Do you leave your cellular phone on during instruction?

Cell phones are the must have item for today's society. We need to be available at a moment's notice and we want instantaneous access to people and information. Students of all ages can be seen texting madly in between classes or during break periods. Is what they are communicating top secret information that will affect national security? Probably not. Most times the conversation consists of monosyllables involving a lot of "k", "lol" and "btw". It truly is a language all its own.

Not surprisingly the majority of teachers responding to this poll reported that they leave their cell phone off during instruction time. Most schools have strict policies about student cell phone use and when and where it is appropriate and it makes sense that the teachers will adhere to the same set of rules. Usually phones must be off or muted during class time.

Cell phone use in the workplace is a contentious issue and many companies have had to set strict guidelines on cell phone use. The quick and easy way that cell phones are used, particularly for texting, means workers don't think it detracts from their work performance if they respond to the occasional message. But what if those messages came to the company switchboard as regular phone calls to be patched through to you? Would workers think they affected job performance then? It's hard to say, but many employers believe that cell phone usage is detrimental to the work place atmosphere.

The next question is will schools became one of those work places that has to set guidelines on usage? The gap between positive and negative response in this poll was not large so a number of teachers do leave their cell phones on. It will be interesting to see what happens as this generation of students age and enter the job market. Having grown up with a cell phone in hand, will workplace usage become more or less acceptable?