The Ten Building Blocks for Learning with Cell Phones

by George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb

Innovative educators George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb know that when it comes to preparing students for success in the 21st century, you not only have to think outside the ban, but also may have to dive in head first and break it. The following is a collection of ideas each teacher implemented to successfully break and/or work within the ban where they teach in an effort to empower students with the freedom to use their cell phones as personal learning devices.

The Ten Building Blocks for Learning with Cell Phones

• with self:
• with students:
• with parents and guardians:
• with colleagues:
• with administration:
• with district:
• Realize that leadership begins with example. There are those who are threatened by transitions and change. To break the ban, you will need to present yourself in ways that do not make your colleagues uncomfortable about their instructional methodology.
• Let students know you care about making learning fun and relevant and ask them if they’d like the option to be able to do work using their cell phones. Most likely, the answer will be YES! If they are interested provide them with homework options that enable them to use cell phones.
• Start with the parents by using the cell phone as a tool to bridge the home-school connection. You can have a “Text-of-the-Day” to update parents on what’s happening in the class. You can text parents individually to share information about their child. You can poll parents with Poll Everywhere to get their input and show their opinions matter. You can read this article for more ideas 6 Ways to Use Cell Phones to Strengthen the Home-School Connection . Once parents are on your side and see the value personally, your job convincing other stakeholders becomes much easier.
• Try to establish yourself as an innovative leader when it comes to empowering students and teachers with technology. A focus on student centered learning is key. At grade or subject meetings, offer to support teachers in harnessing the power of cell phones for themselves, and if they’re ready, with their students. Get them started and model for them. Perhaps have a polling question in a meeting or gather input with a Wiffiti board.
• Start by working within the system to bring about technological change. Become known as someone that works with what your school has on hand and is flexible to administrative needs. When the opportunity presents itself, respectfully present the need for change and recommendations to update your school’s technological teaching processes.
• Become known as a tech leader. Offer to participate in school and district-wide technology decisions. Offer to collaborate with the district technology coordinator and others to help establish a new acceptable use policy (AUP) that will allow the use of cell phones as a learning tool. (The AUP is a critical step toward technological change, many districts are still working with AUP’s developed in the late nineties.) Keep in mind that in most cases, what is acceptable in the physical world applies to the online world as well.

2) Embrace Research
In today’s educational climate providing evidence that the work you are doing is aligned to research and standards is crucial! Here are some ways to do this.

• In addition to content area alignment, ensure your cell infused lessons indicate alignment to the National Education Technology Standards.
• Incorporate the use of cell phones aligned to Robert Marzano’s nine research-based strategies.
• Demonstrate careful research of the use mobile technology to building principal and district administration. Provide specific data and examples that are up-to-date, not out-of-date.
• This is a sample of a math teacher’s compilation of Standards-Aligned Activities with Cell Phone and Other Technologies
• You can think of your own or use some of these ideas shared on The Innovative Educator blog.
• Frohberg, D. (2006). Mobile learning is coming of age: What we have and what we still miss. Paper presented at the DELFI 2006, Darmstadt, Germany.(http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/pax/uploads/pdf/publication/71/2006_DELFI_Darmstadt_MLearn_Framework.pdf)
• Pursell, D.P. (2009). Adapting to student learning styles: engaging students with cell phone technology in organic chemistry instruction. Journal of Chemical Education, 86(10), 1219
• Shuler, Carly Ed.M. (January 2009) Industry Brief: Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning
• Speak Up, . (2010, March). Creating our future: students speak up about their vision for 21st century learning
• Trotter, A. (2009). Students turn their cellphones on for classroom lessons. Education Week, 28(16), 10-11
• Vavoula, G., Scanlon, E., Lonsdale, P., Sharples, M., & Jones, A. (2005). Report on literature on mobile learning, science and collaborative activity
• Wood, C., Jackson, E., & Wilde, L. (2009, July 24). Children’s use of mobile phone text messaging and its impact on literacy development in primary school.
• Compilation of Mobile technology Journal Articles and Research

3) Plan Activities

• Planning is key. Create and develop a plan, lessons, and activities that you can share with those who care and want to know what you have in store for the use of cell phones in the classroom.
• Develop a well thought-out plan for embedding cell phones into instruction. Invite your students to partner with you in developing ideas to meet learning goals using cell phones. This plan can be shared on your class and/or school website as well as distributed to parents, guardians, and school community members.
• Develop a well crafted outline and description of lessons and activities that could be used for learning with a cell phone.
• Invite administrators and policy makers to observe the lessons. If possible, involve them as students in the class so they can actually participate and experience first-hand an activity that promotes student engagement and achievement.
• Lesson plan to use with students to begin drafting plans
• For lesson and activity ideas visit
• Harnessing the Power of Cell Phones in Class Lesson Plans
• Mobile Learning Lesson Plans | Scholastic.com
• St Marys Schools Lesson Ideas

4) Pilot Program
Be willing to start small, demonstrate success and work from there.

