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Are there solutions for schools struggling with cell phone and texting issues? Short of engaging in police-state tactics, the answer is "apparently not". Is it possible for both of e-mail and texting to co-exist and flourish? If you've read Part I, Part II, and Part III, you're ready to make your own call. In the final installment of this four-part series, I will wrap up why so many young people are choosing texting over e-mail.
What's Wrong with the Champ?
Why are advertisers, media, and even the general public turning to texting instead of e-mail? Why has e-mail lost its mojo? Consider a study by 505 Marketing:
It's hard to say about this once-revolutionary technology, but is e-mail really - now that we can step away from our love affair - no longer the prettiest girl at the dance? If the nimble-fingered choice of trend setting teens and young adults is any indicator, the answer may be "yes".
Short on Solutions for Texting in School
What to do about texting in schools is a real problem. E-mail can be controlled - for the most part. Blocking access on a school workstation is quick and easy, and also more easily controlled by educators who can keep an eye on students' screens (although this can be difficult to do while also teaching content). But how can an educator keep an eye on a text message, especially when it's under a desk or in someone's lap?
Short of Gestapo-like tactics such as confiscating phones and setting up cell-signal blocking technology, the smaller the phone, the harder texting is to catch. And let's not forget the Mosquito Ring Tone, which most people over 35 cannot even hear. That's a brilliant piece of technology there and kudos to kids for stealing it, but I'll save that for a future blog entry.
Are there usable applications for educators? Will mass text-service groups start offering a similar service? If current trends are an indicator, it will only be at a price. And, as it so often happens, that could be a price that schools scoff at when it comes to the unproven usefulness of a new form of technology.
Wherever We Go, There We Are
Just as educators were getting a grip on how to use e-mail as a teaching tool, the technology is slowly getting passed by. Before many schools even found a way to give high school students access to e-mail for educational purposes, it appears that the technology has already jumped the shark. So is e-mail going the way of the dodo? Hardly.
Texting still has many short comings. Cost is a major one, with many subscribers getting stung for a $0.10 fee for each message sent OR received. Second, sending large files and collaborating on work is very difficult to do within the confines of the text message. Currently, e-mail exists as a tool that allows people to work in the virtual world almost seamlessly. And that is where the text as an educator's tool falls mostly short.
It might just come down to situational preference: when I was done typing this, I used e-mail to send it to my editor, who checked it over and sent it back with suggestions and revisions. That is simply something that is not CURRENTLY available in the world of the text message, which is equivalent of your computer's WordPad (yeah, remember that application?). But if I wanted to covertly ask that editor if she wanted to skip out of this afternoon's meeting to grab a coffee instead…well, as I said, they aren't handing out business cell phones in droves, quite yet.
Resources:
http://www.505marketing.biz/505text.html
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Re: Did Texting Kill the E-mail Star? (Part 4)
