Cell Phones in Schools

During his presentation last Tuesday, Ray McNulty told of a high school he visited where the largest category of discipline referrals was cell phone infractions.  (Cellphones were strictly forbidden in this school.)  When he asked the students about their use of phones, in addition to the chatting with and texting friends (which neither he, nor I, can excuse) the students spoke of using their phones as watches, timers, calendars, and to communicate with parents.  The most creative use, however, was one student who used the camera on her phone to take pictures of her homework assignments and class notes that were written on the whiteboard.  Those all seem like logical (and educationally justifiable) uses of relevant technology.  

Will Richardson recently blogged about a conversation he recently had with high school students in a New York City public school.  The most fascinating point to me was how anyone can "google" on their cellphone by texting a question to 46645.