Should schools allow the use of mobile phones?
No they should not … if social media obsessed students are surreptitiously looking at the internet under their tables during class time. And what about phones being used for cyberbullying, happy slapping, filming fights and ridiculing teachers?
Signal Blocker
Hats off to Julia Polley, head at Wensleydale School and Sixth Form College, for trying. She became so exasperated at students’ fixation with their smart phones that she told parents she would be blocking 4G internet at the school. She wrote to parents saying;
“I have now invested
To ban phones in the classroom, teachers first must know the motivation driving students to look at their phones during instruction. This will possibly help teachers understand how they can improve classroom teaching so kids will not have the urge to check their phones. Is it because they are bored? I asked my roommate the main reason she checks her phone in class, and she said, “I don’t want to miss anything.” “Anything” regards to news, texts, new Instagram or Facebook posts, etc. This motivation to constantly look at their phones is solely extrinsic; students check texts and social media to make sure they are as up-to-date as possible with all of their other friends, not because they like the callus that forms on their thumb from swiping through the Instagram newsfeed all day long. Perhaps according to the expectancy value theory of motivation, students value the outcome (catching up on all the latest news and gossip) more than the fact that they are tuning out their teacher. In other words, they value the information on their phones more than the information in class. To help change this, choice is key. I like how this article brings up the fact that students know that it is wrong to use phones, so teachers should give them the choice between using it only for educational purposes or losing it entirely. This will make them feel more autonomous and not like they are being punished. Banning phones altogether is a waste of time, as this article successfully points out, so the best option for teachers is to somehow integrate technology into the lesson. “Learning should be the impetus that drives the use of technology in the school,” according to Bitner and Bitner’s “Integrating Technology into the Classroom” (2002). Learning should always be the number one priority in a classroom, but the teacher should make sure that whatever program the class is using, the students find engaging. Otherwise, they could revert back to sneaking a peak of their phones underneath the table. Therefore, do not punish the kids and take away their phones, but allow them to use technology to better interact with the subject being taught. Take care to the fact that the program must target the right behavior – using technology could almost be considered a reward in some classrooms, especially if technology is not used all the time (Willingham lecture, 3/16). If students are not behaving correctly or misusing the program, other tactics will need to be considered.
instead of this hypothetical “it would be lovely if students could use their phones” rhetoric – fans of mobiles in the classroom can just get on with it and then tell the rest of us how you managed to make a success of it. I can wait a very long time for some concrete strategies for successfully using mobiles in the classroom. As to the idea that behaviour can be fixed by providing more interesting lessons ! – not everything is going to to be more interesting than every single thing available on the Internet – sometimes lessons are hard work for the kids and they need help to focus – removing distractions such as chatty friends, wasps flying around the classroom, and smartphones is all part of the job 🙂
I agree! I just had a few wasps flying around! My policy is to take them when I see them out but they are extremely resistant to that. I think to use it as a reward might be the way to go. It’s my worst distracting classroom problem for those highly addicted.
Joan Anderson
AVID Teacher
Cholla High School
Tucson, Az
I showed my Y10s “sleepless Britain” on IPlayer last week. None of them after watching would agree to leaving phones off an hour before bed, to improve their sleep thus improving chances at GCSES?!!! They agreed they’d rather be in touch on Snapchat than clever. So trying to prize a phone off them in school would be a sheer impossibility I think?!! I’m devastated but need to find a carrot to dangle for them?!!
I work in FE so find this issue even harder to deal with as there (for some reason) is a transition where students feel it’s ok to have mobiles in use during lessons which I’m 100% sure doesn’t happen in their high schools. I’ve tried a host of tactics such as apps to use in class for quizzes or research, letting them listen to music, creating audio/video assessments etc. But it all comes back to that addiction of checking social media or replying to a text. I’m running short of ideas and can only think of implementing a phone in your bag at the back of the room policy which sounds a bit too far when dealing with children who are entering adulthood. Any bright ideas?
Have a box at the front of the room for them all to drop them off? – #FocusBox