Ugg boots banned at school after students caught hiding cell phones in the fuzzy footwear

According to The Daily Mail, students at a Pennsylvania school have been told to leave their ugg boots at home after they caught one too many students hiding cell phones in them.

Image from Australian Ugg Boots.

Study finds link between children's use of SMS and improved literacy.

New research has found a strong link between primary school children's use of text abbreviations and improved literacy, reports stuff.

University of Tasmania psychologist Dr Nenagh Kemp and honours student Catherine Bushnell conducted a study of about 90 children aged 10 to 12 from three middle-class primary schools. The researchers looked at whether taking such linguistic shortcuts was affecting the students' literacy skills.

The results, recently published in the US Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, were surprising. They showed the use of textisms is driving the development of literacy skills and could be improving language and literacy learning.

Read more.

Links to related studies pro and con.

Scottish exam results sent out early after text messaging error

Nearly 30,000 school students in Scotland have been sent their exam results a day early after a major blunder with an automated text messaging service, reports The Guardian.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority confirmed on Wednesday that it believed every pupil who opted to receive their grades by text message rather than post or email had been sent them early.

As many teenagers vented their anger at the error on Twitter and Facebook, the exams regulator said all the results were correct. It said it had launched an urgent inquiry with the company hired to send out the texts.

Read more.

Uzbekistan halts mobile Internet, SMS

Mobile operators in Uzbekistan suspended internet and messaging services for the duration of nationwide university entrance exams in an apparent bid to prevent cheating, News.com.au reports.

Five national mobile operators shut down mobile internet and text and picture messaging for four hours from 9am local time today, citing "urgent maintenance work on telecommunications networks," gazeta.uz reported.

Voice services were not affected, the website said. The restrictions affected not just those taking tests, but all of the country's estimated 19 million mobile phone users.

"Restrictions on additional services are introduced by mobile operators in Uzbekistan every year on the day of admission test exams," the Russian-language website said.

Read full article.

Student loan payments can be made from mobile devices

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) says that borrowers whose loans are serviced by its student loan servicing operations, American Education Services and FedLoan Servicing, can now make payments directly from their web-enabled cell phones and smartphones. The Times Leader reports.

These new mobile sites make the repayment process more accessible for many student loan borrowers,” said PHEAA Board Vice Chairman Wayne Fontana. “Anytime PHEAA can make it easier to manage student loan payments, we are helping borrowers avoid delinquency and default – which can ultimately save borrowers from a lifetime of credit issues, while safeguarding millions of federal tax dollars.”

Student loan borrowers can visit aesSuccess.org or MyFedLoan.org and check their account balance, the next payment amount and due date, and make a payment 24/7.

Read more.

Teachers in England to search pupils' mobile phones

Plans to allow teachers in England to search pupils for mobile phones and examine the phones' content have been called "reckless" by a teaching union, reports the BBC.

The Education Bill for England will give the teachers a legal right to search pupils and take their phones - and also look at and delete any messages and pictures they deem necessary.

But the Teachers Trade Union (NASUWT) says it will create conflict between teachers and pupils and their parents.

Read full article.

Mobile phone exam cheat shocks Japanese meritocracy

If found guilty, a student who used phone in university entrance exams will be the first in Japan to earn a criminal record for cheating. The Guardian reports.

On Thursday night police arrested a 19-year-old preparatory school student after tracing the mobile phone he used to its subscriber, his mother. The student, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, has admitted soliciting help online during entrance exams for four universities.

Using the name "aicezuki", he posted mathematics and English questions on Yahoo! Japan's chiebukuro (pearls of wisdom) bulletin board during exams at Kyoto and three other universities last month, reports said.

Answers appeared within minutes from more than 20 of the estimated 27 million people who use the site in Japan every month. Police found several answers on the site that closely matched those written on the student's exam papers.

Given the speed with which he posted a complex maths problem, investigators believe he photographed the questions using a model of mobile phone that enables users to disable the shutter sound.

Read full article.

Related: - Japanese University Shocked By Real Time Internet Cheating

Japanese University Shocked By Real Time Internet Cheating

Last week questions from entrance exam to prestigious Kyoto University appeared on a popular website and answers were being received, during the test itself. One or more persons are suspected to have used one handle, "aicezuki," to cheat on tests by posting from cell phones at Kyoto University and three other top universities in Japan. Braintrack reports.

This is unprecedented, and we still don't know how exactly it was possible," a spokesman for Kyoto University told the Wall Street Journal.

The New York Times reported that Japan's Education Ministry said it may ban cell phones and other devices at test sites. Japan's largest daily, Yomiuri Shimbun, noted that Kobe University asked students to turn off phones and place them in a specially designated area during its second stage of exams. The article also said that some observers believed it would be difficult to prevent all students from bringing devices into test rooms.

