In my personal opinion, phones are seen by a great deal of adults as something "bad" and "everything that's wrong with this lazy generation" and, of course, the stereotype of being a millennial that adults just HAD to give us. There is too much bias, and I feel that is because it is not what they are used to and not what they did as kids, and the natural reaction to something unfamiliar is usually negative. So many people are missing out on the benefits of technology because of the stubborn attitude of "our generation was better", and it upsets me. If you had a classroom without phones, computers, TVs or bright links, even if you don't want to admit it, the kids in the class will be missing out on what technology can be used for in the positive sense. What the teachers decided at the end was probably the best idea: Make kids use their phones for learning, connecting, researching and pushing their potential to the very fullest so they can succeed in the future. No matter what you say, technology is on the arise, and not letting kids learn how to use it and take advantage of their benefits isn't a good idea.
The arcticle states: "Thierry Karsenti, Canada Research Chair on Technologies in Education, says most Canadian schools ban mobile devices. But his research shows that enforcing a ban is almost impossible.
He found that 88 percent of the students he surveyed weren’t allowed to use phones in class. Yet 91 percent of them saw classmates texting. Almost two-thirds saw other kids use Facebook. More than half saw nothing wrong with texting during a lesson." So if kids are going to use their phones and bring them anyway, why not just teach them to use it correctly? It really mind-boggles me that some teachers aren't going to teach their pupils how to appropriately use their phones even though they know no matter what they say, the students will use them anyway.
And if technology is just so bad, then why is Currents4Kids and Blogger on technology? Why post an article online if being online is so terrible? You can't use technology to communicate a point about how technology is ruining the world without some confusion, because you are indirectly contradicting yourself.
So, in my opinion, there should NOT be any cell phone bans, but they SHOULD be teaching kids to use it for school as well as letting them text and call in the halls and at lunch for some down time.
And I like how I use my phone mostly for learning and emergencies, and I would like this balance to stay the way it currently is.
Article Link
Article Link
