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Opinions > Should cell phones be allowed in the classroom? Yes!
It’s important that we learn to work with cell phone technology instead of pushing it away. Let’s reframe phones as tools for the classroom, as they provide many features that can be used for assignments and projects alike. Regarding losing focus or not, only eight percent of teens report often losing focus due to cell phones in class.
It’s no secret that our school has plenty of college-level courses. Classes like AP US History, AP Government and Politics, and AP Chemistry are all high-level, full of competent and driven upperclassmen ready to take on the challenges that college curriculum has to offer. The difference between APs and most college courses is that these specific classes all force students to give up their phones, a policy most universities and jobs don’t enforce.
This leads me to the ever-pressing question in today’s educational space: how well are we preparing our students for the “real world?” And where does personal responsibility come into play in all this? Because, as the way I see it right now, it doesn’t. Students who lock up their phones at the beginning of class from freshman to senior year never really build up the skills they need to manage their phone addiction. They also don’t experience the consequences of what scrolling on social media in class might do to their grades, something they won’t know how to manage when they go on to college.
According to Pew Research Center, roughly six in ten teens say they feel anxious, lonely or upset when they do not have their cell phone with them.
FOMO (fear of missing out) moments that might seem trivial in retrospect can mean a lot at the moment, especially to hormonal teenagers. Using restrictions like phone corrals cuts these kids off cold and can exacerbate negative emotions, which is counterintuitive for a productive learning environment, especially because only 8% of teens reported often losing focus due to cell phone presence in class. Sometimes just allowing students to keep their phones at their side can alleviate anxiety and increase focus, as they don’t need to worry about missing a potentially important text or notification.
Phone corrals can be problematic even for students who don’t feel any type of negativity when separated from their devices, because it brings into question the level of trust between a teacher and their class. For students who have worked hard for three years, being treated the same way by their ninth-grade honors English teacher and their senior year AP Government teacher can be frustrating. The implementation of a no-phone policy the moment students walk through the door doesn’t allow them to demonstrate any of the maturity or responsibility they might have acquired over the years, and creates animosity in the student-teacher relationship right from the get-go.
I acknowledge that yes, most teachers only want what’s best for their students, and phone corrals are implemented with the best intentions of curating a distraction-free learning environment. But as technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, I find it important that we learn to work with that technology instead of just pushing it away. I’ve already used my camera tool multiple times in honors chemistry, and it’s helped me get through quite a few hectic lab situations. Let’s reframe phones as tools for the classroom, as they provide many features that can be used for assignments and projects alike.
This usage of phones in a productive way during class isn’t an experience that’s unique by any means. A 2013 study by Kevin Thomas Blanche O’Bannon cited that 61% of the 92 teachers surveyed reported that cell phones created more anytime/anywhere learning opportunities, as well as increased student communication and motivation. Phones are an inherently neutral tool, and their pros and cons are determined by how you choose to interact with them, not by the technology itself. To brush them off completely is to close a door to a world of technological teaching that the school-issued Chromebooks might not be able to provide. Whether you like it or not, phones are the future, so it’s better to explore the options now than to be left behind.
So how can we achieve this positive relationship with cell phones? In my eyes, it all starts with the removal of that phone corral. It’s unnecessary, quite frankly a bit insulting to students’ integrity, and fosters a harsh learning environment from the day the syllabus gets passed out. Instead, having students keep their cellular devices on hand during daily class would reduce overall anxiety, potentially provide a helpful tool for class discussions and show kids that teachers actually see them as mature learners who don’t need to be mollycoddled out of learning from their mistakes. After all, taking away the problem for brief periods doesn’t solve the addiction if one is present, so why would that be the case with your phone?