Smarter phones: What can you do with a classroom of smart phones? Mind/Shift's Tina Barseghian does a great job of describing Project K-Nect, a North Carolina pilot project that uses mobile phones to help 9th grade students build algebra skills. Qualcomm has been a key funder for the project (and is obviously interested in its success) still students in the program, which has been going on for three years, are showing some real gains in math skills.