The 10 Reasons Why Cell Phones Should be Allowed in School

Just the other day, the education minister of Ontario announced that cellphones will no longer be used in classrooms starting on November 4. This comes after claims that the students hardly pay attention when they have these mobile devices as they’re more into social media. In the UK, about 49% of parents also believe their children’s schools should ban mobile phones. While their conceptions might make sense somehow, in our post we’re going to look at 10 reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school.

Of course, we do know the handsets have become a form of distraction but even before cellphones came, there were other forms of distractions. During our times, for instance, we had class goofs, paper crumpling, mindless daydreaming during the afternoon math class, and others. These forms of distractions did interfere with the concentration of students even though not in all. Those who knew and understood what they had gone to get from the school didn’t even take notice of these distractions.

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So, with the cell phones, it’s even much better because the disturbance to the other mates in the class is less.

While we’ll always have a certain percentage against them, allowing cellphones in schools can have a lot of significance than damage. For those students who want the best for their future, there are so many ways to use a smartphone in the classroom for their advantage. Let’s look at these attributes and, perhaps, they will twist your arm and help you see the positive side in case you’re one of those against.

Now10 Reasons Why Cell Phones Should be Allowed in School

• Cellphone Can Be A Great Research Tool

Before the introduction of the internet, students were really struggling when it comes to broadening their knowledge. They would use very many hours in the library with the voluminous books, which of course, was stressful and time-consuming.

With internet-enabled cellphones, though, students have access to instant research whenever they need to learn something new. With stable internet (from Wifi or SIM data), researching on the internet only takes a couple of seconds. And the results you get are from multiple sources. Hence, efficient on both time and the research projects. It was the first reason out of 10 reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school.

• The Preparation For Future Careers

If you’re a true professional who loves his job, you possibly must be using tools like Google calendar, Slack, and or Asana. These here are just some of the tools which are being used at workplaces for a variety of functions. A platform like Asana, for example, helps in task management by enhancing focus on the daily tasks and projects that grow business.

If cellphones are allowed in schools, your child can get exposure to this kind of tools and platforms. Hence, getting her ready to fulfilling her future career obligations, such as sticking to deadlines and forming strong professional relationships with colleagues and clients (using Slack).

• Excellent Tool For Emergencies

In recent times, the world (largely America) has suffered school violence, with some cases involving gun shootings like that at Columbine. Considering catastrophes like these, parents should be supporting the motion of allowing cellphones in schools. This will help students in making immediate reports in the times of this type of emergencies.
Although it might sound stupid, a cellphone can help your child call you in case he needs something. Let’s say she misses the school bus or you’re the one who picks her from school… will you always call the teacher’s office to check if her class session has ended?

• The Gadget Can Be A Great Communication Tool In School

Apart from the time of emergencies, a cell phone can be a great tool for inter-communication in the school. Sometimes it can be hard for the teachers to fully connect with their students physically. With the help of cellphones, nonetheless, students and teachers can develop a smooth discussion board for their prevalent issues or even school projects.

With tools like Remind (previously called Remind101), the teachers can be able to communicate with their students, parents, and administrators, all at once. This will ensure every of the party involved in the school remains on the hook of every important happening, including assignments.

• Cellphone Can Be A Good Monitoring Device

As a parent or teacher, you can easily join in too using the new, contemporary technology to monitor your children or students. For the parents, the idea involves keeping track of where your child goes using mobile applications such as Find My Kids ~ Footprints. You can even get a tool like mSpy to monitor who your child calls, the number of contacts, and even what they text.

As a teacher, on the other hand, tools like Piazza App can really help you in tracking the performance of your students. You can use the app to assign course works to your students and once they have completed it they submit via the same tool.

• Cellphone Can Help Your Child Be More Organized

With the various subjects they take in a day, students end having loads of assignments that they have to finish in a given time frame. Tire, confused, and agitated, the student can even easily forget doing some of these assignments.
With a good, recommended smartphone for students, though, a dedicated learner can use tools like Remind for their own good. The student will know when to submit specific coursework when there will be a test, and the time to expect the teacher. This will help enhance convenience whilst helping your child/ student become organized.

• Cellphones Can Enhance The Participation Of Shy Students

No student is born equal to his classmate or friend. So, as the teacher, you ought not to teach all of them in a similar manner. On top of the normal class session, you ought to have a backchannel, like Remind or twitter hashtags, where the shy students can participate at ease. This will help encourage these students who don’t speak in class to participate in discussions and deliver what they know.

• Creates Great Opportunities For Social Learning

For some time now, social media has been the most to blame for the distraction of students with cell phones in schools. Instead of looking at it negatively, nonetheless, schools can use it (social media) to engage students with others. Then, they get to express themselves in areas they can’t in person or to a multitude. This can even help improve their self-awareness and help them in solving issues like social bullying.

• Cellphones Are Much Affordable Compared To Laptops

As of now, the current technology in mobile phones is almost like that of a laptop. With a smartphone, students can be able to do their research projects just like they would with a laptop. The phones are even far more convenient as they are much portable and remarkably affordable.

If you visit many classes right now, you’ll be surprised to find all the kids has a cell phone of their own or at home. But a significant percentage has even never touched the keyboard of a desktop PC. So, allowing cellphones in school will help to enhance the learning techniques of students and much accessibly.

• Cellphone Can Be A Good Learning Stimulator

If you compare them, blogging and studying usually share a few aspects. One that we can relate well is enhancing focus with some cool, ambient music, which of course, can listen from their cell phones. Yeah, it does sound crazy but that’s true. Listening to some smooth classics while studying, particularly mathematical calculations, don’t just smoothen your mind. It also helps avoid distractions from the others, including class goofs.

