Intextication vs. Education

This article brings many memories of myself texting and other cell phone use during class. It is a problem that kids these days are so dependent on communicatiing via text message. I think it takes away from genuine social skills that are vital for developing when you are in a professional setting. Texting is getting alot easier due to unlimited texting plans and cheap cell phones. Then you have phones that are solely designed to enhance your texting experience. It's an addiction that is found in most schools nationwide. It's hard not to text your friends to see what they are thinking in the classroom across the hall when your in a traditional classroom setting. One solution (a costly one) would be to create a signal free campus which can be created through fortifying the structural layers of the school buildings. This way you can eliminate texting to an extent and at the same time, become the city's new bomb shelter.
On a completely different note, what if learning in school could embrace the act of texting? What if education was pushed forward in technology enough that with your interactive chalk board (smartboards) you can deliver a question on the board and have your students text the answer. Also, granted every student and teacher has a cell phone that texts, you could text your assignments to your students during, before, or after class. That would work the same way blogging would, except it would be a bit more mobile. However, even if education as we know it was advanced just enough to allow texting as a viable class to student communication tool, students would still find ways to stray away from the path of knowledge and dwindle on the thoughts of their classmates and their weekend plans.
This may seem like a stretched idea on such a limited budget in a school system, but it is just as reasonable as saying, cell phones should be done away with altogether. The bottom line is, the students need to put forth the effort to pay attention and want to learn. Parents need to put their foot down and make sure their kid is succeeding in school, even if it means disabling texting on their cell phone! How about that for a solution? Monitor your child's progress and use discipline when necessary.