Cellphones in the classroom

I use my cellphone a lot, maybe even a little too much. So whenever the topic of cellphones being used in the classroom comes up it grabs my attention. I had trouble deciding if this would be a good idea or not. There's so much to do with cellphones and they can't be directly monitored all the time so its had to say that they shouldn't be banned. I decided to do some research to find a good way to implement them in a class and I found this website, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/. It talks about the industry pushing the use of phones in schools. They talked about how some students in an algebra class would take short video clips of them solving problems and post them on private network for each other, and these students did better in the class then the ones who didn't use them. Phones open up so many new possibilities especially with the smart phones. Of course a lot of the things can be done with other technologies but a lot of students have a cell phone and they are easily accessible. I really think that if teachers can get creative they could find some really good ways to use cellphones in the classroom. Its a technology that most students are familiar and comfortable using. I don't know if I will use them in my classroom because I plan on teaching in elementary schools, so there probably wont be as many students who have cell phones. As far as high school students and classes are concerned, I think it would be a great idea. (photo:morguefile.com)