Aside from the purpose of using the phone calculator, or using the camera to capture the write-up on the board, or using phone recorder to retrieve discussion, my students must not use their cellphone for anything except for emergency. The phones are on silent mode and they sneak looking at them every now and then, it is acceptable and the teacher would know when there is infraction of usage.
I make it known to them that appropriate use of cellphone is one of the elements in the rubrik of participation grade. I ask the student's signature whenever an infraction was made and they are aware that I am observing the policy.
I tend to agree that phones can be useful in the classroom. They can be incorporated into the daily lesson and used as part of the activities.
Germain,
this is a good point although I would say that getting the one policy could be a challenge as teachers tend to go their own way at times :).
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
The polioy needs to be consistent across the board so students know the consequence of using them in class. I will occasionally ask them to look something up in class to get them more interactive, but then have to reel them back in so it doesn't become a problem. It is a tough thing to balance.
Phones can be part of life outside the classroom, all the time, and life inside the classroom only during approved times. Teachers I know deal with phones differently depending on their institution, department, personal comfort level, etc. I think this needs to be discussed in campus meetings between faculty and administration so there is a single policy everyone follows so there are no "good guys" or "bad guys" in students' eyes, and technology can be in play only when it serves course goals.
