This document summarizes interviews with 16 teachers from across the U.S. who are using student cell phones in their classrooms. Most teachers reported that discipline problems decreased rather than increased. Student engagement and motivation improved on lessons and activities using cell phones. Parents were generally supportive. Alternative options were available for students without phones. Teachers found ways to work within different school cell phone policies. Many used cell phones to improve communication with students outside of class.

1. Are You Considering Student Cell Phones? Liz Kolb, Ph.D. University of Michigan elikeren@umich.edu http://cellphonesinlearning.com http://tiny.cc/ (presentation) Twitter: lkolb Liz’s Mobile Business Card Send a new text: 50500 In message: kolb http://contxts.com

2. Send a new text message To: 87884 In message: @loca8462 yourmessage What is your biggest question or concern about using cell phones in learning? http://wiffiti.com/clouds/1685

3. Why Are We Reluctant? Is it in our history?

4. History of Ed Tech The history of educational technology has not been glowing, and it is difficult to point to particular advances in the effectiveness of schools that are related to technology (Cuban, Kilpatrick, & Peck, 2001).

5. Teacher’s Conference, 1703 “Student’s today can’t prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on their slates, which are more expensive. What will they do when the slate is dropped and it breaks? They will not be able to write.”

6. Principal’s Assocation, 1815 “Students today depend upon paper too much. They don’t know how to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?”

7. 1999 Michael Mowe (1999) wrote in The Montgomery County Heard “The Internet is not a great tool for teaching...People think that children can think of any topic and pull up a wealth of information on it, but that is not the case. The information in the library is what people seem to expect, but nobody has the time to transcribe entire libraries onto computers. There is nothing on the Internet that is incredibly beneficial to education.”

8. Mayor bloomberg, 2007 “We are not going to allow iPods and BlackBerrys and cell phones and things that are disruptive in the classroom. Classrooms are for learning. Teachers cannot be expected to look under every kid’s desk at what they’re doing.”

9. “Some of the most crucial steps in mental growth are based not simply on acquiring new skills, but on acquiring new administrative ways to use what one already knows.” -Seymour Papert

10. Bring Your Own Technology BYOT

14. "Kids tell us they power down to come to school.”-Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow (2008)

15. Secretary of Education http://tinyurl.com/yzvr944

16. http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTgzNjExNDQxMw

17. How many of your schools use the Internet for learning?

18. Internet v. Cell 73% of U.S. household’s have Internet access 57% have broadband 43% have dial-up 30% of U.S. citizens do not use the Internet at all 63% of people with a household income of <49K have no Internet 87% of U.S. Citizens own Cell phones. 13% of U.S. citizens do not own a cell phone 18% of U.S. Citizens with an income of <50K do not have a cell phone Park Associates and CTIA wireless association, both 2007

19. Arguments for Using Students’ Cell Phones

20. Access By the end of 2010 90% of secondary students will have their own cell phones 54% of 8 year olds will have their own cell phone Amoroso, (2006). Tween Market has the potential to double by 2010. Yankee Group Retrieved from www.yankeegroup.com/researchdocument.dorid=14058

21. Millennials Rising (Neil Howe and William Strauss) How 21st Century Students learn best… Collaboratively Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any pace Structured activities Relevancy with real world *They want to do this with the TECHNOLOGY of their generation

22. WELCOME To The Era of the…Free Agent Learner Technology enabled bottom up learner ANYTIME ANYWHERE ANYPLACE ANY PACE

23. For Example… 1-800-2chacha

24. Fundamental Shift in 21st Century Workforce Technological changes are displacing low-skilled workers and making room for more high-skilled creative and innovative workers. Employers are calling for schools to integrate new skills into education

25. Partnership for 21st Century Skills 12% of U.S. adult population believe that students are being prepared for the 21st century workforce

26. Mobile Job Opportunities for Students

28. SMS & QRcodes & Call Ins

30. Fundamental Shift in Citizenship Practices 74% of all 18-24 year olds were politically active on the Internet during the 2008 campaign During the 2008 campaign, 49% of younger voters (18-24) shared information via text message about the campaigns. http://visiblevote.com

31. Research says… "The proportions of textisms that kids used in their sentence translations was positively linked to verbal reasoning; the more textspeak kids used, the higher their test scores” 2) "The younger the age at which the kids had received mobile phones, the better their ability to read words and identify patterns of sound in speech.” http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/news.cfm/newsid/14

33. Where are we going?

34. Why cell phones should NOT be integrated in learning. http://wiffiti.com/clouds/1685

36. 25% have text messaged their friends about answers during a test or quiz.

