The majority of school districts across the nation ban the use of cell phones during the school day.  They are commonly deemed as distractions.   Many forward-thinking educators dispute this notion and believe on the contrary that cell phones can be used to grab the attention of our digital natives in ways that support many academic disciplines.  Lisa Nielsen creator of the blog, Innovative Educator published an interesting entry in support of cell phones in school.  “Even if our teaching is guided by certain mandates that cause the world inside school walls to be very different from the world students encounter after dismissal, part of our job as educators is to help prepare students to succeed outside the classroom.”  Can academic rigor be married to untraditional technological advances in a way that gives rise to the true 21^st century learner?

Many programs like Project K-Nect have been created to help districts close the student achievement gap and to help students succeed in and out of the classroom using this “taboo” technology.  Project K-Nect is designed to create a supplemental resource for secondary at-risk students to focus on increasing their math skills through a common and popular technology – mobile smartphones.   Students communicate and collaborate with each other and access tutors outside of the school day to help them master math skills and knowledge.  The smartphones and service are free of charge to the students and their schools due to a grant provided by Qualcomm, as part of its Wireless Reach™ initiative.

There are many more programs and software applications that use an "ordinary" cell phone or smartphone for "anytime, anywhere" learning.  I have compiled a list of some of the exciting and noteworthy programs I found:

1. mlearning – Allows for the creation and delivery of SMS, voice and video content (with associated tests).  Managers can track not only if students listened to the call or watched the video, but when and for how long, and most importantly, can answer the question of "Did they get it?" by tracking question responses as part of a student's record.
2. ChaCha: Ready reference questions answered by human beings. Send a text message to CHACHA asking a question and a real person will reply.
3. Wiffiti - Using Wiffiti students can text message comments onto a computer screen. Think about what this could mean for the classroom, particularly classrooms that have smart boards.  The best part of this tool is that students can brainstorm from their cell phones to a live screen on the web.  There are teacher "controls" for Wiffiti such as "approving" messages before they are posted or not allowing content with inappropriate words. You can also keep the screen private or share it.
4. Poll Everywhere:  Instant poll results via cell phone. Know what your students are thinking and learning right now. Bringing interactive social assessment to every classroom is now possible and affordable. Poll Everywhere is free for classes with up to 32 students per section.  You can even import answers into course management systems like Blackboard/WebCT or Moodle.
5. Gcast: Call 888-65-GCAST from your cell phone to record a mobile podcast that can be published automatically to your Podcast channel.  Students on a field trip could use this for instant field interviews.
6. Google SMS: Your students don't need to have a laptop to access the vast amounts of knowledge formerly available to only those with the Internet.  Educators can put an endless amount of information at their student's fingertips by asking them to take out their cell phone and text "G-O-O-G-L-E" (466453).  Click here to learn 5 ideas for integrating Google SMS into your lesson.

Should we as educators re-evaluate the educational value of cell phones in our schools?   If so, how would we manage the usage and ultimately achieve student success? Could cell phone usage be the eLearning model of the future and close the achievement gap?  These are definitely thoughts to ponder and sooner than later. 

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