While touring a high school the other day, I watched a math teacher confiscate a cell phone from a student. That she did it with a raised eyebrow and tilt of her head while continuing to instruct the the class convinced me this was not an isolated case. I assumed the student was surreptitiously texting her friends, but what if she was just trying to get smarter?

Claiming added educational value, the cellphone industry is making a case for smartphones in the classroom. To opponents, they argue these phones are basically smarter, cheaper versions of laptop computers. Project K-Nect, a two-year pilot program in North Carolina, showed that at-risk students given high-end cellphones running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software and special programs “performed 25 percent better on the end-of-the-year algebra exam than did students without the devices in similar classes.”

Cell phones an educational tool? Not likely, according to a spokeswoman for the American Federation of Teachers who calls these devices a distraction and the idea of using them for education laughable. The math teacher I observed might agree.

On the other hand, smartphones could serve as a cost-effective solution to help close the digital divide. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study [pdf], while 81 percent of kids ages 2-18 in higher-income communities ($40,000 or more) have a computer at home, and more than half (58 percent) have Internet access, only 49 percent of kids in lower-income communities (less than $25,000 per year) have a computer at home, and just a quarter (23 percent) have Internet access.

Sponsored by Qualcomm, North Carolina’s Project K-Nect explores whether smartphones can improve math skills among at-risk ninth-grade students. To be eligible for the program, students had to have limited at-home Internet access, qualify for the free or reduced lunch program, and have below average math proficiency levels. In Pockets of Potential [pdf], a Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop report, Project K-Nect director Shawn Gross explains that, in addition to improved algebra test results, smartphone use led to increased student study time and greater parent involvement.

Project K-Nect participant Damon Jones-Way, 15, said he likes the after-hours homework help. “If we can’t figure out what we have to do, we can talk to our teachers or our friends,” he said. Damon also used his smartphone to post an audio blog of a rap song he wrote to help him memorize the laws of exponents.

Suzette Kliewer, a math teacher involved in Project K-Nect said her students are more motivated and frequently text each other or her with homework questions. “The amount of discussion that goes on in the evening is tremendous,” she said.

“Mobile devices are part of the fabric of children’s lives today: they are here to stay,” said Dr. Michael Levine, Executive Director of The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. It is no longer a question of whether we should use these devices to support learning, but how and when to use them.