Review of news article: Some schools rethink ban on cell phones.

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