California High School has a strict policy against texting in class, with one exception. For the first time, texting is being used as an educational tool in the classroom.

Math teachers Ahn Nguyen and Jennifer Gilson began an online program this year that has students text in answers to multiple choice questions.

“The first time I said, ‘Okay, take out your texting device,’ everybody looked at me,” said Mrs. Nguyen.

Students were initially surprised by this apparent change from the usual school rules against texting.  While school policy is clear that social texting is not allowed during class time, the administration is encouraging teachers to incorporate technology in the classroom.

“We want to see more teachers using technology to engage kids because that’s how students learn now,” said assistant principal Jennifer Tilton.

For some classes, incorporating technology has meant signing up for an online program on the website polleverywhere.com. It allows teachers to create multiple choice questions and have students submit answers via text.

While limited use of the program is offered for free, the school has paid the cost of the full program for Cal High teachers.

In Mrs. Gilson and Mrs. Nguyen’s classes, questions are projected on the overhead, along with a list of possible answers and a number to text their answer to. When the answers are sent in, students can see a tally on the screen of the percentages of each answer choice the class has chosen.

These quizzes are used in conjunction with lessons to check the class’s understanding of a particular concept. An individual student’s score is anonymous and the quizzes are never graded for points.

“There’s no fear. You don’t have to worry about being wrong and people being able to see that you’re wrong,” said Mrs. Gilson. “I think that makes students more willing to participate.”

When this program was started, Mrs. Nguyen polled her students to find out which of them had unlimited texting plans and which of them did not. In her five classes, almost all of the students had unlimited texting, and the majority of students who did not were still interested in trying out the new texting tool in the classroom.

Students without texting plans could also participate by following along, and in some cases, even having their friends submit answers for them.

“They don’t need to text their answers,” said Brad Spence, a student in Mrs. Nguyen’s class. “Its still fun to see everybody else try.”

The texting program does not record which students participate in a quiz, but only how many students participate. On average, a quarter to a third of the students in Mrs. Nguyen’s classes do not participate in taking a quiz.

One issue with the new program has been the difficulty in spotting students using their phones to text their friends during class. While the majority of students are using their phones to text for classroom purposes, it is virtually impossible to know if one student is using the opportunity to get around school texting policy.

However, Mrs. Nguyen does not see this as a major issue for her class, because the quiz is meant to be a quick test of the students’ understanding and only accounts for roughly five minutes of class time.

The new program gives teachers the ability to assess students without handing out piles of paper. Having students text in answers can save on class time over regular quizzes by cutting out the use of copy machines and the time it normally takes to grade student work.

Perhaps more than anything, the texting program can serve a class by breaking up the 100 minute routine to give students a change of pace.

“Its more like a game where you’re trying to get the right answer,” said Mrs. Nguyen’s student, Marc Horschman.

The program aims to increase student attention during class activities through the lengthy periods of a block schedule.

         As schools strive to incorporate technology into the classroom, more students could soon hear their teachers asking them to take out their cell phones in preparation for the day’s lesson.