Most Queensland schools today have a policy on the usage of mobile phones in school classrooms and grounds. Some have a total ban on usage and some allow mobile phone to be used only at morning tea and lunch. At Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A., one hundred students were suspended for having mobile phones on school grounds. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com and his 2010 article discusses the hot debate on mobile phone usage in schools. He says that with mobile phones becoming more powerful and able to do many of the things a laptop can, teacher and administrators are reviewing their usage in school and the classroom.
Johnson cites a teacher in Nebraska who says that at his school teachers have the discretion to allow them in class, even working them into lessons and he says that ‘we should be focusing more on the positives rather than the negatives’. The executive director of The American Association of School Administrators says that, ‘Handheld devices like cell phones, iPhones, BlackBerrys and iTouch are beginning to offer applications that enhance classroom learning by engaging kids to use tools they are constantly using anyway’ and aretherefore, promoting the use of cell phones in class as ‘genuine educational tools’.
Surveys undertaken on the use of phones by students in schools, show that even in schools where they’re banned, students are still using them. Two-thirds of students questioned admitted that they used their phones to cheat on their classwork, other negative uses were cyberbullying, taking inappropriate pictures and other illicit activities. Schools are realizing that they are fighting an uphill battle and have tried other ways of banning cell phones, such as confiscating them for long periods of time. However, a school in Virginia decided to focus on positive rather than negative use and reward responsible use of cell phones by staging prize raffles and pizza parties.
Is it the minority rather than the majority who use mobile phones in inappropriate ways and are we not therefore, disadvantaging those students who do the right thing by banning mobile phones from the classroom? Johnson reports that as mobile technology advances, cell phones or other mobile devices with phone capabilities could become the only computer a student ever uses thereby supplanting the laptop. Consequently, there is a need to review student use of mobile phones in schools.
JANYE
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ReplyDeleteIt seems that policies banning mobile phones are paper tigers!
ReplyDeleteI was recently working on a short contract at a school in a lower socio- economic area. The students in the maths class needed a calculator but they were not bringing them to school. I spoke to the HOD about this deficiency saying that it really wasn't a problem as I would ask the students to use their mobile phones. She gave me a funny look but then said it was OK. I later realized that the school policy was to have the phones turned off in the classroom! What a ridiculous situation!
I agree that there is a time and place for using mobile phones at school. All the schools that I have been a part of, whether as a student of a staff member have had a no-phone policy. This is where students are to turn their phones into the office on arrival to school or at least before the bell rings; students caught using their phones will have consequences.
ReplyDeleteThere are pros and cons to mobile phones and I agree with both sides so it can be very hard sometimes.
The schools with no-phone policies tend to have the reasoning of:
1: safety - Too often do students take home the wrong bag, have things stolen out of their bag, drop things and lose them. Students and parents 'tend' to expect the school to find the device and 'bend over backwards' to help the family with the missing device. However, it is the student's responsibility to follow the school rules and take care of their own property.
2: Content - Students, especially in the higher grades do not always have appropriate content on their phones. You might think that this is being stereotypical, but I have personally been shown video footage of R-rated content. Nobody should have that thrown in front of you.
3: Misuse - Some students would rather text socially during class as opposed to using their phones for educational purposes. This is not every student and the novelty should wear off eventually.
Those who are for phone use in schools can see that the advantages of having an available calculator, internet access for researching small amounts of data, helpful applications for increasing learning and the like far outweigh the problems teachers are likely to face with students. Some also state that students can also pay more attention when they are actively doing something, so listening to music or completing task related challenges while listening to teacher can actually help some students with their learning.
Katrina