• Meet with those key in your school and district decision making to map out an acceptable pilot program i.e. district technology coordinator, building principal and assistant principals.
• Ensure that the pilot program includes all teachers interested in participating.
• Make sure to invite administrators to observe and participate when you are incorporating cell phones into the curriculum. This can be one of the fastest ways to build relationships and get key stakeholders on board.
• Film videos of what you and your students are doing. Publish on online spaces to celebrate the work your students are doing.
• Sample pilot program - Delta Schools, Colorado
• As an example see Culbreth Middle School’s collection of videos featuring the use of iTouches.
• Video of a student field trip to the Chesapeake Bay. Twitter updates at the end of the video were posted by the students during the trip via cell phones.

5) Access for All
Anyone interested in embedding cell phones into the curriculum has heard the argument, but what about the students who don’t have a phone??? Well, you do the same thing as you do when your class doesn’t have enough textbooks. You don’t say, I guess we can’t do our work. We find workarounds. Partner or group students. Have some extras on hand for those who don’t have. Reach out to the community for support, but don’t use that as an excuse to not innovate instruction.

• For more ideas visit
• Solutions for Teaching with Cell Phones in the One to Some Environment

6) Partnering with Students to Use Cells for Learning
When using technology for learning, Marc Prensky’s concept of partnering with students fits in well. Bring students into the conversation and ask them about ways they can meet learning goals in life, at school, and at home.A template might look like this:

Use Cell Phones for Real Life

Use Cell Phones for Learning Outside of School

Use Cell Phones In For Learning In Class

• Sample from class whose student’s partnered with their teacher to develop ways they could use their phones for learning.
• Student ideas for using cells for learning.

Invite your students to partner with you around a conversation of cell phones and learning. Capture their answers, then share these answers to see if there are any other ideas students may want to add. The ideas can be posted on the classroom website, blog, or wiki, with credit given to the students who are able to take more ownership of how they learn both at school and independently on their own.7) Parent/Guardian Permission
Before we use cells with students, we must have parent approval. By the time you ask for it, you’ve hopefully already begun some home school connection strategies with cell phones so you are on your way.

• Here are sample parental permission to use cell phones.
• Permission Slip
• Parent Cell Phone Letter
• Parent Technology Permission Form
• Tahoma School District Electronic Resources User Agreement and Parent Permission Form
• Parent Permission Form - Delta Schools, Colorado

8) Acceptable use
Just like any other classroom tool, teachers need to work with students to establish acceptable use policies. In some classrooms the teacher just explains how the general policies apply to the use of cell phones, in others they create a new policy, in some schools the students help create the policies, and in some classrooms they invite parental input as well. Collecting everyone’s thoughts on acceptable use is easy when you use cell phone tools like Poll Everywhere and Wiffiti to do so.

• Here are some sample policies
• Further reading
• 8th grade students brainstorming cell phone rules on Wallwisher(http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/cellphones)
• St. Marys City Schools Acceptance Use Policy
• AHS Personal Wireless Devices - Personally owned devices use policy Littleton Public Schools in Centennial, Colorado General generic simple cell phone policy from FunnyMonkey
• Department of Education, Melbourne, Victoria’s New Primary School Internet and Mobile Acceptable Use Kit
• Department of Education, Melbourne, Victoria’s New Secondary Internet and Mobile Acceptable Use Kit
• Nova Scotia Cell Phone Policy
• Crafting a Workable Cell Phone Policy, Education World, Feb 22, 2005
• Cell Phone Dos and Don'ts | Scholastic.com
• Ways to handle cell phones and other devices in your classroom
• Cell phone etiquette for kids - Tips and Advice for Parents and Families

9) Cell Phone Etiquette
Adults often complain that cell phones are a distraction in class, but how much time have they really devoted to discussing proper etiquette? This can be woven into a general discussion around behavior and etiquette in different situations. Inviting students into the conversation about appropriate etiquette and what to say to those not exhibiting polite behavior usually works better than telling students how to best behave.

10) Classroom Management
As with the use of any technology in the classroom, when using cell phones in the classroom you must have classroom management procedures in place. The nice thing, however, about cell phones is that you don’t have to worry about distribution, collection, storage, imaging , and charging of devices. Consider working with your students to develop this plan, you may find that they build a strong, comprehensive policy of which they will take ownership and be more likely to follow. Once developed, the plan should be posted in advance of using cell phones in the classroom.

• Sample plan
• Ideas for Managing the Cell Phone Classroom

Cross posted at

The Innovative Educator, This article was collaboratively written by George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb using Google docs. For information about each of the authors visit texting teacher biographies.