Omg, cell phones in classrooms?

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty isn't making any BFF's with his suggestion that kids might benefit from being able to use cell phones at schools.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty caused an unexpected freak out this week when he made some offhand comments to reporters that indicated he’d be open to finding an “acceptable” educational role for cell phones in classrooms. He made the remarks when asked about a similar offhand comment made by a member of the Toronto District School Board, and then followed that up with a tweet to clarify that he felt the matter needed looking into. In sum, we have two offhand comments and a tweet about a policy that may or may not pursued. Cue the outrage!

Why “turn teachers into enablers for students texting and chatting in the classroom?” asks the Toronto Star. “Time to stop this idea before it gains traction.”

“What’s next? Finding an ‘acceptable’ classroom role for cigarettes and sharp objects?” demands a National Post editorial. Comments like McGuinty’s “make even the most ardent supporters of public schools shake their heads and wonder if having politicians in charge of our kids’ education is really the best idea.”

The Sun’s Michael Den Tandt finds fault not only with McGuinty’s statements, but his twitter grammar (or twammar, as the kids call it). Quoting the premier’s tweet about “BB’s” (Blackberrys), Den Tandt writes “BBs, a plural not a possessive, should have no apostrophe.” Den Tandt says his generation never needed fancy gadgets to learn such grammar rules. Imagine how poor his education would have been “if we each had a miniature TV in our desk, tuned to” such distractingly funny shows as “Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies or Gilligan’s Island?”

Handheld technology in education is inevitable, according to a Globe and Mail editorial. In the future “every student may very likely carry a smart phone to class,” and the editors point out that Clickers, electronic devices that allow students to take in-class tests, “became a fixture in universities about four years ago.” New technology has always been adapted for educational purposes, and while “we must be mindful to keep the teacher at the centre of students' attention … we need not ban cell phones outright.”