Prince George's County (Maryland) public schools is proposing a ban on student cell phones. The superintendent for the district does not support the ban. Below are quotes from an article in the Gazette.Net online newspaper:

"Students operate at 100 miles an hour outside of school, but once they get to school they slow down because of [rules] we impose," he said Friday at Discovery Education's Administrator Day, in Silver Spring.

Hite served as the keynote speaker for Discovery Education's — a division of the Discovery Communications media company — first administrator-only training event, which focused on education technology strategies and curriculum. More than 100 administrators from 16 regional school districts attended the free event.

Hite, referring to cell phones as "mini-computers," said phones and iPod digital music players could be used as learning tools.

Hite hopes to persuade the county school board to hold off on putting the ban in place.He feels that student cell phones should only be used to support instructional activities otherwise they should be put away. Hite used to work in Henrico County School in Virginia that was an early 1:1 laptop school district. He says he has seen the benefits technology brings to education.