New High School Policies Allow Cell Phones In Class

Think in terms of the old cliché, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” At least that’s what seems to ring true with the new mobile device polices area high schools are adopting to allow students to utilize their cell phones on campus.

has a pilot cell phone policy in place for the 2011-12 school year. Principal Tom Heethuis said in the past, students could bring their mobile devices to school but could not have them out or in use.

“This decision is kind of the evolution of where we are going as a society; in the past it was just pagers but now these smartphones students have are like computers and the access it gives them is amazing,“ Heethuis said. “So if there’s the possibility of using it as a teaching tool that’s what we’re going to do.”

A color coded sign system–green for go, red for no and yellow, which okays use in the classroom only as an educational tool–will be in place at Dakota so students know what’s permissible. 

Basically, phones can be used in the hallways and lunchroom but remain taboo in restrooms, locker rooms and classrooms where there is a red sign displayed.

“Our focus is on educational issues and if this technology is used correctly it’s better for everyone but if it distracts from the education process we can always go back to the old policy," Heethuis said. "We’ll just have to see how it goes."

Being able to use his mobile device at school will be a relief to Joe Kulik, 16, of Macomb Township, who will be a junior at Dakota this fall.

“Last year I got a detention because I had my iPod touch out in class,” Kulik said. “I think (the new policy is) a good idea because then I can maybe look something up that I’m working on. I think it will help me out a lot and be useful at school.”

Detention used to be the solution at , too, until they implemented a new phone-friendly environment for students last year. Since that time, the situation has improved in several ways, said Assistant Principal Bryan Oechsner.

“We were able to harness this from being a distraction for our students and even the number of tardiness incidents to classes went down,“  Oechsner said.

In classrooms, some instructors simply declare a mobile free zone, others provide a plastic case at each desk to hold student phones and many have incorporated them into their lesson plans.

“A math teacher might put a problem on the board with three possible answers and then they ask the students to text a response to a certain phone number,” Oechsner said. “They utilize a website called easypolls.net and once the students have responded a graph will appear on the board with all the answers.”

Having the opportunity to take part in just such an exercise is something Kelly Kambeitz, 16, of Macomb Township, really liked about the new phone policy. A junior at Lutheran North this fall, Kambeitz said last year she was able to utilize her phone for polls in both math and health courses. 

“I think it’s been a pretty good idea and it was kind of cool, because things were laid back with our phones out but we were still doing work in our class,” Kelly said.

Administrators were initially concerned that the new approach might mean having hallways jammed with students chattering on their phones but it hasn‘t been a problem. 

“The hallways are a lot more relaxed, not many kids actually make calls on their phones but they do like to text and it’s nice to do it and not get in trouble for it,” Kelly said.