Emily Dickinson, You Have a New Text Message

At Chester Middle School, in upstate New York, reading and social studies teacher Ernie Jackson uses text messaging to teach students poetry. Students using their mobile devices to summarize the main points of stanzas got 80 percent of the questions about a poem correct on a state test. Kids taught the same poem in the traditional way—reading, reciting, and discussing—got only 40 percent of the questions right, reports the Times-Herald Record.

We recently reported on the benefits of using mobile devices instructionally. And last week, we spoke with Principal Kipp Rogers, whose Passages Middle School in Newport News, Va., is using cell phones everywhere from gym class (as stop watches) to science class (finding and recording specimens with camera phones). Rogers gave us some tips: for example, even deactivated cell phones returned to stores can be used to take photos and transfer them via bluetooth capability. He also mentioned some issues to consider, like the strength of the wireless signal in your building; your cell phone use policies; and if kids violate the policies, whether you are punishing the violation or the technology. (Rogers says he's careful not to punish the technology. Why take away something that's actually helping students learn?)

Is your school open to using the technology already in students' hands?