Cellphones in the classroom?.....

http://caise07.idi.ntnu.no/practical_info.php

In my experiences, teachers have always said no to cellphones and ipods in class. ANY other technology that might be at all distracting. We took a poll in class about how many students had cellphones in the past year-ish and 90%ish had cellphones in high school and above half of elementary students had cellphones. This statistic shows that most students have phones. Although the problem is that this statistic does not show the statistics for students in lower income schools. These districts may be lacking in cellphones for all students, which makes cell phones unusable for teaching. The other point that is positive which I want to point out from the poll is that younger students do have cellphones. You can use cellphones, if all students have them, at almost any age where students know how to spell and can understand what you are asking. It depends on the individual class but in general, I would say starting middle school would for sure be an age when you could use cellphones as a classroom tool.
Students would really enjoy it because it is technology they are familiar with. It would also score points for you as a teacher using "cool" technology. Another thing to consider is that not all schools have the money to have the technology to allow cell phones to be used, if the students do have cell phones.
They can be used for anonymous polls or answering in predicting on a story or movie. You could use it in math to enter an answer, or even use it as a prequiz to see what students know and dont know, honestly. That would give you an idea if you have been teaching it well and what to strengthen them on before their quiz. In science, you could use cellphones to have them send picture of things they see for homework and then share the images as a class.
There are so many opportunities to use cellphones and although it may not be the easiest way to do it for you, for your students it may be the most interesting and engaging for them to learn. Leave an open mind and think about it:)