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Cellphones in the Classroom?
Category: Vol. 4, 2011
Cellphones in the Classroom?
Written by Regina Jones, Ph.D.
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Cell phones: Marvelous technology however a ringing or beeping phone is rude and distracting to
others in a learning environment. Remove cell phones from your desk, hands, ears, waist, neck or
head. I will subtract (25) points for a ringing phone also for answering, talking, texting or
receiving messages on a device during class without permission. (Jones, 2010)
The opening proviso was included in all my syllabi once cell phone use became common among
students in my classroom. Cell phones were like a noisy fashion accessory that some students found
fascinating and instructors found distracting. Some students became more preoccupied with the cell
phones than the classroom message. The Bluetooth was extremely distracting because many of my
students thought they were being subtle when they began their whispered conversations while exiting
the classroom. I viewed the cell phone as an intruder in my classroom.
Professor Jà Han Vance an educator from one of Baltimore City Community College’s urban
campuses uses an in-class cell phone assignment as a punishment to make a point to students who text
as he lectures. His goal is to prove that technology is good but that students are not as proficient as
they think with cell phones. Vance admits that he has interrupted his lecture because of a texting
student and read her/his text. Often he discovered that a student was texting another student in class
and found that the messages—from both sender and receiver—were coherent. The students assured
him that they had the ability to text and attend to his lecture.
In my classroom there is a student sitting in the back row, head bent over the desk with fingers
frantically fiddling around with a cell phone. As I eye the preoccupied student, another student
reminds me that technology has evolved and that they (students) are able to multitask. With that
insight I asked the technologically advanced student in the back row to respond to a question related to
the assigned reading—twice. The back row multitasker feigned interest but had to admit missing the
conversation. This student was unable to contribute in a meaningful way to our discussion. I believe
the cell phone has to potential to be a useful teaching tool and not a classroom annoyance.
A colleague takes cell phones from students when the ringer goes off in the classroom. They are able
to retrieve them from her office after class. Cell phones are considered a nuisance and distracting in
most classrooms; nevertheless they are technological devices that are an important and integrated part
of our culture. There are some students who come to class with cell phones rather than pens and
pencils.
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I teach at a commuter campus in an urban area where many adult learners claim that they need their
cell phones in case of family or other emergencies. More than 292 million Americans have mobile
devices, 93 percent of the U.S. population.[i] There are more than a billion text messages sent a day.
They are a ubiquitous component of American life. Technology is evolving at an accelerated pace and
being acclimated into classrooms at a questionably measured sprint. After several years of prohibiting
cell phone use, I now believe that space must be made in the classroom for the phones.
It is important to know that more students have cell phones than computers. In urban areas where
some residents have limited resources it is important to use available technologies. Statistics show that
African Americans and Latinos lead whites in mobile access: whites 80 percent, African Americans 87
percent, and Hispanics 87 percent[ii]. Fifty-one percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of African
Americans use their phones to access the Internet, compared with 33 percent of whites, according to a
July 2010 Pew poll. It went on to state that forty-seven percent of Latinos and 41 percent of African
Americans use their phones for email, compared with 30 percent of whites. These percentages
reinforced that in a commuter urban campus with a multicultural student population, such as Indiana
University Northwest, the majority of the students use cell phones. The cell phone appears to be a
technology more accessible to the masses.
According to data collected over the phone by Princeton Survey Research Associates International
between April 29 and May 30, 2010 among a sample of 2,252 adults ages 18 and older, nine in ten 18
to 29 year-olds own a cell phone, 95 percent send or receive text messages and 65 percent access the
internet using their mobile phones (Pew Poll).
I designed and conducted an in-class cell phone assignment with two classes and modified my stance
on cell phones informing the group that if one could use their phone to enhance or share information
that would add, in a positive way, to class discussion s/he was welcome to do so. I wanted to know if
cell phones could be a useful academic tool. Many students were eager when I told them that we were
going to use their cell phones for an in-class exercise within the next couple of weeks. We discussed
positive and negative aspects of cell phone usage in an urban setting and specifically in our classroom.
