Whatever happened to the days of learning math with M&Ms?

This week a wireless industry trade group, CTIA, played host to Mobile Learning 09, a conference to discuss the benefits of mobile wireless technology in classrooms. Part of its pitch is that smartphones can make students smarter, at least according to research sponsored by cell phone chip-maker Qualcomm.

The study found that low-income ninth and 10th graders in North Carolina did better on an algebra exam if they were given high-end cell phones that ran Windows and other programs that conceivably helped with their algebra homework.

Of course, to get students to buy into this program, the phones also came with 900 minutes of talk time and 300 text messages for personal use. Teachers can monitor the text messages for inappropriate content. Yikes — where are the parents in this equation? And where are teachers getting the extra free time?

We love technology in education, but we question the motives of the cell phone industry. They stand to profit tremendously if these programs are integrated into classrooms. Digital Millennial Consulting, the group that did Qualcomm’s study, estimates wireless companies could sell 10 million to 15 million phones. Is this plan in the best interest of students or in the bottom lines of cell phone companies? We’d guess the latter.

Even if these phones were educationally beneficial, where would the money come from? Even when times are flush, schools can’t afford to buy enough textbooks or pay teachers sufficiently. And requiring students to buy their own cell phones — in addition to being the prerogative of students’ parents — is a burden students shouldn’t have to face. Would a cell phone be more beneficial than the $100 graphing calculator most students are already required to buy? And if students were given options of cell phones, would that further divide the haves from the have-nots? The Abercrombies of algebra class?

That’s not all. Why should students buy a new cell phone if they already have one? It’s not uncommon to see middle-schoolers with cell phones, as families rely more and more on being connected. And would teachers have to go through extra training to become experts at the new technology? There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing more about a piece of technology than the person who’s trying to teach you to use it. Love it or hate it, high schoolers are already masters of the cell phone.

Advocacy groups might compare today’s cell phones to 1990s computers, but it’s not a fair comparison. And the last thing we need is text-message grammar spilling into formal papers.

Cell phone companies may be interested in breaking into new markets, but this one isn’t it. Cell phones already have their place in the classroom — snuck in, on vibrate, hidden under the desk, furiously being keyed away at.