eBay
"One teacher involved in the study said: “I thought, well, four of these smartphones are going to end up on eBay tomorrow.” In fact, none of the phones were pinched."
Perhaps lack of trust may have somthing to do with this?
A study from Nottingham University found that kids can actually benefit from using mobile phones in class. Teachers and parents have often complained about mobile use, and been tricked by kids using ringtones that adults can't hear, but a nine month study at five secondary schools found that phones can be a useful learning aid …
It's always been my belief (supported by years of observation as a young 'un) that the education system exists for the benefit of the teachers and everyone else employed in the system. The reason mobiles are verboten in schools is because teachers dislike being interrupted: "Hello I'M IN CLASS RIGHT NOW" and especially because they dislike being filmed - given the likelihood of the video being doctored and appearing on youtube.
However, there is a possible upside. One of my ex-teachers is now an elected public figure. I'm sure that if the right video clips had been made widely available, the good people of <name deleted> could've been better informed about the mistake they were about to make.
About BERA:
"Who are our members? A broad church of researchers
When BERA was first formed in 1974, psychologists predominated in education, then the sociologists surfaced, to be followed by the action researchers. Today BERA encompasses psychologists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers among the discipline-oriented members; a strong contingent of educationists with special interests in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, or management; and those taking either a theoretical, or evaluative or action-research perspective on education.
It is widely agreed that the over-arching research concern of these educationists is the critically informing of educational judgements and of decisions aimed at improving educational action. This concern makes for a duality of policy/practice-focused research, with a concern to advance practical wisdom in educational matters, and of discipline-focused research, with a concern to advance theoretical knowledge in educational settings, in terms of psychological or sociological phenomena and/or philosophical, economic or historical issues.
The potential audiences for both aspects of research are practitioners, policy-makers and academics. Methodologically, many policy/practice-focused researchers are engaged in studies of singularities (ie studies enclosed in narrow boundaries of space and time), while many discipline-focused researchers are searching for general statements. BERA aims to embrace all of these researchers and audiences, and provides opportunities at its conferences and in its publications for all to contribute."
http://bera.caret.cam.ac.uk/blog/2008/09/mobile-phones-help-secondary-pupils-to-connect-with-their-lessons/
So no teachers, and nobody who has ever had a real job.
And what was that about singularities?
when i was in school you didn't use anything of your own. Your bags & coats were locked in a cloakroom and you were provided pens, pencils, books, etc. by the teacher. I think that system should still be used, no excuses about not having a pen, and if your phone is ringing it's not in the room.
This post has been deleted by its author