Cell Phones?

I had an interesting question and experience today. I was in the middle of busting a cell phone ring (students texting each other during school, which is against school board policy) when I stopped to talk to a teacher about the policy. I was asked what I thought the policy for cell phones should be. I ended up saying that I didn't really know but that I didn't think the current policy was working as well as it should. It's not really a bad policy, but I do think it may be a little dated. By this I mean that it stands in the way of technological progress. At the same time that I was collecting cell phones, I received an e-mail from another teacher friend that told me about the website www.pollanywhere.com. That site allows students to text answers to questions that can be viewed by the class in real time. Under our current board policy on cell phones, this would mean that we couldn't use this clearly instructional website. The site allows students to actively engage in the lesson with their cell phones--something that obviously is a hook for students. I completely understand why the policy says that phones may not be used during instructional time, and I agree with the reasoning because, let's face it, in most cases the use is not of an instructional nature. I just wonder if we shouldn't embrace the fact that students are going to use their phones in class and we need to learn how to guide them to use them appropriately.