By Angela Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-939489.mp3
Mayfield, KY – Technology is now an important part of education, with schools employing entire departments devoted to maintaining and updating software and hardware. Some education stakeholders worry too much access to technology like the internet and text messaging will tempt students to abuse the right. They worry some students will even use technology to cheat on exams. The majority of schools in western Kentucky ban personal devices during school hours entirely. As Angela Hatton reports, one school system is taking a different approach.
Graves County science teacher Michael Cole is a classroom dervish. As he quizzes his seventh grade student on the layers of the atmosphere, he paces between desks, gesticulating as he talks, and even using a table as a platform to field his students' answers. Cole also takes a quick peek at his iPhone, checking the time and his work email. He checks his phone up to 10 times a class period. School policy prohibits students from using cellphones during instructional periods, but Cole knows they sneak around the rules.
"They'll hide it in the hoodie. A lot of the girls, they'll pick up their purse, pretend they're getting their lipstick out or whatever they're doing. And really they're in there sending a quick text message. Y'know they can send a couple of sentences in a matter of seconds so it's not that big of a deal to them."
The Pew Research Center reports 75 percent of teenagers own a cell phone, and 54-percent of students text daily. This school year, Cole and a few other Graves County teachers began capitalizing on the ubiquity of mobile devices. Cole uses a free internet polling program that allows students to answer questions via a text. He says it's a good way to evaluate how much students are retaining.
"Someone's already texting in. It says, I learned about volcanoes and where they form. OK, somebody put in I learned that we live in the troposphere.'"
Students like pulling their phones out during class, but many teachers hesitate to allow mobile devices because they can't control them.
"Mr. Cole's not stupid. When I ask you to get out the phone, what's the first thing you probably did before you sent that message?"
"Text someone else."
"Check your message or probably sent one to someone else real quick."
Most schools in western Kentucky have restrictive cell phone policies. In Hopkins County, employees must "confiscate cell phones from students that are visible during school hours." Calloway County students are punished on an escalating scale for having their phones out. First-time offenders have their phone taken away for one day, but third time offenders lose their devices for the rest of the school year. But in Graves County
"This is the second year that we've tried this, and we feel like it's, certainly in this area, much more liberal than most of the policies."
High School Principal R. B. Mays says his school allows students to use personal devices, like cell phones and laptop computers, between class periods, at lunch, and at break. He says developing this standard took trial and error. Before the current policy, the school tried letting students use their phones whenever, unless a teacher said they couldn't. That didn't work out well, and Mays says cheating was a huge problem.
"And we even had to say, and I've had this discussion even with some administrators, yeah but I let them use the calculator.' How do you know they're using the calculator and not y'know are you sitting over every one of them? You just had to say, you can't use these during tests' because I think we knew yes. Yes we knew it was going on, but how do you monitor it?"
When it comes to computers, administrators can block sites they don't want students visiting. School system Chief Information Officer John McMillen, also a WKMS volunteer program host, says sites that allow students to download a paper instead of writing it themselves are popular.
"If a teacher finds another site, or a staff member or anyone finds another site that's available, then we can block that on demand."
Science teacher Michael Cole says he hasn't caught any of his pupils cheating yet. He says at worst, the phones have been distracting. Cole predicts schools could have a problem in the future as they move toward utilizing devices without Internet Protocol, or IP addresses.
"Most of those devices, iPhone or iPad, and all those things, they don't have a way for you to track em. Where with a computer or a laptop, if they're looking at something they shouldn't be, you can look and say they're looking at that, we need to go find them.' You can track them down to the exact computer at the exact time."
Cole says making sure kids use devices responsibly is the purview of the teacher. He feels comfortable taking text message polls and quizzes because he knows the students respect him, and won't abuse the right. Cole says that may not be the case for every teacher.
Principal R. B. Mays is practical when it comes to cheating.
"Every kid alive has cheated. For me to sit here and say that I haven't at some point I I don't know of, there may be a few around that haven't, but ultimately most everybody at some point has figured out some way to cheat. But I won't ever forget the last time I was tempted was when my college Pre-Cal teacher walked in, handed us the test, and walked out. And all of a sudden I realized it's my decision right now whether that's going to be a part of my character or not."
Mays says developing ethical character is paramount for every school, regardless of whether they're using technology to do it, or not.