If today’s child treats their cell phone like Linus treated his blanket, do not fight with Linus – let him have an acceptable blanket. There are too many lessons children need to learn at school and arguing about cell phones is not one. School leaders, either make Linus’ blanket work for you or give Linus a blanket that works for school.
Make the cell phone work for learning.
Children have power in their pockets. I continue to be amazed with this statement. A modern cell phone has more computing power than Mercury and Apollo astronauts had in their combined space capsules. Their on-board computers were not much more than calculators and programmable switches. Continuing the evolution of computing power, the chip in my cell phone far outperforms my earlier desktop and laptop computers and equals a contemporary tablet. In my pocket I carry a powerful computer.
Stop the redundancy. Schools spend hundreds to thousands of dollars each year providing children with laptops and tablets for school use. In real world terms, we create computing redundancy. A child at school has computing power on her desk and in her pocket. The real difference is screen and keyboard size. When asked to calculate numbers or find or verify a fact, does a child need a larger screen and keyboard? No. How many times during a typical class does a child need a larger screen to look up data? Never. A phone’s on-board calculator and Internet browser are more than adequate for everything schoolwork can dish up. And children know how to use their phones for these purposes.
Save money. Save time. Save effort. Save the argument. Tell children to use their phones for in-class work that does not require a larger screen.
Imagine the first time a teacher says, “Okay, for this assignment take out your phones. You will use your calculator to ….” More than pins will drop
Cell phones are collaborative.
Goals of education at all levels include socializing and collaboration. We want children to learn to talk to each other both purposefully and socially. How many times have you watched a child on the phone either contact a friend or answer a friend’s contact and not been engaged in the communication? Whether phone calling or texting, children get engaged. It is easy to translate this into a school application. How many times has a teacher formed a group of children and they either sit a look at each other or allow one child in the group to dominate or do all the work? If we want engagement, let children engage in a real-world way on their phones.
“Today you will work with partners to answer this question: how did the NASA mission of sending a man to the moon affect everyday life for Americans? Please use your phones to look up as much info on the Internet as you need to answer the question. Then text what you know to at least three classmates. When you have received three texts, use what you learned from your search and what your friends sent you to write out your complete answer to the question in longhand. We are going to use cell phones for research and collaboration and longhand for original work. One last thing – send the text messages you received to your computer, print out those messages, and attach them to your handwritten work.”
This assignment uses cell phones to do research and collaborate, uses long handwriting to ensure original work, and ties the two together as a finished product. Linus would be happy.
Make the cell phone a learning tool not a distractor.
We contribute to every struggle between adults and children with fixed “No!” statements. As soon as “You cannot …” is declared, the commandment becomes a challenge for defiance. Defiance is not in either a teacher’s or a child’s best interest. There are, in fact, several non-negotiable rules for children in school. No fighting, no stealing, no cheating, no weapons, no drugs, and no bullying fit that descriptor. There are rules about technologies, like the non-negotiable rules, that are necessary ground rules for children in and out of school. Cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking are non-negotiable, especially as AI adds unforeseen dimensions to both. Almost all children will understand the “don’t use technology to …” rules. The rule that says “no cell phones” is an automatic challenge for defiance.
It is when children use cell phones for non-learning uses that a cell phone is a distractor in the classroom. Defiance and dug in opposition follow. Stop the defiance by showing children how to use cell phones as a learning tool. The more we can make a cell phone a tool for learning, the more we will make it a non-distractor. And the sooner we make it a non-distractor, we will make both teachers and children happier.