Mobile phones should be banned in schools!

Con wasn't exactly sure of what he just suggested. I believe he only copy-pasted his words from some random site and he didn't even read what he pasted. I know exactly what site these were from."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."He clearly stated that mobiles are 'starngely feared in a school pupil's hand' thus negating his whole resolution."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."Everything stated in these paragraphs are plainly dull, and has nothing to do with the subject.He should explain why moblies are to be allowed in class, and Con lacked in that aspect.""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."We can see now, though that phones in school is useful, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have downsides, either, In fact, there are more of the 'downsides' versus 'useful'. And if we ask teachers what they think about this: "Mobiles rather crept up on education and in our experience it was a nightmare." says Ian Fenn, head of Burnage Media Arts College in Manchester.Indeed, in May an online poll in the Guardianproduced a three-to-one vote in favour of a ban. The poll was prompted by a statement by Sir Michael Wilshaw, the new chief inspector of schools and head of Ofsted, that mobiles in schools were disruptive. When he was head of Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, east London, he banned them and said the decision produced immediate benefits.And now, we should state the many, many reasons why we should ban phones in school.Cheating-Students could text answers to their friends-They could photograph test pages-They could copy down test questions-They could put their notes or answers on their phones.Texting, surfing and social networking will distract from learning-Kids in class text back and forth making smart alec comments about students and teacher. No one feels comfortable- like they're being talked about behind their backs.-Always checking for messages. Constantly engaged in silent off-task concversations.-Find ways to get around school's filtering systems-Play games and watch videos from YouTube.Again, phones give more harm than good when not banned at school.