Sep 9, 2014 By David Singer 3 min read

Students stepping into Courtney Daloia’s psychology class were already pulling out their phones to complete the poll she’d use to gauge students’ knowledge of course material.

“And, I can pull up the course transcript to see who’s actually following along and award them participation points,” Daloia said after the students completed an anonymous poll.

Three years ago, a teacher who saw a phone out in class wouldn’t have to argue it was a disciplinary infraction. Yet, since Peters Township High School launched its pilot “bring your own device” program, more teachers, staff and students are using it in their classes to help keep courses engaging both in and out of class.

“EdModo is something a lot of teachers use. It’s a bulletin board that reminds about assignments, promotes events and allows feedback while students are at home,” district spokeswoman Shelly Belcher said.

That software and others help students coordinate class projects and activities in a sort-of ‘private’ social network. Traditional social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, although not used in class curricula, are subjects taught in a digital citizenship class.

“It’s part of the freshman class English course,” library media specialist Lindsey Myers said, “and it’s to prepare them for responsible representation of themselves and how to behave in online and digital platforms.”

Social media use in class would be grounds for punishment, so teachers use software that replaces the instant gratification social media often encourages.

“This is the second year we’ve been using NearPod, which allows presentations and PowerPoints with student participation. Polls and quizzes are embedded right in the slides, so students can see their answers in front of them, while an average is up in front of the class,” Myers said.

“I like that one of our advanced placement English teachers would have graded quizzes right after you take them, because it automatically grades them, so you know right then what you have to work on,” said 16 year-old Connor Manning.

For most students, software on their personal phones is used in one or two classes, and mostly in social science classes where opinions and qualitative data are reviewed and discussed.

“The anonymity of (software like) Poll Everywhere makes touchy subjects like drug abuse and mental illness (in psychology courses) much easier to teach and discuss,” Myers said.

Since there is no universal policy among teachers on when or how to use tech, some students still have to self-monitor when falling into old habits of checking their phones.

“Sometimes there will be a sign up, ‘this is a tech day,’ or, ‘this is a no-tech day,’ and sometimes you just have to feel the teacher out on what their approach is to teaching with phones,” Manning said.