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As we noted earlier this week, cell phones are in the hands of the vast majority of adults and whether schools like it or not, they’re in the hands of most students. While many schools still see cellphones as a distraction rather than as an educational tool, it’s hard to deny that these devices are quickly becoming the primary means by which we communicate, in or out of schools.

For most teens, it’s not the “phone” part of a cellphone that they use most. Rather it’s text-messaging. A Pew survey from last summer found that one in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day — more than 3,000 messages per month. Statistics like this point to all sorts of possibilities for educational opportunities around texting, particularly if you want to tap into the tools that they’re already using.

But text-messaging has other benefits as well. Unlike apps that are only available on certain smartphones or mobile websites that are only accessible on Internet-enabled devices, text-messaging is widely available. This makes it an important and accessible communication tool, one that can meet the needs of schools and communities.

Meeting that need is the goal of Celly, a startup out of Portland, Oregon. A simple description of the new company: Celly offers SMS-based group messaging. Anyone can create or join a group by visiting the website or by sending a text to C-E-L-L-Y (2-3-5-5-9). And it’s free to use (not counting what phone companies charge for messaging).

Classrooms can use the service to take quick polls and quizzes, filter messages, get news updates, take notes, and organize group study — all in real time.

Though it might seem like a simple premise, Celly’s messaging tool is actually quite multi-faceted, and the founding team — Russell Okamoto and Greg Passmore –  aim to make it work for schools and civic organizations.

In the school setting, specifically, considering the privacy and safety issues that arise around any social network, particularly a network used by teachers and students, is a top priority. Messaging via Celly happens without sharing phone numbers, for example, and there are a number of controls that allow group administrators to approve or kick people. Groups — or as Celly calls them “cells” — all have unique names and can be private or public, the latter being indexed by search engines. The cells can be configured to be open, allowing anyone to send messages; they can be moderated, so that the administrator must approve each message; or they can be alert-only, so that only the cell’s administrator can message group members.

Messages can be accessed via cellphones (obviously), but also via the Web. Celly also has a polling feature, so that cellphones can be used in lieu of devices like “clickers” to poll and quiz students in class. Celly also gives users the ability to @-message themselves for quick note-taking. And with no limits on the number of people that can join a cell, small groups can use it for study groups, classes can use it for discussions, and entire schools can use it for messaging.

Cells can also be set up with “receptors,” allowing them to track any Web feed and filter messages based on certain hashtags or locations. This means that the cells can be used to organize and aggregate content, and as cells can be connected — via these receptors — to other cells, it could be a way for grades, schools, districts, for example, to automate information flow. A classroom’s cell could get updates when a certain blog was updated, for example, or an administrator’s cell could get updates summarizing activity from all the various cells and groups.

In other words, Celly can be used to send messages home from school — reminders about homework assignments, for example — but it can also be used to monitor local and relevant news and information — all in real-time, all sent to users’ cellphones.

Celly is developing Android and iPhone apps, but it’s working to make sure that its tool is available to anyone, whether or not they can afford a smartphone. The startup also wants to meet the needs of its users first. Beta testers include a number of Portland area high school teachers, as well as the city’s Gang Violence Task Force.

Flickr:Bark

Rules are important in any civilized society. Without them, chaos would ensue. But some rules are worth questioning, especially when the consequences negate their very purpose.

Teachers are grappling with how to address regulations they consider unnecessary at best and harmful at worst. There’s no question that helpful guidelines can and should be put in place surrounding all of these issues, considering the privacy of both teachers and students. It’s the outright banning that seems extreme, especially when many of these examples can be used in rich, educational contexts. The metaphor of throwing the baby out with the bathwater is most apropos in these scenarios.

• FACEBOOK. As we’ve been hearing for the past few weeks, Missouri has banned teachers from using Facebook (and other social media) to communicate with students. A couple of days ago, Wired reported that “a union representing 44,000 Missouri public school teachers is challenging a state law that dramatically restricts their online speech with current and former students. The lawsuit targets the legislation as a First Amendment breach.” Meanwhile, in many cases, teachers have found lots of ways to use Facebook in the classroom.
• TWITTER. Teachers are banned from using Twitter in schools in Pinellas County, Florida. “I don’t know what information is being transmitted,” said school board attorney Jim Robinson of private communication with students in a Patch.com article. But couldn’t that be said of any kind of communication, including simple conversation? An article in the U.K.’s Guardian reports that teachers have been banned from using Twitter after one teacher’s controversial public post. In response, a teacher wrote: “Wouldn’t you love to live in a place where public workers aren’t allowed to express personal opinion? You now have the choice of China or Argyll, it seems.” Meanwhile, teachers continue to find creative ways for using Twitter in school.
• CELL PHONES FOR TEACHERS. We’ve written about cell phone bans and heard from a number of educators who express their frustrations as their individual schools try to figure out how or whether to allow students to use them. But it turns out that some schools are also banning teachers from using their own mobile phones. On Scholastic’s Practical Leadership blog, a teacher wrote in to say that “to ‘set a good example,’ our principal has decided that teachers shouldn’t use [cell phones] either.

