A 21st Century Global Acceptable Use Policy for Schools

Last Fall I sent out a survey on my Twitter network asking K-12 teachers about cell phone use in their schools. I received 100 responses on SurveyMonkey (Wow! Imagine how much more difficult it would have been to get survey responses from random teachers around the nation in 1995???).

Survey Says...
Of 100 teachers, 97 of them said that their school had a policy that highly restricted cell phone use during school hours (either banning them completely or restricting their use to non-academic times). Yet in the same survey 40 of the teachers said they were using cell phones in learning, and 87 teachers said they would like to use cell phones for learning in their schools in the future. While this is not a scientific survey, it was just a quick random survey of educators on Twitter, the results do speak to a need for a change in acceptable use policies.

One of the reasons teachers tell me they are not interested in using cell phones in learning is because their schools' acceptable use policy does not allow cell phones in the classroom.

Probably the most common question that I have been asked by teachers who are interested in using cell phones in learning is, "how do I go about changing my schools' acceptable use policy to include cell phones?"

While I have often given some suggestions, I recently came across Uni High. Uni is a school in Urbana, Il that has propsed a new, more cell phone friendly AUP.

Here is a blurb of the new policy proposal

Mobile Device Policy

Students may have silenced mobile devices on their person. The use of communication features on cellular devices during instructional time, or in a disruptive manner in the school atmosphere, is prohibited.

Each teacher has the right to allow the use of mobile devices (e.g. cell phones, laptops, iPods, personal data assistants) during instructional time.

The use of cell phones in the hallway is prohibited, as it is considered a disruption to classes taking place. Nondisruptive cell phone use is allowed in the stairwells.

Students are permitted to use mobile devices, including cell phones, in the student lounge for the remainder of the first semester of 2008. This is a probationary period after which SFAC will make a recommendation to the administration and the faculty for future use of mobile devices.

Students may continue to use mobile devices in the stairwells of Uni.

I think this policy is an excellent example of a policy that can keep structure and restaints around using cell phones inappropriately, while as the same time give classroom teachers the option to use them in their teaching and learning.

Now a few things on my wish list to go along with the aup for cell phones...
1) Teaching mobile etiquette, safety, and legalise
2) Training teachers on academic uses for cell phones (lets' give our inservice and preservice teachers the professional development they need to effectively integrate cell phones).

Sexting & Texting; Schools Role

In the last year I have come across a number of articles about students sexting. Sexting is when a person sends a nude picture of themselves to someone else. Students have been arrested for sexting and are facing criminal charges such as child pornography. Besides sexting, according to the Smoking Gun, a student was arrested for texting during class because she refused to stop. She was charged with a crime of disorderly conduct.

While sexting and distracting texting are reasons why schools worry about including cell phones in learning, I believe these two examples are reasons why schools need to include cell phones in learning. The way that students communicate, collaborate, and conduct business (personal or public) over their mobile devices could be both beneficial and detrimental to their futures in the 21st Century workforce. Currently with policies banning cell phones from school campus, teachers get the message that they should ignore cell phones altogether. Which includes talking with students about mobile safety, ethics, and legalese. Students do not understand the ramifications for the media they collect and send on their cell phones. Teachers have an opportunity to help educate students on how to use their cell phones appropriately, for the common good, and for their own upward mobility in the global workforce.

If we continue to focus on the negative, than the U.S. will continue to fall behind other areas of the world that are already using cell phones in learning. Imagine if we only focused on the horrible car accidents and the deaths from those every year in the U.S.? We would ban automobiles. But we also see the common good in cars; for transportation, for the travel industry, for commerce...etc. We even have courses that students are required to take to learn how to drive appropriately and legally. Students need to learn how to navigate their cell phones; appropriately, legally, and for their own futures in this global economy.

Image taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ydhsu/3183824689/

MIT Introduces First Graduate Course on Mobile Phones for Social Activism

I just read an interesting post on MobileActive. It mentioned a new graduate course/seminar being offered at MIT. The graduate seminar (Call4Action) focuses on how mobile phones and other devices are being used around the world for activism. According to MobileActive, this is the first graduate course to be offered on the benefits of mobile phones for activist organizations. Below is part of the description of the seminar...

"Call for Action (CfA) is an intensive studio seminar on contemporary technologies and activism. How can mobile networked devices be used for social change, politics, and expression? Can Web2.0 techniques be applied to help to organize people, gather information, and enable collective action to stop global warming? organize labor? end a war?

Each week we will review existing tools for social change, cover techniques for mobile hacking, and piece together new experiments. International speakers ranging from Zimbabwean activists to telecommunication experts will discuss the problems with existing ICTs, and suggest parameters for new systems. We will explore protocols and packages like VOIP, SMS, and Asterisk to look at how they may be reused or reconfigured. And we will do a variety of hacking and technical exercises that can demystify the field and act as springboards for future work."

