“Dumb” Phones, Smart Lessons

I was received an article today by Colleen  Gillard, which appears in the Harvard Education Letter.

The article clearly identifies many solid reason to reconsider the common notion that cell phones are bad and should be banned from our schools.

The article reminds me of a point Will Richardson made during a keynote speech at a technology conference I attended a few years ago.  While I cannot quote him directly I do recall the essence of his message.

He started out by asking if we (the audience members) banned cell phone use in schools by our students.  The vast majority of the audience members acknowledged affirmatively.

Will then queried the audience about why the use of cell phones in class is not allowed by students.  The responses were exactly what one would expect.  Audience members called out things such as “cheating”, “surfing the web”, “txting.”  He in turn responded something to the effect of “Oh, so we do not want them, researching, collaborating or communicating while they work?”

You get the point.