Cell Phones and iPods - What is the policy at your school?

[Mike Travis]

Hi, All.

I am doing a paper as part of my Organizational Change class at UH about SmartPhones and their use in the classroom. So, I thought I would get a little informal data from schools out there. If you could answer these questions, that would be awesome:

1) What school do you teach at?

2) What is your school's policy on cell phones and iPods? Can students bring them to school? Can they use them in class?

3) What disciplinary action is taken if students violate the policies on cell phones and iPods?

4) One last question - what is your belief about this equipment? (Even if this doesn't match your school's policy.)

Thanks for your thoughts! This should be an interesting discussion!

-Mike :-)

Here is an article about the ban on cell phones in New York City Schools.

[Mike Travis]

I thought I would start the conversation by talking about my school.

1) Assets School - Honolulu, HI

2) With my wife as the new principal, she has re-written the policy on cell phones and iPods. In the past, cell phones were not to be used (or seen) from the moment school started until school was over. And, then only in the lunch area. For iPods, they were allowed in the lunch area only and not in the hallways. In classrooms, iPods could be used during independent study times, but only 11th and 12th graders and only at the permission of the teacher.

The new policy allows students to use cell phones and ipods in the hallways and during break times. The only requirement is that the equipment is off and in the backpack before crossing the threshold into class. So, far, the policy is working very well. At first, I thought we would see all students texting during lunch, but surprisingly, very few people are doing that. Occasionally, I see students texting quick on the way to class, but they are following the policy very well.

3) Disciplinary action follows the same setup as for other off-task behaviors. If it becomes excessive, the student will be dealt with individually, but, again, so far, no problems.

4) My belief is that we live in a 21st century world. And, it seems strange to have students fully "wired" and then have to put away all that technology just to "learn" in a classroom. I like the policy the way it is now, because if I want my students to use their smart phones to search something, then I let them bring it out. Or, if they find a way to use it and ask permission, I let them.

[Melissa Handy]

1). Island Pacific Academy, Kapolei
2). Students must turn off their cell phones and leave them in their lockers. If a teachers want to allow students to use cell phones during a lesson, that is their call. iPods are a bit different. They are not supposed to have them at all in middle school and they are allowed to use them in some classes and during all study halls in our Upper School.
3). The cell phone or ipod are taken away for the remainder of the day or sometimes longer. If it is a repeat offense, students must write a reflection (a login) and possibly parents are informed.
4). I personally see that there are many uses educational for these gadgets. Personally, I would incorporate cell phones and ipods into my instruction - Spanish podcasts, student designed podcasts, lesson review vodcasts, use cellphone video to post to classroom ning, etc. That said, it only works if the teacher feels capable of handling effective technology-specific classroom management strategies, like "ipods down." If students are engaged in the learning, cell phones and ipods are simply tools. If the lesson is not engaging, these gadgets become distractions. I wonder, are we taking the technology away to protect students or because we know they are not going to be interested in what we are teaching?

[Mike Travis]

Hi, Melissa. Thanks for the reply!

One problem we had at our school was that teachers would take away cell phones and then leave them in their room and they would get stolen! So, the new policy this year is great for school as teachers don't ever have to be responsible for taking the phone away and ensuring its safety.

The key to successful use of technology (in my opinion) is the way the teacher integrates it and the way the teacher ensures the students stay on task. This involves getting up from the teacher desk and roaming around. Or, having all the teachers face one direction and stand in back so you can see the laptop screen and ensure they are on task. It is pretty easy to tell if a student is using a smart phone to text message.

[Melissa Handy]

Yes, I see what you mean. Our teachers give them to the principal if they are kept longer than a class period. We've certainly had stolen or lost ipods and cell phones - but we usually say that students bring them to school at their own risk. Many students have invested hundreds of dollars in these gadgets!

[Jeremiah Demster]

Melissa, I think you said something interesting that is also key to this discussion. I'm don't think you meant it in this way but you said something that got me thinking about the "fear" of these technologies:

"...it only works if the teacher feels capable of handling effective technology-specific classroom management strategies..."

One of the big issues with managing these tools/distractions is that we're not sure what to do with them and they BECOME distractions. If we stop trying to manage them and start trying to USE them then they become effective parts of the students arsenal and another way we can teach them to be learners outside the classroom. We take them away and regulate them because we're not sure what else to do with them. If we were more comfortable with them ourselves, and more comfortable with the myriad of ways they can supplement our instruction, then it becomes a good thing that they students have them and bring them to class. We're not trying to make them into the kind of learners that we think they should be, but working with the type of learners that they are and the types of learning opportunities that they will have at their finger tips later in life.

