Students will be allowed to use iPhones or iPod Touches in their classrooms at an Alberta school. (CBC)

A junior high school in St. Albert, Alta., plans to allow its students to stay plugged in when they start school in September.

Richard S. Fowler Catholic Junior High School will allow students to use their iPhones or iPod Touches in the classroom.

It's a dramatic change from the school's current no cellphone policy.

Sean Brown, vice-principal of the school, said the school has changed its policy because the school believes the Apple products can be used to teach students.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense all the time to have them keep powering down," he told CBC News.

"We can use them for technological reasons in the education area."

Students will not be allowed to use the phone or texting parts of their devices, Brown said.

Instead they can use applications on the products, surf the internet through the school's Wi-Fi network and interactively communicate with their teachers.

The school's network will restrict access to some internet sites, such as Facebook.

The school plans to buy about 30 iPod Touches for students who can't afford the devices or whose parents choose not to buy one, Brown said.