The Case of Cell Phones in Schools

1. The Case of Cell Phones in Schools COM 323 Professor Hacker By Michelle Adame

2. Teacher Concern • Hard to compete with student attention • Distracting for students • May make cyber-bullying easier for students • Academic honesty • Students may look up answers for a test using their mobile devices

3. Parental Concerns • In case of emergencies, parents want to make sure that students can contact someone. • They need to make sure where their child is. • Parents want to respect their child’s privacy.

4. Health Concerns • Cell phone use linked to cancer. • The hundreds of texts sent everyday by students are causing thumbs to cramp. • Extensive texting could cause anxiety, sleep deprivation, and, in some cases, fear. • However, texting and cell phone use would probably go down when the threat of confiscation is gone.

5. Academic Writing Text-lingo seeps into Academic writing. Texting seen as evolving language. Teachers should respond to text-lingo in papers as grammatical errors, which are considered to be a lower order of concern when grading papers.

6. Benefits of Cell Phones in Classroom Parents keep track of their children and private issues are kept private. Yes, cell phones can be distracting, but students can be taught the discipline of controlling when and how often they will use their cell phones. By taking the threat of confiscation away, students will probably text less in the classroom because the excitement of going against the rules is gone. It will probably be allowed within the next couple of years. To go against the flow may not be worth it in the long run.