Education

Cellphones in Schools?

July 11, 2006 1 min read
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Which is worse, the disruptive ring of a cellphone in the middle of class, the risk of students using camera phones to transmit test questions during an exam, or the fear of a parent who can’t locate her child after school because his cell phone has been confiscated?

Cellphones in schools has become a hot-button issue, especially in New York, where city officials recently increased restrictions. In this Education Week Commentary, Bruce S. Cooper, a professor at Fordham University’s graduate school of education, and John W. Lee, a former superintendent of public high schools for the Queens borough of New York, write about the difficult decisions schools must make regarding student use of cellphones.

What do you think? Should students be restricted from using cellphones in school? Is there a way for schools to control cellphone use, or must they ban it outright?

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A version of this news article first appeared in the TalkBack blog.

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