Stepping Up to SmartPhones

The Next Stage in Educational Technology Innovation


Ray Levi, Head of School

It’s a sleepy December morning.  At breakfast, an Upper School student approaches me.  “My class is writing a poem about Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa, but I don’t know anything about Kwanzaa.  What do you know?” I whip out my trusty iPhone and within several seconds we have a wealth of information to study between bites of our egg sandwiches. 

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At sessions I lead at the ISACS Heads Conference, we begin with quick surveys of the assembled school leaders.  Using text messaging, we instantly graph their responses to questions about use of data in decision making at their schools.  Rather amazingly from my perspective, I have to show a number of the participants how to text-message.  I think back, with a bit of irony,  to a conversation with a seventh grader. When I indicated that we would need phone or e-mail permission for changes in plans after school, she told me, “I’m much more likely to text my parents than call them, so couldn’t they just text school with updates in plans?” 

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At a Jewish leadership conference, Jonathan Cannon, Head of School at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville MD exhorts us to consider joining rather than fighting our students in embracing their use of phones and iPods.  “Imagine if we asked students to make a podcast using notes to summarize the salient features of a class.  Or if we used the texting feature of phones to gather data not only from classmates but from people in other parts of the world?” 

These experiences on our campus and exhortations from experts in the field have led us to consider the next technological initiative at HMJDS: use of smartphones.  Please don’t jump to conclusions that we are simply caving into the “if you can’t beat them, join them” syndrome, though we must acknowledge that our students are going to be using these phones whether we encourage this or not.  However, consider the possible applications we already have at our fingertips.

  • Versions of the Hebrew Bible are available for smartphones.  They include oral readings.  Thus, each student can easily have access to accurate readings of the Tanakh even if parents do not yet have that skill.  And music studied in music classes and choir can easily be downloaded for students to share with you at home. 

  • Dragon Dictation is an app that allows you to dictate to your phone or iTouch and that transcribes the oral language as text.  This has remarkable possibilities for students who have difficulty writing.  Even our youngest students have the potential to be more prolific creators of stories.  They’ll still have to master punctuation.  If you’re worried about whether students will develop handwriting skills, we must note that children will have very little use for traditional penmanship skills.  They will be using keyboarding rather than handwriting.  And for students too young to use a full-size keyboard, the small keyboard on smartphones is perfect!  Little hands can more easily use those little keyboards on the phones than we adults can.  In addition, having already strengthened thumbs playing videogames, they’ll find the use of thumbs for typing quite easy! 

  • Apps for homework assignments will allow us to go greener by eliminating the need for printed student planners (a financial savings as well!).  No need to copy assignments.  It’s so much more motivating to use your phone—and of course we also have the possibility for teachers to simply text assignments to students.  Students are much less likely to “forget’ their phone than a planner or a math book (and yes, versions of texts can be purchased for smartphones
    —another worry accommodated).  But, just in case a student might become detached from a phone, the Spirit Shop will be selling HMJDS smartphone cases that can be clipped to belts or hung around the neck.  A special version will include beaded kippah, clips thus reducing the possibility of losing anything of value at school. 

Now, I know you may be wondering whether we should be encouraging phone use at young ages.  As parents you’ve been trying to resist giving phones to your children and here we are, encouraging their early use.  But, you must acknowledge that there are some advantages to you.  The GPS features on smartphones mean that you will ALWAYS be able to know where your child is. Whether indoors for recess, on the swings, or playing football, all you have to do is check the Google Earth feature!

Yes, there is a cost factor.  But again, there is the delightful possibility for your family to join the HMJDS partnership with AT&T.  Excited to have a whole school with phones, they are willing to make family plans available through the school at reduced rates.  We can serve as a business model as well as an educational pioneer.

We’ve even considered the challenge of the notorious cell phone reception on the campus.  AT&T has us covered.  They’re willing to install a cell phone tower right here on our building.  Worries about exposure to all those signals should be outweighed by the cost offset to the campus which will reduce our operations expenses and help keep tuition costs down.  In addition, the improved reception offers untold opportunities for you to be in constant contact with friends as well as your children.  Think of the expanded possibilities for multi-tasking and communicating while waiting in car pool lines or now while in the building! 

As we take the step of using smartphones as an integral part of the HMJDS educational experience, we have the opportunity to both be at the cutting edge of technological innovation and allow even our youngest students to feel very grown up.  After all, they’ll be able to do what their parents and older siblings do so well!

Hag Purim Sameah!