Technology Policies: Are Some Better than Others?

Students now arrive in our classrooms with a wide array of electronic devices. They also arrive used to being able to use those devices wherever and whenever they please. Should that include the classroom? The research is pretty conclusive that most students don't multitask well (certainly not as well as they think they do), and when they are attending to those devices they are not focusing on what's happening in class. But enforcing a ban on electronic devices can be difficult and time consuming, to say nothing of the adversarial relationship it cultivates between the teacher and students. Some teachers have decided that using the devices makes more sense than banning them. They have their students finding relevant information, locating answers, and even asking and responding to questions.