We talk to our phones. Our phones talk back. My phone will happily provide me with all kinds of advice and information.

My phone will also allow me to play endless games, timed and untimed, alone and in groups. I gave my advisory a free day and watched as five of them played a game together, each on their own phone, in a mysterious competition with crashing cars. The phones find each other, linking the players together.

Many readers understand this perfectly, of course.

I’m not sure how many readers understand the temptation these games pose, though. I watched as my Jehovah’s Witness, a serious boy who would not accept pagan Halloween candy because of its tainted associations, joined in the game. This boy did homework almost daily. He had been known to read the Bible when he had no work. I watched him smile and laugh as he crashed cars.

I’m pretty sure Jehovah Witness’s mom would not have approved of that day’s activity. I am also sure that this boy has played a lot of group games under the radar. He didn’t ask for any help getting set up.

Gaming does not steal nearly as many minutes from learning as texting does — it’s too obvious — but it’s still a problem. Plenty of one-player game options exist. Students have said to me, “Please, just let me finish the game. I’m almost done,” as if this is a reasonable request. Or, “C’mon, I’m close to my highest score ever!”

Eduhonesty: If we want to improve America’s test scores, we had better begin to ban or block phones. They are too tempting.

Sorry about the lack of posts. I have been visiting elderly parents in a techno-free zone.

As I sat in the early 20th century house with its tub, but no shower, I reflected on how little we talk about the maelstrom of technology that is sweeping learning down the technological drain.

Smartboards are nifty. Interactive technology is frequently an educational win. I’m not technophobic in the least.

But those phones are doing damage, especially at the high school level. It used to be that you needed to be sitting near your friend or girlfriend to pass notes. Now you don’t even have to be in the same city. In a large classroom, students can stash phones in laps and behind books or bags as they tune out the outside world while tap tap tapping class minutes away. They are usually easy to spot. A student can only stare fixedly at his or her lap for so long before the teacher should start walking toward that phone.

Eduhonesty: Unless you are in the classroom, I believe it’s probably hard to visualize how much trouble these phones represent in the aggregate. Readers probably think, “Well, seize the phones!” We do sometimes. It’s a lot of work and trouble to be grabbing up phones, though. I’ve known captured phones to disappear from the Dean’s Office. I’ve known students to claim their phones were damaged while in school custody. While some parents may be supportive of the school’s disciplinary actions, others will storm into school, loudly demanding that the school return their property. Personal privacy issues quickly come into play too.

Many schools have somewhat of a handle on the phone challenge, but no school I know of has managed to gain total control of phones. These small rectangular solids suck up educational minutes, turning them into opportunities to misspell and butcher the English language while making dates to meet in some adult-free house after school. I have scanned message threads when picking up phones.

This is for the parents: You want your kids to be safe. That’s why you bought the phone probably, along with a need to quiet the chorus of “But everybody has one!” Just about everybody does have one by high school, no matter how poor the district. Middle schools don’t lack for phones either. I feel compelled to give some advice, though: Check those phones when you can. You need to know that Tom’s aunt works and the house is always empty in the afternoon. You need to know that Penelope is meeting Tom at that house every afternoon. Even if the messages are more innocuous, you need to know that your son or daughter somehow managed to spend hours on the phone when they were supposed to be learning math and English.