I am excited to see higher education recognizing the benefit of using cell phones in global communication and activism. I hope that courses like this start popping up all over different fields of higher education. Such as mobile medicine, mobile social work, mobile business, mobile research, mobile literacy, mobile history, mobile economics...etc.

Are We Moving Backwards?? Stop Pennsylvania From Banning Cell Phones

Just when I thought education was finally moving past the traditional four rows of desks and a whiteboard for the model of what constitutes learning, Pennsylvania introduces a Bill (363) to ban all student cell phones from school grounds. What!?

Yesterday I watched an amazing presentation by Julie Evans from the Tomorrow Group, who told us that only 24% of advanced technology students believe that they are receiving an education that prepares them for the digital 21st Century Workplace. Julie spoke about how prevalent cell phones and other mobile devices are among students, and how much they WANT to use their devices in learning. Also, she talked about the "Free Agent Learner", the student who does not want to be bound by a classroom or a cubical to learn or work.

I've also been reading some reports by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and learning that almost 90% of Americans think that U.S. students are not getting the digital skills they need to be competitive in the future workforce. Maybe because we tend to ban or filter some of the best resources in education??!!!

Bill 363 seems to fight against getting students ready to compete in a global, digital, and mobile economy. I'm not sure it if this Bill is created out of fear, ignorance, or pride. In any case, I urge you to sign the petition that Thomas Boito set up to stop this Bill and let school districts decide what is best for their students.

I hope the creators of the Bill take some time to read the following;
The 2009 Horizon Report
Pockets of Potential (Cooney Center Brief)
Learning Environments Must Break Through the Silos that Separate Learning from the Real World

Cell Phones in Learning Radio Show is BACK!! AND Improved!

Starting this Wednesday, Feb. 11th. Cell Phones in Learning's live radio show will return at our new time...8:30 pm. It is a 30 minute show (so it can be your lead-in to the EdTechTalk 9:00pm shows).

First, let me say that I could not host alone. I found it too difficult to monitor the chat room and speak coherently at the same time. Therefore I have brought on board my co-instructor at Michigan, Jeff Stanzler. His twitter ID is "stanz". Jeff has a background in both education technology and foundations. He is in charge of an innovative technology project at Michigan, which includes web-based simulations pairing university students and K-12 classrooms. I am so excited to have Jeff as a co-host. Not only is he very interested in the topic of 21st Century learning and cell phones, but he found our first interview for the upcoming broadcast!!!

Our guest this week is a high school teacher named Larry Liu. Larry is a former student of Jeff's and mine. Larry is now teaching in Michigan and using both cell phones and Facebook with his high school students!!! You will have to tune in on Wednesday to learn more about Larry's innovative project! We will be broadcasting through BlogTalkRadio. Below is the link to our broadcast! Please Join Us!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elikeren

Phonecasting: Easy Podcasting Creation and Delivery for Students

I have been investigating a resource called Phonecasting. Phonecasting is created by the same group that developed Podlinez. I posted last year about Podlinez. Podlinez has the ability to turn any RSS feed (audio or text) into a podcast you can hear on the phone. Phonecasting offers a similar function with a bonus. Like Podlinez, Phonecasting is a free resource which allows you to listen to any podcast via landlines or cell phone. Phonecasting gives you a unique phone number to give out to all your listeners who would prefer to listen via cell phone or landlines. Besides the accessibility and convenience that Phonecasting offers with unique phone numbers, it also allows anyone to create their own phonecast via phone. I love this option!!! So many students do not have access to the Internet or software to create their own podcast outside of school. In addition some students do not have their own cell phones, so Phonecasting uses a toll-free number to record podcasts via phone. This means that any student can use landlines to record the podcast!!

Classroom Integration Ideas:
Since Phonecasting is uber-podcasting, there are a wide variety of projects one can do in K-12 classrooms. Below I highlight a few options that are unique to Phonecasting.

1) Museum Tours
Students can work with local museums to develop audio tours. This is an opportunity for students to learn about the artifacts in the museum and create an authentic tool for the museum.

2) Local Walking Tours
Students can create a virtual audio walking tour (no need for the Internet) about content from the class curricula. For example, students in a science class could create a scientific species walking tour for visitor of the city. Students could scout out local places where particular species are found, and then create an audible call-in walking tour with directions and scientific information.

3) Geography/Mathematics
Students studying geography and way-finding could create audio tours giving directions on how to get to popular local destinations. Such as the favorite local deli or a monument. They could have a call-in number associated with the directions.

4) Business Marketing
Students in a business, economics or journalism class could team with a local business and create audible coupons using Phonecasting. Students could create short audio advertisements that include the latest coupon deals. At the end of the advertisement the students could tell the listener the coupon code to use when they purchase the product.

5) School Radio On-Demand
While many schools have weekly radio broadcasts or podcasts, they are often broadcast live. When they are achieved it is usually to a website, where listeners would need Internet access in order to download and listen to the podcast. Using Phonecasting, weekly podcasts can be created and heard via cell phone or landlines on-demand rather than at a designated time or using Internet access.