The scandal has gained national attention because of Japan's intensely competitive academic climate where a degree from a top university is a virtual guarantee of a well-paid position, said the AFP.

Read full article.

Links to related articles on students cheating on exams with cell phones.

When learning goes mobile for varsity students

Leveraging media tools that are most appealing to the younger generation, Abu Dhabi University (ADU) has embarked on a new education mechanism, using the Blackboard Mobile method where students can receive course materials via their mobile phones. Gulf News reports.

By implementing BM, we enable students and teachers to gain instant access to their courses and content materials using their handheld devices. All assignments, teachers' announcements, class discussions, grades… etc can be checked on their mobile device," Dr James Mackin, ADU Provost, said.

Read full article.

MobileActive.org. Has The mLearning Moment Arrived?

A very interesting read from MobileActive.org on the state of mobile Learning.

The field of mLearning, or learning facilitated by mobile devices, has been generating growing interest in recent years and months.

Outspoken advocates of mLearning, such as the authors of a report recently released by GSMA Development Fund, assert that the increasing ubiquity of mobile phone penetration (especially in the developing world) has the potential to reach more students than ever before.

Critics, such as Kentaro Toyama, reply that digital content (mobile or otherwise) does little to improve the quality of education and that the hype surrounding it is unwarranted.

One opinion, shared by skeptics and advocates alike, is that "Technology is only a tool: no technology can fix a bad educational philosophy or compensate for bad practice. In fact, if we are going in the wrong direction, technology will get us there faster. Providing schools with hardware and software does not automatically reform teaching and improve learning.

... While the authors of these and other studies highlight the potential of mLearning, it is clear that many of the projects studied are small-scale and use technology (e.g. smartphones) that limit implementation on a larger scale. Another challenge, noted by many in the field, is that much of the existing literature suffers from positive biases, as it is often written by members of the implementing organizations, rather than by 3rd party researchers in peer-reviewed evaluations with sound methodologies.

Despite these concerns, there seems to be a great deal of momentum building around mLearning. As mobile coverage expands and advanced mobile phones become increasingly available, this is only likely to continue.

Read full report

Parents told of pupil's death by text message

Sad news by text message.

According to GetSurrey, parents of pupils at Farnham Heath End School were sent text messages on Friday morning informing them of the death of a child who collapsed during a PE lesson.

Parents were sent two text messages from the school's 'ParentMail' system, which keeps them informed of details such as school closures.

The first, sent at around 9.10am, read: "Very important information. We are informing you that a child collapsed in PE yesterday and sadly died."

A second message, sent around 20 minutes later, apologised for the previous one but did not provide any further details.

Interesting, the school obviously had second thoughts about informing all parents of such a tragedy by text message. I'm sure the actual parents of the child were of course not informed in this manner.

Medvedev bans use of mobile phones in school exams - Kremlin

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a series of amendments to a law on education banning the use of mobile phones during exams in schools and universities, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

The use of mobile phones during exams has been previously banned by normative acts issued by the Federal Education and Science Supervision Service.

[via Rianovosto]

Modern Dating: What's Lost in Texting

Judith Acosta, for the Huffington Post on language modification, reflecting changes in our culture and in our collective consciousness.

The minimization of communication is no accident. It comes as a consequence of minimal thinking, lethargy and indifference. To some, this is the death knell of American and Western civilization, the end of democracy as we know it (which requires active and informed participation by all citizens), the end of the broadest literacy rate in the history of mankind and the end of equality of opportunity (for this too, takes an active, watchful and observant eye).

Read full article.

Text messaging 'improves children's spelling skills'

Mobile phone text messaging can boost children’s spelling skills, according to (yet another) new study. The Telegraph reports.

Academics from UK's Coventry University said there was “no evidence” that access to mobile phones harmed children’s literacy skills and could even have a positive impact on spelling.

... The research, to be published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning next month, found evidence of a “significant contribution of textism use to the children’s spelling development during the study”.

Read full article.

Links to postive studies on the effect of text messaging on student's writing skills:

-- Study: Is texting valuable or vandalism?

-- RU Kidding - "txtspeak" Has No Impact on Children's Spelling Ability

-- Texting can b gd 4 ur kids

-- Texts 'do not hinder literacy'

-- Texting teenagers are proving 'more literate than ever before'

-- E-Mail and Texting - Not at all bad

-- Texting 'is no bar to literacy'

-- Teacher finds novel way to use texting

Links to negative studies:

-- Text messages harm written language? (Oh-Hum)

-- Technology marches ahead, grammar gets worse

-- Y TEXTING MAYBE BAD 4 U

-- SMS Resulting in Poor English Grades?

