Hello? Hello?? Anybody there?

What a reputation cell phones have in the education world! A random sampling finds that some educators love them, some hate them, some don't understand them, some are afraid of them. Why is there such a varied reaction? Why hasn't every teacher naturally embraced this technology? What's all the fuss about? Why are there so many signs in schools saying "No Cell Phones Allowed" I love these devices! Is there something about the mobile phone that I am missing?Feeling a little defensive, I set out to research the history of this intriguing phenomenon. What a surprise when I came across this 1926 Karl Arnold magazine comic out of Germany! Look closely and you will see men and women wearing and using a mobile phone complete with a little bell.

It must have been thought of as a 'Wow, if only it were true, idea!' 

Seems to me like it was a hopeful goal and seen as a good thing. 

So when did they arrive? We have Martin Cooper to thank for first use of cell phones on April 3rd 1973. That's over 40 years ago! Although with Karl's inspiration I wonder why it took so long?  

Well they arrived, finally. How long before they were in schools? Thankfully Lisa Nielsen has a wonderful timeline blog post that depicts and details this movement. While it is based out of the U.S., it is very interesting reading. Particularly quotes such as this one by student Travis Allan 'when they are not allowed to used cell phones for learning, they feel like their teachers are keeping them prisoners of their past.'  Most telling is the fact that this post was written 4 years ago.  Surely now that 4 more years have gone by since that post the message is changing? I kept searching.  A 2015  article by John Giambalvo caught my attention.  Mostly because of the title, "Yes, it’s time to embrace cell phones in class".  This was not what I hoped for, where was the progress!?! After reading through it I found the inevitable concerns by teachers. 

1) For many, it is because they understand just how complicated it can be to effectively turn a new technology into an actual tool for learning. 2) one teacher delineated a hypothetical scenario where a student simply stopped paying attention to the lesson so that he or she could return a call. 3) if cell phones were allowed into the classroom, his picture would be all over Instagram and Facebook. 

While there are more, these concerns seem to be the 'go to' reasons not to allow phones in the classroom. Running a close 4th is the issue of equity. The rationale is that not every student owns or can afford a phone. Statistics are eating away at that one.  I was encouraged to read John's response to these issues. 'While these are legitimate concerns, we should try to avoid allowing solvable problems get in way of progress altogether.'  Here, here! I say. And two more words....Digital Citizenship!

Enough of the reasons not to use them.  How about some ideas for using them. Try these sites for starters:  TeachHub.com  LovetoKnow  Vicky Davis 

Or how about this great image....  I love to show teachers this message, but unfortunately this is the same one that sometimes scares them. I guess it makes some educators feel like they are literally expected to be rocket scientists. That certainly isn't the intention of this picture. It should make us think about progress and potential. In fact every piece of technology should produce that reaction from educators. At one point during my thinking about this post I thought I could make some comparisons to the introduction of calculators and how much that has been a wonderful addition to the classroom. While I found a few articles stating how crucial they are in secondary schools, I was dismayed to find an article published today in Education World that debates their use. It seems there are also pros and cons for this technology even now. Why when technology progresses so quickly do we debate at a snail's pace? It seems to be the same arguments over years of time. Looking for solace, I reread John G.'s above mentioned article and came across these words, 'I’m fairly confident that the issues that arise from cell phone use can be resolved by the highly trained professionals that operate and teach in New York City’s schools.'

I hope so John, I hope so.