Technology in School

I have had almost a week to digest all the information we received in class last week.  I am feeling a little less overwhelmed but still feel there is so much for me to learn.  Especially when I really thought about the amount of technology at our students fingertips on a daily basis.
According to Project Tomorrow's Speak Up findings from 2010 51% of 6th to 8th graders have cell phones and 34% of those are Smart phones.  This really shocked me as my son just started 6th grade a few weeks ago and I finally broke down and got him a phone  Not an iphone.  Not even a Smart phone.  Because I am a lame mom and his life is so rough(loosely paraphrased).  The reason I was so impressed by this study was that they surveyed the students themselves and rural, urban, and suburban areas were well represented. 
I currently work in a middle school as well and am familiar with the cell phone policy at school.  Off and out of sight during the day.  A part of me understands this because of the reality of how students chose to use their phones.  Even adult students are asked to turn off their cell phones during graduate level instruction.  Yet what part of relatively inexpensive technology are we asking our students not to use with these policies?  However, in a practical sense monitoring their use would be an uphill battle and could possibly take away from instructional time.  I don't really have any concrete answers just more questions.  Which means the practical implementation of technology is like everything else in life.  Multi faceted with no clear cut answer and opens the door for greater discussion.......