High school and middle school students in the Warren County R-III School District may be able to use their cellphones should an amendment to the district’s technology use policy be made. The school …
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High school and middle school students in the Warren County R-III School District may be able to use their cellphones should an amendment to the district’s technology use policy be made. The school board is likely to revise the policy at its next school board meeting Jan. 12. The proposed amendment would allow high school and middle school students to use electronic devices before school, during lunch, in between class periods or, if approved by a teacher, in the classroom. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith said the proposed policy change is part of the district’s movement to embrace technology in the classroom. “As it stands now, if a student’s phone is seen or heard, it is being taken away by the teachers,” he said. “With the proposed amendment to the new policy, our teachers would use it more as a responsibility teaching tool.” According to officials, in the first semester this school year, 8.6 percent of all high school and middle school disciplinary infractions have involved cellphones. “It seemed like a natural adjustment in discipline so instead of fighting technology, we’re looking at ways to embrace it,” Klinginsmith said. “If we’re not fighting it, principals and teachers are able to spend more time on instruction and building a better relationship with students.” He said a major benefit of the proposed policy change will be that teachers could use technology and the Internet to gain feedback on whether or not students were grasping the curriculum. “There’s a lot of free software on the Internet that can be used for polling,” Klinginsmith said. “You see on television commercials to text A for this, B for this, C for this and D for this. Teachers could have a question on the board at the beginning of class and students could text an answer to that question. That way, teachers will know right away who understood last night’s homework.“That’s a great way to do a formative assessment to gauge the students,” he added. “Not all the students may have their phone charged or with them, but that’s a good sampling of the classroom.” By embracing technology in the classroom, the revised policy will seemingly enhance the student-teacher relationship, according to district officials. “It’s really about following the direction of teachers,” Klinginsmith said. “Everybody has phones so we need to embrace this a little bit. “Say if a student has an MP3 player and they want to listen to it while they work, they can if the teacher allows, but at this time, MP3 players are not allowed,” he added. The district is looking to bring itself up to speed with other schools that use individual tablet computers as opposed to notebooks. “For long-term planning, it’d be great to be able to get to the point where we can have students bring in their own devices and use technology to extend teaching outside of the classroom,” Klinginsmith said. “We can’t afford a computer for everybody, but it’s the first step. "It’s a lot of work, but that’s what we’d like to see with technology usage down the road,” he added. “We have to think of creative ways to get technology in the kids’ hands.” Klinginsmith said with technology, learning opportunities for students are endless.“We don’t know the possibilities so we’ll do our homework and research and see where it leads us,” he said. “The potential is out there to see what it’ll be.”