Cell Phones: To b(an) or not to b(an)

Many schools grapple with the idea about what to do about smartphones in classrooms. Should we embrace this technology as an opportunity to bridge the digital divide and teach kids to leverage the tools in their pockets to enhance their education? Do we ban phones outright to avoid the privacy, bullying, and distractedness problems that they could possibly afford? Or do we somehow find a middle path which allows the best while managing for the worst?

This is a complicated question to be sure.

Here are two recent articles which explore interesting aspects of these questions.

California school district hires firm to monitor students' social media - (via CNN) An article about a California school which has hired an outside firm to monitor Tweets and Facebook postings in an interesting way.

5 (good) ways smartphones are being used in high school - (via NBC) The title of this piece sort of says it all. This is a quick primer to think about how cell phones can be used in a high school setting.