Cell+Phones+1

News: Storyline: School District testing a Pilot program by allowing a kid to use a phone during school. The teachers were then to comment on the possitive outcomes of the phone, and the negative outcomes of the phone.

Intro: news music.... Hello, and welcome to TGB News at 7:00. Today we have a hard debating subject going across the US. The subject of students using cell phones in school. There has been a ton of arguments breaking out across the country on whether or not students should be able to use cell phones during school hours. There is the side completely for the cell phone usage in school, but then again there is the handful of people totally against the usage. Some schools are doing experiments to see what people think. Such as Hamilton High!

Body: We followed Jake Blanko, a student participating in a pilot program at his local middle school, that allowed students to use their cell phones in school. we observed what he used his cell phone for during the school day. He used his cell phone before school to text friends and keep in touch. After arriving at school, he kept his phone in his pocket, and in his first class it rang, disrupting the entire class. he quickly turned it off and kept it away, as soon as he was in passing period to another class, he was txting agin and didn't turn it off. His second period class, Science, he used the camera feature on his phone, to take a picture of the diagram the teacher drew on the board. After class, he put his phone in his locker before going to lunch.

Pro points: //First Reporter:// Based on the observations of Jake, we started talking about the good points that we discovered. "I mean obviously students can contact athorities, if there were ever an emergency. They wouldn't have to rely on a teacher using the classroom phone to call... they could easily just pull out their cell phone if something terrible were to occur. It's more convinent for students to use their cell phones insted of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), It has more uses then a PDA, calculator, internet or even cameras." //Next Reporter:// "Yea, deffinetly, students can stay orginized with their phones, they can keep up with test and assesment dates and can arrange for a ride home from afterschool activities or becasue of a cancelation of school of otherwise." //First Reporter: "// With today's technology, the cell phone can be a great resource, even now most of them have an internet or WI-FI capability, so if students are given a project or assignment, they can use the internet on their phone to right away, reaserch their topic."

Cons: After finding out all the people that were for cell phones in school we talked to some of Jake's peers that were against mobile phones. We Interviewed a student by the name of John Topper who started to get really annoyed when Jake kept on pulling his phone out to take pictures or messages. "It got really distracting!" John commented. He also stated that it wasnt fair that he just took pictures of the notes and didnt have to copy it down like everyone else. We also talked to one of his friends named Jordan Garth. He stated that during the test Jake used his phone to cheat on the test. Jordan didn't find it fair that Jake didn't have to study like everyone else.

Interview: Q: Some people have stated that using a cell phone will help enhance a childs education. The others say it will full out take away from education and will be only a distraction, like we saw with John. Do you believe that cell phones should be allowed to be used in school or no?

A: I am not sure. This is a decision that will most likely be made by every different school board. It is their decision and we will just have to wait and see how everything pans out.

CLOSING REMARKS:: Arguments can break out anywhere over this debate. In schools, offices, meetings, anywhere actually. Citizens have very strong opinions on this cell phones in school debate. I mean we can argue all we want over this sort of stuff but all that really matters is how the school boards react. They can accept the fact that cell phones are the new thing and that students are using them undercover, or they could be oblivious and just handle it in whatever way that certain board feels necessary. All in all, will cell phones ever be allowed to be used in school? That is one debate that will be never end!

Sources: [] by [|Charmayne Smith] [] by Stacy-Ann Facey [] by [|MichaelKwan] and [|MaryBethAdomaitis] [] by [|**Beth Lynne**]