HARLINGEN — “Power up!”
The green arrow on the board tells students entering the classroom they can use their cell phones for class work that day.
It also serves as a sort of green light to the progress made since the Harlingen school district began its Bring Your Own Device program four years ago.
“We phased it in and started at the high schools,” said James Pearcy, director of technology for the Harlingen school district.
“It’s now phased in across the entire district, the elementary all the way through the high schools,” Pearcy said.
“Teachers use whatever devices the children bring. The majority of them are cell phones.”
The idea of students using cell phones in the classroom may seem absurd to some. At first glance, they’re a distraction. Their purpose in a classroom may appear limited, and the time it takes to control that use may strike many as counterproductive.
However, the district’s BYOD program has found a way to make it work.
“Teachers monitor their use very closely to make sure they’re engaged in classroom work,” said Shane Strubhart, spokesperson for the district.
The district also controls what students can download onto their cell phones in class. Such social media sites as Facebook are filtered out, other sources are filtered in.
“A lot of these are primarily web-based resources with applications for looking at everything from School Tube to back channel applications,” Pearcy said. “We’ve used other applications that deliver learning resources and the teachers work with students on that as much as they can to use those devices.”
Pearcy said that, in general, campuses are not wired to serve cell phone use.
“Some buildings are different from others as far as the phone signal reaching to the middle of the building,” Pearcy said. “If they don’t have cell reception we don’t provide extra boosting antennas or anything for cell signals into the building. It many not give them cell signal but text usually will work.”
However, there’s only so much a cell phone can do. Teachers still need their time with the students to discuss subject matter. And when that happens …
“Power down!” The arrow points to the floor, and the cell phones are off.
