n classrooms. “They may phone or iPod, a $30 to $40 monthly telecom fee, and an annual software subscription fee of $8 to $35 per device—have impressed district IT departments as an alternative to the nearly $1,000 cost for many laptops and the many more thousands of dollars needed to build and support a wireless network.” (Mobile Devices in The Classroom; Ron Schachter, P.32) By integrating cell phones and other new technologies into today’s classrooms, schools are cutting down the costs of buying massive amounts of bulky computers and flimsy laptops that are not only expensive but take a lot of maintenance and time to use. By cutting the costs of access to the internet, schools can invest their money in other things concerning the school, such as building up keep and purchasing programs that can help teachers find more productive ways of teaching to his or her students. Without this technology in classrooms today schools would be taught in the out of date manner that disregards technology as a valuable resource for learning in society today. Cell phones can be one of the most useful tools in a professor’s arsenal. “Qusay Mahmoud, director of the Centre for Mobile Education Research (CMER) at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. ‘The average cell phone today has more computing power than many of the computers of a few years ago, and many are equipped with video recorders, cameras, and other features,’ he notes. ‘All of these could be used to improve the learning experience.’” (Dial M for Mobile; Sharon Shinn, P. 34) The future of education is in cell phones and the new technologies associated with them.
In a recent article; Txt msg n school literacy: does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children’s literacy attainment? By Beverly Plester, Clare Wood and Victoria Bell, the authors discussed recent studies that took surveys from young students in Britain. “There was no evidence that extent of text message use was associated with use of text abbreviations in the translation exercise, as the ratio of textisms to real words stayed broadly similar across groups,” (Plester, Wood, Bell; P.139) Although the study found that the students who were asked to show high levels of text messaging use had lower scores on the written part of the exam; their verbal evaluations showed higher percentage levels than that of students asked to show minimal amounts of texting and students asked to not text at all. Recently, the PEW Research Institute did a study on teens and text messaging. “Some 38% of teens were daily texters in February 2008, and that has risen to 54% of teens who use text daily in September 2009. Of the 75% of teens who own cell phones, 87% use text messaging at least occasionally.” (Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project). The amount of text messaging in recent years has gone up a substantial amount from 2008-2009.
Other Uses For Cell Phones In Schools
As more and more students treat cell phones as a way to communicate with other students instead of a tool; the need for new technologies about campus alerts is becoming more prevalent. Here on the CU campus students have a very useful technology known as the text rave alerts. These text alerts make it possible for the administration to notify students of possible class cancelations, on campus threats, or just news about the campus in general. This system is one of the most beneficial new pieces of technology that the school uses. By having this students can avoid a number of potential problems such as: students showing up for canceled classes, bomb threats, armed gunmen, or the worst of all, snow days. This can prevent such tragic events as the Virginia Tech shooting or University of Texas Austin shooting many years back. Not only is this technology keeping students informed but also keeping students safe.
Not only has texting played a major roll in the development of student’s abilities to write but it has sprung forth a new age of literature dubbed “cell phone novels.” (Dial M for Mobile, Shinn; P.32) Th