• YOUTUBE, SKYPE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, AND MANY OTHER WEBSITES. Schools unilaterally block a long list of sites (read “Eight Surprising Websites Schools Can’t Access“) under the guise of different federal laws that are meant to protect kids. But even the Department of Education’s Karen Cator counters with useful facts that support unblocking many of these educational sites (read “Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites.)“

As technologies evolve, so will school rules that define the best ways of using them. In the meantime, many teachers are flouting policy and taking it upon themselves to decide what’s best for their students and for their teaching practice.

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Last week, a  study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that cellphones have become “near ubiquitous”: 83% of American adults own one. Over half of all adult mobile phone owners had used their phones at least once to get information they needed right away. And more than a quarter said that they had experienced a situation in the previous month in which they had trouble doing something because they did not have their phones at hand.

The findings of this Pew research — the reliance of adults on their cellphones — stands in sharp contrast to the policies of many schools, where cellphones remained banned or restricted. Students likely have these same needs as adults: to get online and find information they need right away. But often students are banned from using their cell phones in schools, something that students themselves list as one of the greatest obstacles they face in using technology in the classroom.

For many schools, these are formal rules, written in school policy or in student handbooks. But as phones become like more extended appendages in everyone’s lives, schools are rethinking their policies. MindShift asked teachers how or whether these rules were changing and received some interesting feedback.

Educator Nilda Vargas reported that students can use cell phones to access their online books, while teacher Shekema Silveri replied that although she requires cell phone usage in her class, the school policy against it hasn’t changed. “Most teachers are still afraid of cell phones in the classroom because they know little about how to use them as a tool for learning,” she wrote on MindShift’s Facebook page.

High school teacher Kim Ibarra said that her school has gone from a “no cell phones in school at all — not even in the hallways or at lunch” policy about four to five years ago, to “cell phone usage in the classroom if the teacher has asked for permission ahead of time with an explanation of what will be done and why it is necessary” about two years ago, to “cell phones can be used in the classroom if the teacher has students using them for educational purposes” last year, and back to the more prohibitive “students may use cell phones in the school only at lunch in a specified area” — the policy for this upcoming year.

Many teachers noted that written policies don’t always mirror informal policies, and thatthere’s a groundswell of those who recognize that cellphones need not be seen solely as distractions or as ways for students to cheat. More educators are realizing that cell phones can enhance learning.

High school teacher Jamie Williams describes his school’s policy regarding cell phones:

“My high school’s policy is cell phones should be off and out of sight. If seen, they are taken and the student is written up. Our handbook says students may use phones with teacher permission. I’m a huge tech nerd and make my students use their phones throughout my class. My biggest gripe is that most students have these great smartphones and barely use the device to a tenth of their potential.

Williams teaches art and technology classes. For his art class, he asks students to use photos they’ve taken on their cell phones as the basis for paintings they’ll create. During tests, Williams allows his students to use both their handwritten notes and those they’ve saved on their phones. In his video class, most students have phones capable of shooting in high definition, and use them for projects. This year, he’s hoping to make a large-scale mosaic of student life created solely from cell phone images.

Williams notes that it’s difficult for students to have to go from one class where they’re expected to make full use of their phones to another in which the phone has to be off and hidden. He also points to the irony that in a lot of these latter classes, students are “asked to do research on a desktop computer that absolutely has less processing power than the computer in their pocket.”

And that’s probably one of the most important observations: many students already carry a powerful computing device in their pockets, while oftentimes much of the technology hardware at schools is woefully out-of-date. By allowing cellphones, schools may find they have equipped students with better devices — with devices that work as calculators, cameras, video cameras, books, and notebooks, for example — at no or low cost to the school.

Cellphones are, of course, just one piece of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program, and this wiki created by Manitoba educator Darren Kuropatwa gives some tips on how to prepare for and take advantage of cell phones and other devices brought into the classroom from home.

But the biggest obstacle remains the attitudes of those educators and administrators who still frown on the devices and fear their usage, who confiscate them from students, who see them as a distraction rather than a powerful tool for learning. It’s clear that schools must come up with an acceptable use policy for cellphones in the classroom. But as more adults indicate that they’re “lost” without their cellphones, it hardly seems acceptable that we ban students’ access to the devices.