Every student had a cell phone that allowed them to text and only a few lacked access to an operating
system. The students were put in groups of three but were not informed about their group members
only given phone numbers and a topic. Their cell phones had QWERTY keyboards. The assignment
took the entire session to complete. Each member was given a paper that included a topic and phone
numbers for two other group members. Each group was expected to formulate a thesis and select one
individual who would forward their answer to me via my university email account. One group had to
give me a hard copy of their response because their phones were not email accessible. My objective
was to discover if their cell phones could be the primary instrument they use to complete an
assignment employing texting and other features while they worked together to solve a problem.
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Texting made the responses slower. All the groups fulfilled the assignment before the end of the
period. The texting process made some students aware of the capabilities of their cell phones, some
were annoyed with or unaware of text speak and a few were intrigued with discovering the members of
their group. Text speak can be acronyms, slang or the abbreviation language or text short hand that
some users are more familiar with. Some common examples of text speak would be ‘omg’—oh my
god—or ‘lol’—laugh out loud. Numerous text speak glossaries exist on the internet to decode such
cryptic messages[iii]. The use of predictive text—after the input of a few letters the phone produces a
list of possible words a user can select from without having to type in the full word—was also noted
and is another example of a function that some phones perform during texting. Some found spelling
complete words time consuming and annoying.
One group thought it would be easier to utilize the photographic potential of a phone to complete the
written assignment. That was a clever attempt but poor lighting, fine point black ink on a lined white
sheet failed to present a clear image of the document. There were a few clever technical manuevers
and it was an eye opening assignment for all—attempting to use the camera and minimizing texting
techniques, for example. Many students view themselves as skillful and great communicators when it
comes to texting on their cell phones. Overall the students’ abilities to use their cell phones were
hampered by the detail need to complete the assignment. Although all students had cells their
knowledge about phone function, capacity or ability varied causing the assignment to take longer than
anticipated. For example, one student was unaware that the constant beeping sound heard when he
typed letters in his text could be turned off.
On the plus side, students were able to create, share information, answer the question and solve
problems. It is an inexpensive technology because all the students had access without it being a
required expense for the course.
Professor Vance believes the cell phone is only useful for data base research materials in the library.
He finds that cell phones have note pads where students can insert information about web links/data
base information for sources that they would like to access or cite at a later time.
Today cell phones are indeed, smart, like mini computers. Students are able to read books/text via cell
phones. There have been a number of times I tried to find a specific quotation in a text and had
difficulties finding it. A smart phone, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phone, etc., has the ability, with a
few key strokes, to find an exact quote in an ebook. It is also a great vocabulary builder for readers
who can access definitions quickly and with minimal effort. Without being disruptive during lectures
interested students can use their phones to find the definition. Just as quickly, one can find other
scholarly sources, history, dates, or personalities related to a lecture. When writing essays or research
papers these devices offer useful applications that help writers to properly cite sources. Discussing
Nikki Giovanni’s poem “Straight Talk” a baffled student asked who was Spiro Agnew? I posed the
question to the entire class, interestingly, a student who rarely spoke accessed the internet via his
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phone to provide the professional particulars of former Vice President Agnew. The class celebrated
(with laughter and other verbal acknowledgements). I thanked him for his input. The responding
student appeared visibly proud of himself. This started his occasional participation in class. Professor
Karen Eifler maintains:
There are times when what’s happening in class veers in an unanticipated direction and we need a
fact I simply do not have at my disposal, nor does anyone in class. …We can do a quick search to
find the missing details, and then move on. It has also been instructive to probe and push and
ponder when diligent students come up with differing facts. These are great teachable moments
that help me underscore why their research must not begin and end with Wikipedia—and the
evidence is right there in their hands.
