PA
While most schools are constantly battling to prevent kids from texting and surfing the web on their mobiles during lesson time, one school is actually ENCOURAGING its youngsters to use their phones in class.
St Julian's Comprehensive School in Newport, Wales, says it wants its 1,600 students to embrace new technology and learn how to use their smart phones responsibly.
Graham Barker, the school's head of e-learning, insisted however that the kids' phones were not to be used for texting, but just for their technological benefits.
He told the BBC that the scheme had so far been 'working really well'.
He said: "We don't want pupils texting in lessons but so much of learning today involves the sort of technology that mobile phones use as standard."
He said that instead of banning handsets, the school wanted to foster 'responsible use of mobile phones by pupils': "We are a school that is embracing technology for learning in every way," he added.
Mr Barker also said that Twitter was utilised in the classroom to ask questions on, and that mobile phones were used by students to download the school curriculum.
"There are so many opportunities to aid learning through technology and we want to be a school that takes the lead in this," he said.
"There is a revolution going on in technology in the world or work, and schools are caught up in this too. It is an exciting time to be studying and teaching in schools."
Ironically, the school had previously slapped a ban on mobiles in case they disrupted lessons...
What do you think? Would you like your kids' school to allow mobile phones to be used in the classroom? Or is it just asking for trouble?