[rednaught]

So for the parents who are already struggling to keep their own phone(or perhaps unable to afford one) they now have to purchase one for their child(ren)?

It would seem we're into some kind of transition phase where digital education for K-12 will have to be completely furnished by school districts or this is another class divide. Many can't afford phones or laptops for their children. Where will the responsibility lie for this?

[Fliko]

It is simply another tool to help increase communication between teachers and students, I can't dream up of a situation where phones would be required to be used in a classroom.

With that in mind it might be worth it to enable a feature that will allow teachers to also send an email to students who desire it, as to allow students who don't have phones to be included as they can access the internet at school (if they don't have the internet or a computer at home).

[rednaught]

Replace "phone" with a channel in unified communications and you have what is already happening in the post pc era. Look at tablets that use something like Totkumi's Line2 for a soft VOIP device over 3g/4g/wireless/voice and this is where we're headed. The small, handheld device that is currently called a phone(now smartphone) will in short order be the single device we use. Plug the phone into your dock and you've got your computer(such as current Motorolas).

Laptops and tablets are already being used in certain school districts and required as such. Convincing the mobile phone providers that we only need IP access and not expensive monthly phone bills is going to be one ugly battle. Hence, my asking who's going to cover the subscription costs until this becomes settled and normal. And relying on someone like Google to make this "free" while becoming my child's identity provider is not OK.