It is also a plus that phones are not as bulky as computers and do not require being plugged-in to an
outlet during class session. The International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications
Industry, CTIA, reports that more than 89 percent of the handsets operating on wireless carriers’
networks are capable of browsing the web. Cell phone use is increasing and accessibility to
applications, online sources and the world are literally just a few hand held key strokes away. Cell
phones are an opportunity for us to expand the way we instruct and learn. Helpful sites, such as
Edudemic, offer educators applications and ideas as to how to employ technology in the classroom.
For example students can use their phones to create text reminders and use their phones as study tools.
I believe my students are mature enough to use their cells in the classroom. At this point, generally,
they know it is inappropriate and distracting to have their phones audibly ringing during class. During
my assignment students informed me that the school message system had phoned them to deliver
information that the school was officially closing in a few hours because of a coming blizzard.
Cellphone use in a classroom demands that phone use and texting etiquette must be followed.
However, what direction cell phone use takes will be directed by all members of a class.
Cell phones are just as much a challenge to me, as an educator, as to some students and a convenient
and beneficial tool in a growing arsenal of educational technology. They are certainly another
classroom resource; their potential makes me ponder on other ways to use them. Currently, I tell my
students that there is no need to hide their cell phones. My syllabus now includes the following note
on the use of cell phones: “Marvelous technology, make sure it is on vibrate. Feel free to use your cell
phone to enhance our classroom discussion” (Jones 2011).
[i]. CTIA Wireless Association. Wireless Quick Facts. CTIA. [online] October 2010. [cited: January
2011.]< http://www.ctia.org/media/industry info/index.cfm/AID/10323>.
[ii]. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Mobile Access 2010 [online] July 7, 2010: [cite: January
2011.] <http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/mobile-Access-2010/Summary-of-Findings.aspx>.
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[iii]. The following are samples of the plethora of web sites that decode text speak: netlingo the
Largest List of Text and Chat Acronyms. <http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php>. Dictionary. Web.
16 July 2011; lingo2word, Acronym, Emoticon, Text Message Dictionary, Two way Text Message
Translator. <http://www.lingo2word.com/>. Home. Web. 16 July 2011; techdictionary.
<http://www.techdictionary.com/chat.html> . Chat-IM. Web. 16 July 2011.
Works Cited
CTIA Wireless Association. “50 Wireless Quick Facts.” CTIA. [online] October 2010.
<http://www.ctia.org/media/industryinfo/index.cfm/AID/19323>.
Eifler, Karen. “Cell Phones in the Classroom: Is It Time to Reconsider Your Policy?” Faculty Focus:
Focused on Today’s Higher Education Professional. 2 Sept. 2010.
<http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/trends-in-higher-education/cell-phones-in-the-classroom-is-ittime-to-reconsider-your-policy/>. Web. 1 July 2011.
Edudemic: Connecting Education and Technology. “How Should Students Use Cell Phones in
School.” 9 May 2011. <http://edudemic.com/2011/05/phones-in-classroom/>. Web. 1 July 2011.
Giovanni, Nikki and the New York Community Choir under the direction of Benny Diggs. “Straight
Talk.” Like a Ripple on a Pond. COL-6505, Narberth, Pennsylvania: Collectables, 1993. CD-ROM.
Jones, Regina. Syllabus. African American Folklore. Summer 2011.
---. Syllabus. Introduction to African American Literature. September 2010.
Lingo2word, Acronym, Emoticon, Text Message Dictionary, Two way Text Message Translator.
<http://www.lingo2word.com/>. Home. Web. 16 July 2011.
Pew Internet &American Life Project. “Mobile Access 2010” [online] July 7, 2010.
<http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010/Summaryoffindings.aspx>.
Netlingo the Largest List of Text and Chat Acronyms. <http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php>.
Dictionary. Web. 16 July 2011.
Techdictionary. <http://www.techdictionary.com/chat.html> . Chat-IM. Web. 16 July 2011.
Vance, Jà Hon. Interview. Telephone interview. 4 Jan. 2011.
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