-- SMS and Internet blamed for decline in English Examinations

-- SMS threatens Norwegian language say teachers

-- Teachers hung up on SMS

-- An essay written in text message shorthand

Spectrum Analyzer Catches Cell Phone Cheats In Taiwan

According to Information Week, German communications equipment manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz said that Taiwanese government officials recently purchased three of its FSH4 spectrum analyzers to watch for the presence of cell phones.

The goal was to monitor an exam hall filled with prospective government workers. Officials prohibit cell phones during exams, because answers could be relayed to test takers by voice or text.

The National Communications Commission, Taiwan's broadcasting regulator, also requested that the spectrum analyzers -- normally used to test cell phone signal strength -- have specific software modifications.

The modified devices were used in conjunction with earpieces, so that roving exam monitors would be quietly alerted when they were in the presence of an active cell phone. Officials said they identified at least three individuals using smartphones during the exam, though couldn't say whether they'd be formally accused of cheating.

Read full article.

Related articles on students cheating with cell phones

FCC to Host Panel on Mobile Phone Use Among Teens

In an effort to navigate through the myriad of concerns related to mobile use among teens, the FCC has announced that it will hold an interactive forum on Tuesday at a local high school in Washington, D.C. TMCnet reports.

The FCC's initial Generation Mobile forum will feature an open panel comprised of teens, parents and educators who will be discussing cyberbullying, sexting, over use, privacy and texting-while-driving.

Read more.

South African Students Receiving Maths Lessons by Mobile Phones

MoMaths, a project backed by Nokia in South Africa aims to deliver maths lessons to students via mobile phones. The results from the 2010 project has shown a 14 percent rise in maths competency. Cellular News reports.

According to Riitta Vanska, project manager for the initiative and senior manager mobile and learning solutions in Sustainability operations at Nokia "Most learners do not have access to computers however many of them do have access to a mobile phone.

The initiative gives Grade 10 learners the opportunity to study mathematics anywhere and anytime which in turn gives them the chance to empower themselves."

Read full article.

During boring classes, texting is the new doodling

A recent study shows that texting at the school has surpassed doodling, daydreaming and note-passing to become the top classroom distraction. The Wall Street Journal reports.

The anonymous survey of 269 Wilkes students found that nine in 10 admit to sending text messages during class — and nearly half say it's easy to do so undetected.

... "If it's a really boring class, texting is a nice alternative to having to sit there and focus," said Markley, a senior computer science major at Wilkes. But, he conceded, "there are definitely times when it takes away from your concentration. Suddenly you'll be at the end of the period and say, 'What did we do today?'"

Read full article.

Iowa high school uses cell phones in classroom

Students at North Scott High School at Eldridge in Iowa are texting to practice science via a website called polleverywhere.com. [via the AP].

...The idea for using the phones stemmed from a push to use laptops in the classroom more often. There are a limited number of laptops, but a survey showed 98 percent of the student body had cell phones.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Teaching by Texting

-- Mobile phones boost school standards

-- Phone a friend during exams

Students can pay their bills by SMS in Philadelphia’s Universtity City

Campus Apartments, a student accommodation body that operates across the USA, has entered into a deal with mobile payment provider Xipwire to provide a mobile payment option for the 3,000 students living in the Philadelphia location. The payment service is extremely specific – it allows these students to pay their monthly high speed Phillynet bill by SMS.

Read full article in GoMo News.

Who's texting kids in class? Parents

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a new survey conducted by app developer textPlus that claims kids are bringing their cell phones into the classroom--and using them.

Some 43 percent of kids say they text in class, and 17 percent say they do it constantly.

More than half of kids are texting their friends who are sitting in the same classroom. And 66 percent of kids said they receive messages from mom and dad.

Read more.

Texting is writing, researcher says

The days of traditional college writing instruction are nearly over, contends a Michigan State University researcher who found that college students now rank texting as the No. 1 form of writing and cell phones as a top writing platform. Michigan State University reports.

Lead researcher Jeff Grabill, professor of writing and rhetoric, studied the writing behaviors of more than 1,300 first-year college students across the nation from a variety of institutions and locations from April to June.

Texting is indeed writing, students said, and they value their texts more than any other writing style – even above social networking status updates and comments.

People may argue texting is bad writing, but it’s writing many people do every day, said Grabill, co-director of MSU’s Writing in Digital Environments Research Center.

Contrary to the popular belief that “kids these days don’t write,” college students lead complex writing lives and write more than any other generation, he said.

Other key findings:

-- E-mail is for “old people.” Students use it primarily to communicate with professors and parents, and while they do it frequently they don’t value it highly.

-- Students prefer to write alone rather than collaborate with classmates.

-- Most writing on Facebook is related to interpersonal messaging. Students more often comment on posts and status updates of friends than post things to their own profiles. They also report using Facebook for writing everything from lists to screenplays to poetry.

