Mobile phones should be banned in schools!

No " they help independent study "You'll have someone's eye out with that" used to be the refrain of teachers in my day. In malevolent hands, a pencil, a rubber, even a piece of paper could become a lethal weapon in class, and that's before we got on to compasses and Bunsen burners. A mobile is the same: a potentially potent tool for learning but strangely feared in a school pupil's hand, where it is assumed to wreak havoc with concentration, unleash cyber bullying and surreptitiously video up teachers' skirts. But isn't it also madness when schools that cannot afford modern IT facilities ignore the powerful computers in every pupils' pocket? I was amazed when I visited my old school recently: having remarked how sorry I felt for teachers in the mobile era, several teachers immediately declared how useful they were in class. There's even an acronym for it: BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device. As one teacher has argued in the Guardian, this is the future: students using their trusted devices rather than a machine they leave in school at the end of each day. Jo Debens, a geography teacher at Priory School, Portsmouth, a comprehensive with a mixed intake, was dashing out to take 30 pupils orienteering when we spoke: her students were testing whether it was easier to use an OS map or a mobile phone's mapping services. Earlier this year, the school drew up a "mobile device policy" in consultation with students. Mobile phones are allowed in school and used in class at the teacher's discretion, with a clear system of sanctions applied for misuse. Since the policy was introduced, only 1.4% of negative behavioural incidents have been connected with mobiles. Pupils record homework tasks on their phone's calendar (why do they forget homework diaries but never their textbooks?) and in Debens's geography classes they use the camera function to record things and report back to class. They also use mobile internet for independent research. "We're always being told as teachers that we should give pupils differentiated learning and personalise it. Now they can," says Debens of using mobiles. "Like anything, it's only useful in the hands of the user. They are not the be-all and end-all. We would have death by Wikipedia if all people were doing was cutting and pasting from them." "I was very anti phones," admits Nasim Jahangir, a business and economics teacher at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester. Several years ago, however, she incorporated smartphones into lessons as she "learned to teach in a different way" " with an emphasis on independent study. She admits it is probably easier to ensure his A-level classes use phones constructively but she thinks it has improved behaviour. "The whole atmosphere in the class has changed," she says, becoming less adversarial, with students policing themselves over inappropriate phone use. What about pupils who cannot afford a smartphone? And what about children running up big bills doing school work on their phones? Jahangir ensures his tweeting and mobile phone work is accessible to all on the school's intranet. Debens says her school provides Wi-Fi and portable dongles with Wi-Fi so pupils are not paying for their own study. "We have people who come to school without a coat or without having had any breakfast," she says, "but they always have a phone." http://www.theguardian.com... The question of whether cell phones should be allowed in schools has been hotly debated over the years. The reality is, bans on cell phones are hard for schools to enforce. A 2010 Pew Internet & American Life Project study found that 65 percent of cell-owning teens at schools that completely ban phones bring their phones to school every day anyway. Most schools now allow students to have cell phones but try to require them to be turned off during class because they can be disruptive and distracting (the Pew study found that 43 percent of all teens who take their phones to school say they text in class at least once a day). So, before you add your child to your family plan, read the pros and cons of allowing cell phones in school: 1.You can be in touch with your children, and know their whereabouts. (The Pew study noted that 48 percent of parents use the phone to monitor their child's location.) 2. Your kids can reach you in the event of an emergency, and vice versa. 3. If in danger, your children can reach the authorities or a medical provider. 4. Phones can be silenced during class or study periods, and active only in appropriate places. 5. Cell phones create a convenience that was previously unavailable. 6. With cell phones, you can easily reach your kids for any reason: to ask them questions, change plans, or to simply say hello. http://life.familyeducation.com... There are some other main reasons for which mobile should not be banned in schools; 1. Social: A kid studying in school bears all the rights to contact to friends and family during the school, because having a cell phone inside the school is not disturbing class, this is because the debate is about mobile cells should be banned in school not in class! though it does not create any disturbance for the classes. All the kids feel special with the surroundings and want to be socially recognized, suppose you are a student and you are with a group of other students that all o them have mobile phones, how do you feel if you are the only one not having a cell phone? the answer is clear that you feel awkward! You can create group studies or organize group studies with your friends, that is only done through the mobile phones, because sending letters to post is not working anymore. 2. Safety: Having a cell phone helps you to be safe; now a days no one knows what may happen next! though having a phone will help you to be in contact with your family/parents or any police office. 3. Reachable: Mobile phones makes you reachable all the time, for any emergency, you have the right to have a mobile phone in the school but you can switch it off during the class, or maybe you can put it in silent mode during the class, hence you are actually reachable and you are not disturbing the class. 4. Technology: Kids are bright not, and they find google the easy way to find any information they want, as more as technology is improving, kids need to be parallel with it. Mobile phone will help them to be aware of everything happening to the world. 5. A phone call can help you to save your life or somebody's life! They can get in touch when necessary The main benefit of having a phone is that your child can get in touch with you whenever they need to. This allows you to feel they are safe and gives them assurance knowing they can call home if they have a problem. They can ring the emergency services if the need arises If your child is in immediate danger, they can use their phone to call not only you but the emergency services. This is of great benefit and could potentially save your child's life. Even if your child has no phone credit they can still get in touch with the police, fire or medical services as all emergency calls are free. Allows you to keep track of their whereabouts Children, especially teenagers, can be extraordinarily elusive and can disappear with their friends for hours without notifying anyone. In the summer many kids will go to the park after school or pop down to the shops at lunchtime. Letting them have a mobile phone will allow you to know where they are " provided their phone is on! They can easily be discreet Mobile phones can be very discreet if turned off or on to silent. As long as your child remembers to do this their phone won't cause a distraction in class, but they will stay have a way to contact you if they need to. Giving them a standard rather than a smartphone will also reduce the risk of distraction. www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1072022