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When it came time to gauge students' views on bullying last week, Long Middle School decided to take advantage of a device many of the students already had handy - cell phones.

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,”

Unchecked use of digital devices, he says, can create a culture in which students are addicted to the virtual world and lost in it.

David Nagel: You've described the cell phone as a "game changer" for education and as the "quintessential 21st century tool." Why the cell phone specifically?

or 90 percent of what a student has to do, the smart phone can do i

Samsung's Galaxy already has a version that can shoot out a 60-inch image!

“How is the Kashmir conflict more than just a religious battle?”Instead of raising their hands to respond, the students quietly began typing their answers into their smartphones, laptops and tablet computers arrayed on their desks. Almost immediately, their words appeared on an interactive whiteboard at the front of the class.

Messaging via Celly happens without sharing phone numbers, for example, and there are a number of controls that allow group administrators to approve or kick people.

Ideas for the classroom:

You hear two opinions from experts on the topic of what happens when kids are perpetually exposed to technology. One: Constant multitasking makes teens work harder, reduces their focus, and screws up their sleep. Two: Using technology as a youth helps students adapt to a changing world in a way that will benefit them when they eventually have to live and work in it. Either of these might be true. More likely, they both are. But it is certainly the case that these kids are different—fundamentally and permanently different—from previous generations in ways that are sometimes surreal, as if you'd walked into a room where everyone is eating with his feet.

It's as if Beatlemania junkies in 1966 had had the ability to demand "Rain" be given as much radio time as "Paperback Writer," and John Lennon thought to tell everyone what a good idea that was. The fan–celebrity relationship has been so radically transformed that even sending reams of obsessive fan mail seems impersonal.

The teens' brains move just as quickly as teenage brains have always moved, constructing real human personalities, managing them, reaching out to meet others who might feel the same way or want the same things. Only, and here's the part that starts to seem very strange—they do all this virtually. Sitting next to friends, staring at screens, waiting for the return on investment. Everyone so together that they're actually all apart.