Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Using Cell Phones in Education

My 11 year old 2E homeschooled son has difficulty writing quickly even after lots of practice. I have noticed that he is much faster at typing on the notepad of my cell phone. The cell phone is small enough to fit in his pocket so he can easily carry it with him everywhere and I just found this:

http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/WMTE.2004.1281326

If technology can make it easier for my son to learn and take notes I don't see any reason to keep him working on handwriting. Last year I made him work on handwriting because I thought it might be too cumbersome for him to carry a laptop with him everywhere when he is old enough for college. The cell phone is so small and easy to use that I don't know why he couldn't just use that instead. He can read books, use the calculator, practice Japanese, play educational games, and immediately look up answers to his questions on the internet in the car instead of waiting until he gets home and if I have a question about something I can ask him to look it up for me.

I don't know why some of our public school teachers still insist that 2E kids color in the lines and have nice handwriting before letting them move ahead academically where they need to be when this kind of technology is available.

My guess is that in this particular instance the issue is that it is a cell phone. I know almost all cell phones now do a whole lot more than be a phone, but most schools have policies against using phones because they can and are used a lot for cheating and generally the latest generation of passing notes that we use to do in school. (I am not implying that your DS would use it improperly, just that there are many that do.) I know in my class I allow students to use phones for note taking and calculators and even research as long as they can then show me at the end of class that that is in fact what they have been doing and that they have not been just playing games or texting friends. I have had to explain myself to other teachers and admin. about my policy, but I know many other teachers who do not feel they can keep control of a class if cell phones are allowed for any reason.

It would be a lot better if more teachers would allow more technology for kids that need it, but depending on the age of the teacher, there is also the issue of being techno-phobic, and afraid that the students will do something that could get them (the teacher) in trouble.