My 16 yo high schooler thinks removing phones from the classroom is a great idea (southern US). According to him ithe number of students who are on their phones instead of paying attention is too high, he's even fallen into that trap. His middle school tried to have kids turn in their phones before they entered the room, several just snuck them in and a few were stolen. The school eventually gave up. In HS his teachers are so overwhelmed and under staffed they don't even try to enforce rules like this.
Is this any news to people in the US? In France there is no way you’re pulling out your phone from your pocket, or your parents have to get it from the supervisor (or you can get it back yourself at the end of the day depending on the school rules)
But you have a computer at your disposition when it’s relevant
Yes it’s a thing in the US and has been around for many years. That said, culturally teacher respect has gone down during that time while gun usage/accessability has only gone up. So while you can ask/demand the student to participate or hand over their phone, there is no incentive nor authority to have them comply. And good luck getting their parent to care or even bother to listen to you or show up to a meeting. The US press has labeled teachers as indoctrinators, pedos, and lazy overpayed child care. The administration will throw you under the bus immediately to not deal with bad press regardless of what happened. Additionally you’re paid worse than some much easier entry level jobs that pay more with much shorter hours. So it’s not really that it’s new or strange, but rather that the situation has changed and the current “just take the device” doesn’t work as effectively as it once did.
Mobile phones are a disturbance, scientific research shows. We need to protect students against this.
Wish the Guardian would have looked into this at all, researched a bit to see if the data backs this up. I couldn't find much conclusive evidence of a significant impact. For example,
It is not a ban but a guideline. The guideline says that smartphones should not be used in class unless it has an educational or medical reason. Schools themselves can decide whether they want to allow smartphones in the class or not. That said, apparently there is a huge problem with children using Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok or any other social media, and research has shown that allowing smartphones in class is a disturbance and leads to lower student performance.
No, but that’s not the point. Mobile phones and apps are specifically engineered to draw your attention as much as possible. Children are especially vulnerable to distractions, and so to me it makes sense to serverely limit their usage in the classroom.
Not everything has to be as black and white as “stop”. A step in the right direction is a good one.
Doesn't say anything about school-provided computers. But paper should not become obsolete, students need to practice digital and physical writing. Can't always count on technology being there for you.
As a teacher I'm no of this at all. Having the option to let the students do research on their own devices is one of the things that really helps and also is close to their day to day life. Also them having tablets for taking notes makes giving out worksheets so much easier. No longer throwing around hundreds of pages of paper per day.
It also gives us as teachers the opportunity to teach students how to perform online research responsibly, how to check for sources, and to question their credibility. Left to their own devices, it's really easy to get swept up in rage-bait propaganda. It's extra work for us, but important for society.
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