...[an] AOL-Pew Research Center Mobile Lifestyle Survey [March, 2006] revealed that 52 percent of American adults surveyed keep their cell phone turned on all the time...As a constant companion, the cell phone is becoming an entry point for all information, location and communications services, including Web search, mapping, instant messaging and more. The Pew Internet survey also found that thirty-five percent of those surveyed say they send text messages to friends, family and business colleagues, including 65 percent of those ages 18-29.
Source: TechNewsWorld.com

How many educators in your building have a mobile phone? How about students? That number will probably increase... Mobile Magazine reports the following...pay special attention to the last sentence in this announcement:

MySpace, recently added into Rupert Murdoch's worldwide Fox empire, is now cutting a deal with Cingular to bring the popular-beyond-belief social networking site to the mobile phones of America's largest cellular provider. That should bring tons of cash flowing into the MySpace coffers, through mobile ads and streaming content and so forth. Such efforts are part of News Corp. efforts to wring profits out of the sprawling MySpace site, which has tons of traffic but not a whole lot of opportunities for making money.

As the feasibility of mobile browsing becomes even more widespread, such availability will grow as well. Especially with smartphones, Cingular users can participate in the full MySpace experience anywhere they can get cellular coverage.

That deal became effective today, and soon, if not already, it will matter little if school districts try to block MySpace.com. Any student with an AT&T/Cingular phone will be able to access MySpace.com. Increased access to MySpace may result in the inappropriate use of this social networking space as a way for cyberbullying.

So, how will you, as a campus administrator or educator, handle MySpace on your students' mobile phones? Here are some suggestions of what to consider, with the emphasis on suggestions/recommendation aspect.

1. Be aware of students' constitutional rights. Listen to (view presentation slides) to Dr. Scott McLeod's presentation "Can schools regulate cyberbullying, harassment, and social networking?," as well as Aimee Bissonnette's presentation. Note that the audio of Dr. McLeod's presentation does contain actual language used at MySpace sites, which might be considered vulgar and inappropriate. However, if you are an administrator/teacher, and NOT familiar with what is at MySpace, this may be ear-popping. Realize that you can only block student speech if it is:
   A) Vulgar
   B) Causes a material and substantial disruption
   C) Causes a legitimate pedagogical concern
   D) Schools may discipline students for out of school conduct that substantially interferes with the normal operations of the school.
   E) Schools can regulate student cyberspeech if done during school time and/or using school computers.
2. Be sure to review San Antonio ISD - TASB Policy - Read it here. Note that it is supportive of the points raised above.
3. Review Administrative Procedure F26
4. Check with your supervisor and, if necessary, District lawyers.

The Office of Instructional Technology Services will be available to do presentations on Digital Citizenship for staff, students, and parents at your campus in 2007. Please let us know if you are interested in having us do a presentation.

In the meantime, here's a series of resources regarding Cell Phone use in schools that may be worth reading for campus/district administrators. Some may also want to read the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Bloggers' Guide, which addresses some of these issues. Please do not confuse blogs with sites like MySpace or Facebook, both of which are used for social networking.

Wishing you well,

Miguel Guhlin
Director, Instructional Technology
527-1400
mguhlin@saisd.net