37. 20% have searched the Internet via their mobile phone during a test or quiz.

38. 17% have taken pictures of a test or quiz with the cell phone in order to send the pictures to their friends.Common Sense Media 09

39. Even MORE of a problem Most students do not envision these activities as cheating. More than half of the students surveyed did not think these acts were serious offenses of cheating, rather they think of it as just “helping out a friend.” Common Sense Media 09

40. 70% of U.S. schools completely ban cell phones from campus 63% of students admitted to sneaking in cell phones and using them during class anyway. In a seven class a day, five day school week, the average student sends at least three text messages per class. Common Sense Media 09

41. Life Consequences Students are sometimes “sexting” “to friends for their entertainment value, as a joke or for fun." Six teens face child porn (13 to 15) charges after being caught "sexting" each other. Criminal Charge! IN PA, 3 girls (12, 12, 16) charged with child pornography for sexing. Picture of them in bras. 15% of teenagers have risque photos of themselves or their friends on their cell phones. 1 in 5 sext recipients report that they have passed the images along to someone else http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/01/15/pn.sexting.teens.cnn

42. "If you take a picture, you can be accused of producing child pornography; if you send it to somebody, you can be accused of distributing child pornography; and if you keep a picture, you can be accused of possessing child pornography. Anywhere along this chain of transmission of the images, you can be charged as a registered sex offender." -Parry Aftab, an Internet privacy and security lawyer.

43. How do we change?

45. Recording Group Conversations

47. Mary Passage Middle School Cell Phone Policy 1. Students will talk on their cell phone only to complete assignments that are related to the instructional lesson. 2. Students will keep cell phones turned off or left in lockers when they are not being used for instructional purposes in class. 3. Students will only send text- messages, pictures or video- messages to others outside of the classroom with permission and directions from the teacher. 4. Students will not record still or moving images or voices of students or the teacher without permission from the teacher. 5. Students will not post recordings of still or moving images or voice recordings of students or the teacher to online websites without their permission. 6. Students will practice internet safety with online resources. 7. Students will post only appropriate text, audio and visual media to on-line websites. I _____________________ understand that violation of our class acceptable cell phone use policy may result in my not being able to participate in additional class activities that involve using the cell phone. I also understand that I may receive disciplinary consequences for violating school board policies regarding cyber-bullying. I _______________________ have gone over the Cell Phones in Class Acceptable Use Policy with my child and agree to allow my child to participate.

48. Watch a teacher Change http://www.wlvt.org/TEMPO/TSS/tempoid.htm EdTech Leaders Online Workshop

50. Keep them in the front of the room until you are going to use them.

51. All messages/media sent or published must be related to lesson.

52. If you are referencing someone else in class, you must have their approval before posting or publishing.

54. In Mobile Cyberspace… Don’t assume anything you send or post is going to remain private. There is no changing your mind in cyberspace—anything you send or post will never truly go away. Don’t give in to the pressure to do something that makes you uncomfortable, even in cyberspace. Consider the recipient’s reaction. Nothing is truly anonymous. Nothing is truly deleted

55. Phone records are not private Most likely your location can be tracked GPS Triangulation from cell phone towers Wi-Fi local area networks if you are using a phone provided by your employer, under the current law your employer can use GPS to monitor you during work hours. 2005: New York judge ruled the government could obtain a phone's tracking data without a warrant, as the user voluntarily chose to carry the phone and so implicitly allowed the transmission of tracking information. Your phone records may be accessed by law enforcement or the court system under some circumstances. Updates on current court decisions concerning cell phone tracking www.eff.org/issues/cell-tracking.

56. DELETE, DELETE 43% of donated cell phones contained information from which individuals, their organization or specific personal data could be identified creating a significant threat to both the individual and the organization. The research highlights a lack of awareness amongst businesses about the amount of data that can be retrieved from mobile devices.

