The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White
The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White
The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

NBC reporter interviews teachers, students on cell phone use

By Samantha Zambri
January 6, 2014

NBC reporter Scott MacFarlane visited Whitman today to interview teachers and students about cell phone use in and out of the classroom.

Reporter Scott MacFarlane interviews history teacher Andrew Sonnabend on cell phone use within the classroom. MacFarlane's story will air on NBC sometime next week.
Reporter Scott MacFarlane interviews history teacher Andrew Sonnabend on cell phone use within the classroom. MacFarlane’s story will air on NBC next week.

The story, which will run on WRC Channel 4 next week, explored the extent to which schools are allowing technology usage and whether cellphones are a beneficial addition to the classroom.

In order to gather information for his story, MacFarlane visited schools around the D.C. district, including Wise High School in Prince Georges county. Whitman was the only school in Montgomery County that MacFarlane visited.

“I had to do a lot of research before I started interviewing people,” MacFarlane said. “For example, I researched MCPS suspension records to see how many students were penalized for using cellphones in class.”

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Senior Zach Snyder was interviewed by MacFarlane, and said that while phones haven’t penetrated the classroom yet, students often use them to check facts and statistics.

MacFarlane also interviewed principal Alan Goodwin, social studies teacher Andrew Sonnabend, and math teacher James Kuhn.

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