In the battle against cell phones, more Iowa schools are waving the white flag.

Administrators in Waukee, Marshalltown, Ackley and other cities have loosened strict bans. Students can now use cell phones during lunch and between classes in some cases. The old rules said cell phones shouldn't be seen or heard during school hours.

At Waukee's welcome-back meeting this fall, Superintendent Dave Wilkerson held up his cell phone and handheld computer to a group of teachers.

"I said, 'We're fighting a losing battle,' " Wilkerson said. "We're creating a false world for them in the school, a world so different from what they're dealing with on the outside."

The shift comes less than two years after a statewide movement to tighten school cell phone bans amid fears that students use text messages to chat with friends in class or cheat on tests. Technology experts say it's an early sign that cell phones will work their way into the fabric of classrooms just as calculators and ink pens did.

U.S. schools also face pressure to prepare children for an economy that now spans the globe. Chinese schools already are experimenting with cell phones as learning tools, researchers say.

Researchers predict U.S. students soon will use cell phones to photograph field trips, search the Internet and answer classroom polls via text message, among other things.

Story link