Read full article.

Links to articles related to postive and negative studies on the effect of text messaging on student's writing skills.

Cellphones help Cambodian students -- to cheat

Cheating and paying bribes are common during exams, but Rong Chhun, head of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said the problem appeared to have worsened this year. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

"Besides copying answers from each other, candidates in my room could even make a phone call outside during the exams to get answers," said a female student who asked to remain anonymous.

Several students interviewed by AFP said they had bribed teachers to allow them to check notes they had smuggled into the exams, or answer sheets allegedly sold in advance by teachers outside the schools.

Related links to articles from around the world on student cheating.

Texting generation doesn't share boomers' taste for talk

According to research by Nielsen, nearly all age groups are spending less time talking on the phone, reports The Washington Post.

Boomers in their mid-50s and early 60s are the only ones still talking.

The fall of the call is driven by 18- to 34-year-olds, whose average monthly voice minutes have plunged from about 1,200 to 900 in the past two years, according to research by Nielsen.

Texting among 18- to 24-year-olds has more than doubled in the same period, from an average of 600 messages a month two years ago to more than 1,400 texts a month, according to Nielsen.

Young people say they avoid voice calls because the immediacy of a phone call strips them of the control that they have over the arguably less-intimate pleasures of texting, e-mailing, Facebooking or tweeting. They even complain that phone calls are by their nature impolite, more of an interruption than the blip of an arriving text.

Read full article. Image from forsisterbysister.

Children 'more likely to own a mobile phone than a book'

Children as young as seven are more likely to own a mobile phone than a book, figures show, fuelling fears over a decline in reading, reports The Telegraph.

... As part of the latest study, the National Literacy Trust surveyed more than 17,000 schoolchildren aged seven to 16.

It found that 85.5 per cent of pupils had their own mobile phone, compared with 72.6 per cent who had their own books. Among children in Key Stage 2 – aged seven to 11 – 79.1 per cent had a mobile compared with 72.7 per cent who had access to books.

The findings come amid continuing concerns over the effect of modern technology on young people.

Read full article. Link to National Literacy Trust study.

Cell Phones Help Pakistani Women Learn to Read

NPR on how cell phone text messages help teach Pakistani women to read.

The Bunyad Foundation established a program to help teach them basic literacy. At the risk of ridicule from their families, they enrolled in a program where they could learn the alphabet, buy a cheap cell phone and then get text messages on the phone to practice.

Read full report.

Teaching by Texting

AOL News reports on texting as a teaching tool experimented in several schools across the US.

So, for subjects ranging from Spanish to science, from homework help to exam reminders, teachers around the country are beginning to allow students to text in class.

"Being able to text in class is just something new and in a way rejuvenates us because it is not the usual 'take notes, then do homework,' like we do in the rest of our classes," 16-year-old Pulaski student Kevin Dunford said. "It's a new flavor."

... Opponents of cell phone use in classrooms argue that not all students have phones. And even those who do might be paying hefty fees for text messages.

Related:

-- Mobile phones boost school standards

-- Phone a friend during exams

No Texting Day experiment at Riverdale Country School

Riverdale Country School, an elite private school in the Bronx, asked middle-schoolers to voluntarily forsake instant messaging, chat, texts, and Facebook for two days, to experience life unconnected, reports The New York Times.

This text-free Sunday, the Riverdale students said, was unusually relaxing. They were shocked at how quickly they finished their homework, undistracted by an always-open video chat, or checking in on Facebook or responding to the hundred messages they typically get in a day.

... None looked pale and ashen; none were twitching, at least visibly.

Pew Internet Study: Teens and Mobile Phones

According to Reuters, a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that one third of U.S. teenagers with cell phones send more than 100 texts a day and that Texting has even eclipsed cell phone calls, instant messaging, social networks and talking face-to-face.

... The percentage of teens with cell phones who sent at least one text message a day increased from 38 percent in 2008 to 54 percent in September 2009, according to the study.

Meanwhile 38 percent of teens said they daily make at least one cell phone call, 30 percent said they talk on a landline phone and 24 percent said they used instant messaging.

More stats from the study:

Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging 100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day.

Read full article.

Campus alerts go beyond text messaging

Three years after Virginia Tech massacre, MSNBC looks at how US campuses are using emergency text messaging services.

Three years after the massacre of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech, campuses around the country have beefed up their emergency notification systems, some with more sophisticated and varied programs than others.

... Campus Safety magazine polled "campus protection officials" last spring and found that 87 percent said their schools currently use text messaging for emergency alerts, and that an average of 48.9 percent of students sign up for such programs.

Read full article. Photo from Vanderbilt University.

Text Messaging Alerts on Campus - related articles