According to a recent University of Haifa poll, over 94% of Israeli High School students use social networks in class (via cell phones). Mostly, they’re not checking facts, but Facebook profiles.
This came to my inbox today, a day after I wrote a blog from a cell phone’s point of view.
In that blog, I mentioned that Jewish teens may not be aware of the rich Jewish resources available for the taking from such a small device. I also referred to the fact that teachers sometimes take away cell phones all together.
I was once a proponent of this.
I thought that (much like the practice at summer camps of instituting a ‘cell phone fast’ for campers to increase the ‘here and now’ opportunities) keeping phones out of the class increased class connections between students and teacher.
I don’t think in those black and white terms any more.
What I believe now, is that like any good educational tool, media needs to be mediated.
In this light, it’s particularly interesting to examine the findings of the poll, which states that the more permissive a teacher is, the less that cell phones will be used in class.
Conversely, the study results also showed that the more authoritarian the teacher–those with a more rigid approach, the more students will use cell phones in class.
So, what are the boundaries that teachers should put in place? What are the school’s policies that should not be broken, but bent to advance the curriculum? These are things that need to be thought through before the school year. From a student’s point of view.
So, this what I learned, none of which strikes me as so illuminating, but for me, the benefits were a game changer:
1. It is very difficult to separate teens from their phones, as some teens see it as their lifeline.
2. Teachers need to figure out ways of using the phones as tools, to expand teen’s horizons about the subject area.
3. The way in which this is handled, can be crucial when building community in the class, and respect from students.
Photo credit: wikipedia
- A Q & A : with a Jewish teen’s cell phone (jteennews.wordpress.com)
- Va. school district encourages cell phone use in class (wtvr.com)
- Cell Phone Addiction May Be Contagious (fox8.com)