Mobile Phones in the Classroom - Yes or No?

Should mobile phones be allowed in school? Could they be used as tools in the classroom?

To fully understand the issues and complexities of this problem we examined the issue through six different perspectives using Edward deBono's thinking hats. For those who are unfamiliar with the thinking hats http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Hats/hats.htm explains them.

We were encouraged to research the issue before editing the relevant wiki. I decided to research for the black (negative perspective) hat and the white (information) hat. My research introduced me to a wide range of evidence regarding mobile phones and was not limited to two perspectives. One particularly interesting website I found was https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfODgzZnNucW5zZGM&hl=en_GB&pli=1
This site featured 30 different ways of using phones constructively in the classroom; my favourite included participating in polls, creating a photographic scavenger hunt and using smartphone applications to partake in interactive learning games.

But because of our campus wiki, my research wasn't all I had access to by the end of the day. Many people had added different perspectives to the wiki. Overall (blue hat thinking?) researching this topic independently before collaborating to create one source of information was an interesting way to learn. It was a way to construct our own knowledge and meaning through our experiences (constructivism!).

So should mobile phones be allowed in the classroom? Well, my personal opinion is no. While they're novel maybe we shouldn't force students to be even more dependent on their phones! I think there are plenty of other ITC tools that would perform to the desired standard while having less negatives. But maybe one day they'll be a place for phones in the classroom...