57. Sample Permission Forms

60. Summary of 16 teachers using student cell phones 11 Teachers from across the U.S. who are using student cell phones

62. Discipline Issues? All but one of the teachers claimed that they did not have any discipline problems when using the student cell phones. Many of the teachers said that using the cell phones for learning actually cut down on discipline problems in school related to cell phone use.

63. Engagement? Just about every teacher reported that motivation and engagement in the class activities increased when they were using the cell phones. Katie Titler, a Spanish teacher in Wisconsin, found that many of her students went from being worried or disengaged in oral language activities to excited about oral language as a result of using their cell phones to record oral quizzes. Allison Riccardi, a Spanish teacher from Michigan, found that she, “was amazed at how having them text sentences in Spanish really drew them not only into the activity, but also really helped them to understand the grammar behind what they were saying.” Interview with Katie Titler

64. Parents? None of the teachers reported problems with parents being upset that their children were using their cell phones for learning. As a matter of fact, some of the teachers received thank you notes from appreciative parents who were thrilled that their children were learning how to use their cell phones appropriately and in an educative way. Paul Wood, technology coordinator in Texas claimed, “I received no negative comments and four positive comments as well as some thank you's.” Interview with Paul Wood

65. Improved learning? In some cases, teachers mentioned that they were surprised how quickly the students began to get actively involved in the lesson planning process, and not just being passive students regurgitating information. These teachers found that once they allowed their students to use cell phones in instruction, the students began to suggest learning activities that they could do with their cell phones. Judy Pederson, an English teacher in California, said “At first, being able to use their cell phones was instantly ‘cool,’ and grabbed students' attention. After a while, it became a very convenient tool and students began generating their own ideas for how to use the phones for projects.” Interview with Judy Pederson

66. Students without cell phones? There were a couple of teachers who did worried about doing cell phone based activities when not every student owned a cell phone. However they all found that, in the end, there were plenty of ways to manage the issue. The most popular work-around was for teachers to group or pair students up so that there was one cell phone per group. In some cases, teachers simply selected a project where the students had an alternative to the cell phone. Jimbo Lamb, a math teacher from Pennsylvania, used a resource to record audio files with a toll-free calling number so that his math students could call-in with their cell phones or a landline. Interview with Jimbo Lamb

67. Dealing with school Bans of Cell Phones? Each teacher’s school district had differing policies governing cell phones, some completely banned them, whereas others simply had restrictions on how and when they were allowed to be used during the school day. Every teacher was able to find a way to work within the school policy to include cell phones in their teaching. Most teachers who wanted to use the cell phones during the school day were able to approach the administration and figure out an appropriate management system so that they could use the student school phones. Middle school reading teacher Tim Chase set up a management system (approved by his administration) that when students were using their cell phones to take pictures for their class project during the school day, they wore “assignment" badges.”

68. Using Cell Phones for Student Management or Communication? Many of the teachers also set up office hours via cell phone (some via Twitter), where their students could text message or call them during designated evening hours. Larry Liu, an English teacher from Michigan, expanded his cell phone Facebook activity so that he was able to use Facebook to communicate homework help and answer questions from his students. He found that since most of his students already were on Facebook and their cell phones most often, it was easier to communicate with them via their favorite devices rather than more traditional methods such as landlines or even email. Interview with Larry Liu

69. Follow a teacher in his first year of using cell phones George Engel (HS Math Teacher) http://www.cellularlearning.org

70. Getting Started DO NOT attempt to change policy (yet) Survey Students on Cell Phones Who has one? What is their plan? Preference for Communication? Talk with students about cell phone safety & etiquette Create a social contract for cell phone use with school assignments Show Digital Dossier Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IYZVYIVLA Include parents and permission forms Start with OPTIONAL homework/EC projects outside of classroom. Start with what YOU are comfortable with

71. For Parents Model appropriate mobile phone use Take advantage of everyday teachable moments that you can capture via phone Go over the cell phone bill/plan with your children Join in on the conversation/text messaging Discuss consequences of inappropriate actions (not just family rules, but legal as well). http://www.connectsafely.org/safety-tips-and-advice.html

72. Are You Considering Student Cell Phones? Liz Kolb, Ph.D. University of Michigan elikeren@umich.edu http://cellphonesinlearning.com http://tiny.cc/ (presentation) Twitter: lkolb Liz’s Mobile Business Card Send a new text: 50500 In message: kolb http://contxts.com