Ask a teacher to name the most irritating invention of recent years and they will often nominate the mobile phone.

Exasperated by the distractions and problems they create, many teachers require that students keep their phones switched off at school. Others have told students to leave them at home.

However, education researchers at the University of Nottingham, U.K., believe it is time that phone bans were reassessed -- because they have found that cell phones can be a powerful learning aid.

Dr. Elizabeth Hartnell-Young and her colleagues reached this conclusion after studying the consequences of allowing students in five secondary schools to use their cell phones or smartphones in lessons.

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