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Cellphones in Schools: Flip 'Em Open
By Matt Levinson
Cheating in school is not a new phenomenon. The game has just changed a bit with the advent of cellphones and texting. Marc Prensky , an author on technology and a game designer himself, loves to share the story of a talk he once had with high school students. When he suggested that schools should have open-phone tests, as a measure to combat cellphone cheating, one of the students responded, "Dude, we already have open-phone tests. The teachers just don't know it."
Cellphone use among teenagers is rampant and growing at an exponential rate. Common Sense Media , a national, independent nonprofit organization that helps educators and parents teach kids how to be safe and smart in today's 24/7 media world, worked with the Benenson Strategy Group to conduct over 2,000 interviews with teenagers about cellphone use. What they unearthed is staggering.
More than eight in 10 teenagers have cellphones, and more than half have had them since they were 12 years old or younger. On average, they send 440 text messages a week, 110 of which are sent during class. Restrictive school policies hardly matter, as 65 percent of young people use their phones on campus despite school policies. Parents are in the dark as well. Only 23 percent of those whose kids have cellphones think their children are using them during school, while 65 percent of kids say they use...