Tuesday, May 19, 2009

You're Too Old to Hear My Phone!

At first, I thought my technology manager was telling a joke when he told me about teens using high frequency ring tones on their cell phones, but turns out they're very popular. Students are using them, of course, to alert them when a text comes in during class. Seems that teens can hear sounds at higher decibels than we "old" people can.
Honestly, I was a bit skeptical until he showed me this website from Free Mosquito Ringtones. Go ahead, test it yourself. I recommend you get someone younger than you to sit with you just to prove it. If you want to know how each sound corresponds to age, see this page.
Yes, this is just another method to get around the rules of the school that govern the use of cell phones in class. I say it's still pretty cool though and I read that a student came up with the idea-way to use your noggin' kid-pretty cool stuff!

3 comments:

  1. That sound kept coming up during my student teaching. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on. After a little sleuthing my response became, "I am not old enough for that trick to work!" I agree an excellent example of how students will jump over any wall that we put up.

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  2. I found the exact website and shared it with my students. Well, I played the ringtone from my phone and many students were not happy because it hurt their ears. You see, I can hear it just fine (30+ years old) and it even hurts my ears if I listen to it too many times. Tried it on my mom (50+)and she heard it! It also goes to show that the body is an amazing thing.

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  3. There was news about this a few years back when some resourceful stores decided they wanted the teens, who were hanging around for too long, to go away. By playing these high pitched sounds, the teens would be annoyed and leave.

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