[Jeremiah Demster]

I guess since I'm here I'll throw down on the questionnaire:

1) I am the head middle school teacher at Montessori Hale O Keiki
2) The school doesn't have a full-on policy on cell phone/ipod use. Generally the classroom teachers handle it individually. Of course I acknowledge this is a policy that is much more feasible in a school with only three classrooms where cell phones/ipods are probable to even be seen (just under half our student population is under the age of 6). In my middle school the students write the cell phone/ipod policy at the beginning of the year with guidance. Currently the students put their devices in a basket on a very visible shelf in the classroom in the morning. Phones stay off during the day and any calls that need to be made go in/out through a "classroom cellphone". Ipods can be used during individual work time and breaks
3) This is decided in the classrooms again. I simply talk to the students one-on-one, and ask them to stop bringing them if they become an issue.
4) I laid out my belief in my response to Melissa, but basically I believe that this equipment represents largely how our current student base will access information through their lives. I think we need to learn to use it within the classroom (within reason) in order to help them become lifelong learners. If they don't realize the potential resources they have already, they'll never get the most benefit from them! I don't in any way think it means we need to move away from face to face work, or book research, or any of the important skills that we need to maintain to keep them academically competent, but these tools do represent a world of opportunity if we teach them to use them as such.

[Mike Travis]

Thanks for the response, Jeremiah! I also think these tools represent a world of opportunity. One great example is "what I did this summer". For years, I have tried to finish reading Crime and Punishment, but something always got in the way. When I downloaded the Kindle for free on my iPhone, the possibilities opened up! I downloaded Crime and Punishment on my iPhone for free, and finished it this summer from beginning to end on my iPhone!

We tried the "cellphone parking lot" for students in our school last year, and one got stolen out of the tray. This probably wouldn't happen in middle school, but it is something you might consider as something to watch for.

[Diane Smith]

Hey all,
It's great to read about how your schools are using/dealing with cell phones and iPods.
1) Le Jardin Academy
2-3) a. Middle School: cell phones must be turned off or kept on vibrate in backpack or locker. If seen, they are confiscated for 24 hours (given to and must be retrieved from the principal or vice-principal). Exception: Students may check for messages before school, at lunch, and after school., but must use classroom or office phone to reply to any messages that require a response. Teachers may request that students who have phones bring them to class for specific lessons. (Example: PollsEverywhere is a fun voting and free text response tool that some teachers use.) iPods MP3 players, personal laptops or portable gaming are not allowed during school hours. These items will be confiscated and returned to parents.

b. High School: cell phones can be used before school, during breaks/lunch and after school (off or kept on vibrate during class, confiscated if it "rings" during class, given to and must be retrieved from the principal or vice-principal). Exception as above: if teacher uses phones as a response or communication tool during class. Ex. Some of our second-language teachers have students text to each other in the target language or try to communicatie with each other using LOL type acronyms as they might be in the target language. Fun!)
iPods are allowed before school, during breaks/lunch and after school (confiscated as with cell phones at other times), and if allowed by a specific teacher.

4. As Melissa and Jeramiah said, we are also looking for ways to "meet students where they live" and make use of current technologies and communication methods. We are trying to expand our definition of "literacy" to include all sorts of digital communication fluencies.

[Phavana Silva]

Hi All!
I'm Phavana, principal of Island Pacific Academy Middle School. As our Tech Director calls us, we are the "High Tech Zone" of our school. Our teachers love technology and are quite savvy with bringing it into student learning. But we have struggled with the cell phone/IPOD phenomenon.

We have tried different things, from allowing IPODs all the time, even in class (which really helped our ADD students to block out social distraction and focus on their task) to now not at all unless a teacher has a specific purpose for its use in class. We didn't arrive at this decision easily. We (Faculty, Tech Director and I) had a long discussion about it at the end of last school year. Even our tech savvy teachers agreed to not have them (in general). One of the main reasons is because of the middle school age. Our kids aren't mature enough to draw the line between using it for learning and for distracting socialization. We had kids watching rated R movies on campus. We had theft, for which our parents expect us to be responsible. With cell phones, kids were texting all the time, in class, in the bathroom, everywhere, even with their PARENTS. They would ask their parents to drop off stuff for them or complaining about something in class. Parents get upset because their child is getting so many text in the middle of class from other kids. It got out of control.

We made a pros and cons list. We were really torn because we recognize that IPODs and cellphones can be great learning tools, but in the end we had to contend with the maturity level of middle school. We concluded that the positive functions we wanted to use these tools for we could do on the one-to-one laptops, and that we could more effectively monitor student behaviors on laptops. So we didn't feel that the kids are missing out on those benefits. For example, we have kids listening to podcasts from the internet. They are allowed to use their own earbuds for this. Even our music teacher who used IPODs in the past for class projects found ways to do the same educational function on the laptops.

I think the policy needs to be looked at in light of each developmental age. For high school, at certain grade levels, I think those kids should have more electronic privileges. I think we can expect more self-discipline and responsible use of technology with older kids. The goal is, after all, responsible use of technology. Let's remember that kids get all hours before and after school to use these tech tools too. That is how they navigate their social life. I don't think they will be missing out on an educational opportunity to not have IPODs and cell phones 24 hours a day.

There's still SO MUCH other technology teachers could be applying to learning in their classrooms, and all from a laptop with internet. It's a matter of weighing the cost benefit. The costs at the middle school level were not worth it.