning tool-rather than simply a distraction.

Ontario's Classroom Cell Phone Ban

Starting in September 2019, cell phones will be banned in Ontario classrooms during instructional time.

The new ban means elementary and secondary school students won't be able to use their cellphones in the classroom unless it is for educational purposes, medical reasons, or as a support for students with special needs. How the ban is enforced will be up to individual boards and schools.

By banning cellphones, Ontario's Education Ministry hopes to remove distractions so students can focus on acquiring foundational learning skills they need, including reading, writing and math.

The decision and renewed debate has many teachers and parents left wondering: can cell phones ever really benefit students in class, or are they best left tucked away?

Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of students having cell phones in school.

Cell Phone Use In The Classroom

Students check their phones in the classroom an average of more than 11 times a day. That can add up to a lot of time spent distracted from schoolwork. And when students are distracted, it's a recipe for extra stress, frustration, and catch-up time for everyone.

With students spending up to 20% of their in-class time texting, emailing, and checking social media, it's no wonder the debate about cell phones in the classroom is alive and well.

Students check their cell phones in the classroom more than 11 times a day.
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Learn more about the pros and cons of students bringing their cell phones into the classroom.

How Cell Phones Can Be Used Effectively In the Classroom

If properly managed, cell phones can be used as tools to help children learn in the classroom. The following are some of the pros of allowing cell phones in school:

1. Using educational learning apps

Cell phones give students access to tools and apps that can help them complete and stay on top of their class work. These tools can also teach students to develop better study habits, like time management and organization skills.

2. Incorporating digital platforms into lessons

Using social media can keep students interested in class and encourage them to participate in the discussion. Some teachers create twitter hashtags or message boards students can use during class discussions to share thoughts and ideas. This can be especially helpful for students who might not be comfortable speaking in class.

3. Supplementing lessons with digital materials

Teachers can take advantage of cell phones by providing students with resources to find more information about a topic. This can include videos, news stories, online discussion groups, and more. Allowing students to access these resources in class can help encourage participation and discussions.

4. Providing easy access to more information

Cell phones can give students access to more information, letting them research more about a topic while having class discussions. This is especially true for current events that have not yet been covered in school textbooks.

The Drawbacks Of Allowing Cell Phones In Classrooms

While cell phones can be used as learning tools, it is a challenge to make sure students are using them for school-related tasks. A cell phone can easily turn from "classroom learning tool" into "classroom disruption".

Cons of allowing cell phones in school include:

1. Distractions and interruptions

When students use their cell phones to check social media and text their friends in class, it leads to distractions for those students as well as for their peers. This can cause disruptions in class, particularly if the teacher is constantly telling students to turn their devices off.

2. Cyberbullying

Cell phones can also lead to increased problems with bullying on the schoolground. Cyberbullying can be harder to see than other forms of bullying, making it difficult for teachers to identify and stop when it is happening.

3. Cheating

Cell phones can be a helpful learning tool in class. But they can also be used by students to access information while taking a test, leading to cheating. Even if a student isn't caught, this can lead to him or her having a poor understanding of the material in the future, and is unfair to students who studied hard to do well.

4. Disconnection from face-to-face activities

While cell phones can help encourage participation by offering different channels, this can also lead to less in-person discussion and fewer learning opportunities. Learning to work together with others is an important part of students' education, and can be lost with too much dependence on cell phones and other digital technology.

The Bottom Line: Should Students Have Cell Phones In School?

There's no easy answer: there are both pros and cons to students having cell phones in school. Although they can be used as a learning tool in the classroom, this only works as long as students use them effectively.

This means for teachers who decide to use cell phones (or any other digital device) as part of their lessons, it's important to set ground rules and keep a close eye on how they are being used.

Where do you stand on the cell phone debate? Let us know by tweeting @oxfordlearning on Twitter!

Related Resources:

Is Multitasking Bad For Students?
How To Study Without Being Distracted

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Should Cell Phones Be Allowed In Classrooms? | Oxford Learning

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Should students have cell phones in the classroom? Learn more about the pros and cons of students having cell phones in school, and weigh in on the debate.

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While some schools are trying to battle the use of cell phones the school mentioned in this article is using the use of the cellphones to their advantage. Wiregrass high school began using this technology to communicate with and teach their students. Teachers were using a mass text messaging service to send out assignments to their students. They also allowed students to use them in order to share class notes.

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For many schools around the country, mobile devices are viewed as the enemy. They distract from learning and represent a hard-to-detect method of cheating. But for some teachers and schools, harnessing the power of cell phone technology is the next logical step in student engagement.

Back in 2009, Wiregrass High School in Wesley Chapel, Florida, made headlines by embracing student use of mobile phones in class. Teachers sent assignments via mass text message to students, who in turn snapped photos of blackboards, shared class notes and read their teac her's class blog. The school admitted that while cheating was possible, the majority of students took the higher road.

Reaching Students

Wiregrass isn't alone. Use of the technology is growing in popularity. Willyn Webb uses cell phones in her classroom and is co-author with Lisa Nielsen of the forthcoming Teaching Generation Text, due out in October 2011.

Webb uses Poll Everywhere -a classroom response system that uses text messaging, Twitter and the Web to poll students-in her alternative high school classroom. "I knew the ability for students to answer anonymously and 'in the moment' were valuable teaching tools, and I knew that even though my students were living in poverty, most of them had cell phones. So, when I heard about Poll Everywhere, I could not wait to try it," said Webb. She explained that the simple set-up required no new equipment and was almost instantaneous. "I had my students get out their phones and text in their answers. I compared it to the 'American Idol' voting, which they all immediately understood. Now we answer through the phones for homework and for classroom discussions. I use it with my staff and the parents as well."

Other services, such as eTextPrep and Instructure Canvas, offer similar services for educators. eTextPrep delivers curriculum for SAT, ACT and AP test prep to students and teachers via SMS (short message service) text messaging. There is also a private center for messaging available to students and teachers through the Teacher Dashboard. Instructure Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) where teachers can post assignments, due dates for tests and quizzes and grades on the Web, and students can be notified by text message, email or Facebook notification.

"We believe teachers should be able to have conversations with their students through the medium they are most comfortable with, and we're providing a safe way to do it. We're trying to tear down the walled garden that has surrounded the LMS in years past," says Devin Knighton, director of public relations for Instructure.

Classroom Texting Tips

Webb offered these quick tips for using texting in the classroom:

1. Collaborate with students to develop classroom policies and procedures for texting (when schools embrace cell phones as a learning tool, students' inappropriate use-and the need for discipline-decrease tremendously) .

2. When cell phones are banned in your school, use them for homework, for communicating with parents, and with staff. When adults experience the value of educational cell-phone use, approving classroom implementation is often the next step.

3. Enhance research-based teaching strategies that integrate cell-phone tools. This provides evidence and support for your lesson.

4. Keep data on student achievement when using cell phone-enhanced lessons. Then you have proof. Those of us who use texting know that students love their phones and are excited to use them for learning. That is motivating, and the result is increased student achievement--just what administrators and parents want to hear!

Article by Sarah W. Caron, EducationWorld Social Media Editor
Education World®
Copyright © 2011 Education World

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Integrating Cell Phones Into Lessons | Education World

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For many schools around the country, mobile devices are viewed as the enemy. They distract from learning and represent a hard-to-detect method of cheating. But for some teachers and schools, harnessing the power of cell phone technology is the next logical step in student engagement.