Has Anything Changed?

I was going to post this entry 2 years ago.  I put it together and saved it without ever publishing it.  I was sorting through my admin. panel this evening and happened upon it.  It was an article about cell phones from Jan. 2008.  Clearly, we know there are many advantages to using cell phones in the classroom.  However, I wonder if we have come very far in actual implementation over the past 2 years?

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Many schools are forced to spend a lot of time on cell phones.  Here is an article out of N.Y.  Maybe if there was a more widespread use of cell phones as learning tools, they would be more accepted at school.

Confusion Over New York

Cellphone Ban in Schools

From - http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28376.php

Students returning to school this week in New York face a dilemma over what to do with their mobile phones when they enter the school property. Under a City Council law passed last September, pupils are allowed to carry phones with them on their journey to school - but not to then carry the phone into the school, causing confusion at the school gates. Plans by some schools to set up secure lockers for the mobile phones have been delayed by at least a year.

“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” Lashea Suggs, a pupil at the Young Women’s Leadership School told the local New York Post. “How can you bring your phone to school and have nowhere to put it when you get to school?”

City mayor, Michael Bloomberg imposed a ban in 2006 after he introduced metal detectors at some schools to help cut down on knife crime - and mobile phones were amongst the items confiscated. Responding to parent pressure who said that mobile phones were essential for safety reasons, the city council passed the new law which was aimed at forcing the Department of Education to find a solution to allowing children to be near their phone, without disrupting school lessons.

Enterprising local retailers have seized the opportunity caused by the confusion and for a charge will store a students mobile phone for them during the day - allowing them to collect the phone when they are heading home again.

There is a legal challenge to the ban - but it wont be heard until next month at the earliest.

Posted to the site on 3rd January 2008