Cell Phones
in Classrooms?
Although
cell phones can be distracting and disrespectful, high school students should
be allowed to use them in class for educational purposes. Cell phones can be a huge
help in classrooms; they provide faster Internet use, different applications
(apps) for different classes, and the chance to save a lot of money.
When
asked to get on a computer to research it is a pain, because the computers take
too long to access the Internet, and that takes a lot of time out for
researching. If we can use our cell
phones in the classroom, we can get our information faster and won’t have to
waste time on a slow computer. If we run out of time we can always go back to
our phones and retrieve the information.
“These
devices are really little computers and have the potential… like a ‘real’
computer. Said Sherman (invasion of the classroom cell phones).
Today’s
smart phones are portable, pocket-sized computers that support instructional
practices. For example, cell phones can be used in the classroom for content
creation, and authentic learning. Instructional benefits provided by the
portability of cell phones is their support of anywhere and anytime access to
course material (fear is 120 characters)
There are
so many apps to get for you cell phone. You can get an app for your every class
you are in. In my English class when students are at allowed to use their
phones for a word we don’t know we open up the dictionary app and in five
seconds we know what the word means. It is way faster then getting up and
looking in the dictionary. You have a dictionary at your fingertips. “It is
easier and quicker to access apps then going the old fashion way with books I
have an app for all my classes.” Said my friend. In my chemistry class I have
an app that allows me to check my answer for converting units. Converting
really is a pain to write down; this app allows me to check my answer. Having
cell phones in our classrooms will not only allow us to explore new apps for
education, but make it easier and faster.
Money is
always a problem. Schools can not afford new computers and new software every
year for students. If schools allowed students to use cell phones in the
classroom, since eighty-five percent of teens between the ages fifteen through
eighteen have a cell phone (fear is 120 character) it would save the school a
lot of money. Because students have access to the Internet, and each week or
month there are updates available so cell phones are always up to date. No need
to but new software for a computer.
Every
student sometimes forget that there is an assignment the next day that needs to
be turned in, and there are students that are not present for the class. To
solve this problem, students can take pictures of the bored and look back on
what you have to do for the homework and for the people absent their friend can
send them the assignment. It helps both students and teachers. Helps a student
to not forget their homework and it helps teachers explain the homework to the
absent students. We can show the teachers that cell phones can be used as a
tool not as a distraction, by improving learning in the classroom. (Teaching
Tools). If we can move past our distractions then cell phones can be a great
tool in the classroom.
Cell phones
also can be a distraction to the student as well. Because your cell phone
allows you to all these games and social networking apps and when you are in
class that is all you think of when your cell phone is right in front of you.
You will be looking at your phone constantly. The teacher will have to tell you
to put it away or even worse take it away. “I will honestly put my phone on the
desk and look at it constantly trying to look at Facebook or see if anyone text
me” Said a student in my English class. Cell phones cause so many students to
not focus in a classroom because they are just focusing on their cell phone.
They are just tempting to look at their phone.
Everyone
should know that when checking your phone while your teacher is talking is very
disrespectful, but yet students do it anyway. Students should not do that
because your education is way better looking at your cell phone. Your cell
phone can wait until the end of the class not during. Teachers I think feel
like they are not being listened to that their class is not as important as
what the student is looking at on their phones. People should have respect for
teachers, they are giving a lot of students their time to teach them and the
students return it by checking their phones. What happened to having manners?
Cell phones
are always going to be on a student so why not use them in the classroom? They
will help out students more than the school knows. And allowing the student to
learn even without being in a classroom, you carry cell phones everywhere. But
when will schools really allow students to use their cell phones in the
classroom without assuming they are texting or anything that does not connect
to the assignment? Who know but I hope it comes soon.
Work Cited
Ferriter,
William M. "Cell Phones as Teaching Tools." Educational Leadership
68.2 (2010): 85-86. Academic Search Elite. Web. 22 Oct. 2012.
Gilroy, Marilyn.
"Invasion of the Classroom Cell Phones." Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed For Quick Review
69.6 (2004): 56-60. ERIC. Web. 8 Oct.
2012.
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