For the longest time, cellphones have been banned in the classroom for the most obvious reason - they aren’t needed. Students don’t need their mobile phones during class. What they NEED is concentration. But that’s changing. According to this article, some schools in the USA are allowing mobile phones to be brought inside class not just to be “kept in pockets in silent mode and never to be brought out” but as real tools for education.
Mobile phones are used to transmit lectures, podcasts (wow!), and even check attendance. Of course, you can’t just use any cellphone - you’d need a smartphone to do this. I guess it is the same thing with how some schools have partnered with tech institutions like Apple and Microsoft to have laptops loaned out. In this case, the “laptop” fits in your pocket.
I honestly believe that educational institutions should start taking a less academic look at cellphones as “objects of distraction.” A lot of learning does take place with mobile phones. But it isn’t easy as 1-2-3. I guess, as an educator myself, one of the things the academe hates most is …. change. Ironic isn’t it? The very “renaissance” that the academe aspires is the one catalyst it can’t cope with.
Even for practical reasons, I believe cellphones should be allowed. Strict rules should be let down in place of more practical ones. If teachers fear cellphones as cheating devices, then why not deliver more tests that look into opinion more than fact. The “battle” of cellphones vs. the school is actually a microcosm of a traditional vs. progressive way of thinking.
At the end of the day, I’d let my kids keep their mobile phones in schools. The world has changed in the last 10 years since the cellphone was invented, “planning ahead” isn’t as easy as it was.
[image courtesy of Newscom]
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