Cons of Allowing Cellphones in Schools and Their Solutions

Even after allowing cellphones in school, though, the teachers and parents have to understand there are some downsides that they should expect. It’s not something to cause alarm as they are problems they can manage if they control how their children and students use their cellphones. Follow the end of the article to know 10 reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school.

For several years now, a lot of people have been focusing more on these negative aspects, believing that it’s interfering with the learning process. ‘But the truth is, as we stated earlier, distractions during the school hours have always been there even before the introduction of cellphones and social media.

Anyways, the following are the downsides to expect if the cellphones are allowed in schools. Alongside these issues are ways that you can use to curb them and ensure optimal effectiveness from the handsets.

• Can Encourage A Disconnect

Although they have truly enhanced social connection, cellphones can stimulate a detachment when the students remain on them for an extended period. The students can get too obsessed with the “virtual” social media connection. And make them start disconnecting from face-to-face social activities, teachers, and administrative staff. They can even be refraining from a subject matter being learned in the classroom.

Solution: teach your students the need for engagement with those around them and not just with the virtual network. You can promote this kind of engagement by planning group works that the learners can discuss to each other to find the answers. As the teacher, you can even encourage the formation of small study groups in which the students can make up their time to discuss class projects.

• Creates Concerns With Bullying

When it comes to cellphones, cyberbullying can be a major concern for students. From a recent post on Cyberbullying, statistics show that US students tend to receive online harassment now and them. This harassment largely involves mean comments, online rumors, and sexual remarks. Compared with the past allegations when we had no internet, bullying was mainly subjected to the weak and poor. But today, the online community gets to criticize all types of people, including even the wealthy, famous, and those with high social status.

Solution: When it comes to cyberbullying, the best solution to curbing it is by disconnection from the internet. Since we want the students to learn from it, though, you need to teach them of the real truth about it. In the majority of cases, cyberbullying is usually unintentional. Also the comments you might feel criticizing were not meant to be rude or harsh at all. Both the parents and teachers ought to teach their children and students how to be mindful. And considerate to promote a smooth, better online experience.

• Can Be A Source Of Multiple Distractions:

Distraction has been the main aspect of concern when it comes to the subject of allowing cellphones in the classrooms. This comes not just with social media interactions but also with other cellphone features like games. Once the student gets to using a cellphone for pleasure more than for learning, it might become hard for him to maintain good grades. The student can lose track of his school assignments and even fail to participate in school discussion projects.

Solution: In the past, the early teachers definitely dealt with the class distractions of their time. So, the current teachers should as well come up with control mechanisms for this digital generation. Creating a “cell phone jail” where you’ll have students checking in their handsets when the class is starting can help. You can even threaten the students that you’ll call their parents on Facetime when they’re caught using cellphones during instructional time.

• Youngsters Can Get Access To Inappropriate Information

One good thing with the young generation of today is that the majority are growing up very sharp. If it is cellphones, you’ll notice even a four-year-old kid can easily use a platform like YouTube. Which unfortunately can give access to inappropriate information. The child can have access to violent and pornography content during the schooling hours, which then will corrupt his individual personality and judgment.

Solution: To prevent the students from using cellphones wrongly, you can encourage them on using this technology to their advantage. You can set up a trivia competition or perhaps, a research topic that requires the students to use the information from the internet. This way, you’ll help keep the students busy with educational projects, limiting the amount of time they would have used scrolling through their Instagram pages/ YouTube.

• Cellphones Can Encourage Cheating

Well, with a cellphone that supports internet connection, getting any information from Google is pretty easy and fast. So, getting around a tough test question is a real tough temptation to avoid for some students. Which, definitely, will be promoting dishonesty and diminishing the creativity of the students.

Solution: This one can be controlled with the “cell phone jail” like with the case of distraction during the class time. You can even have the students leave their handsets in the lockers.

Similar to the distractions, though, students who are prone to cheating will always have alternative ways to look for answers. So, in the time of tests, you not only need to control the use of cellphones but also apply other approaches of managing cheating practices. For example, keeping a close watch for those students with a history of cheating. Also, follow these steps best free spy apps to track someone’s phone without them knowing.

10 Best Mobile Applications for Students

Now that you know of the 10 reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school. And how to solve the common possible downsides. We’re going to briefly look at some of the best mobile applications that can help your school-going children in their learning works. This includes those in college, high school, and even the K-12 curriculum.
Some of these applications include:

ABCmouse: this is an award-winning learning program that helps your kids (aged 2-8) in reading, math, art, music, etc. The application is totally free and compatible with Android and iOS devices

Edmodo Tutorial: The mobile application connects teachers and their K-12 students. It enables teachers to share content, assignments, as well as manage communication with students and parents.

StudyBlue: this application helps high school and college students in creating study guides, flashcards, and notes. It works on both Android and iOS devices but can be used on the web as well.

myHomework Student Planner: the tool is for helping the students in organizing their daily routine, schoolwork, and upcoming assignments.

Circle of 6: helps enhance the safety of your child and students by alerting the close relatives, friends, and parents of impending danger. The mobile application sends a pre-programmed alert SMS and exact location of the student to select individuals.

English Dictionary- Offline:

It helps boost the vocabulary of your child using its over 320, 000 words, phrases, and meanings. The mobile can be used offline on Android and iOS devices.

Dictionary.com: This is another free English dictionary app that can be used on iOs, Android, and even on the laptop. It provides definitions, synonyms, audio pronunciations, quiz widget, Word of the Day feature, etc.

Zombies, Run!: comprising of unmatched creativity, this app is meant to help in retaining a healthy lifestyle through walking, jogging, or running.

Google Drive: this helps keep the school projects and files safe. In case the laptop gets damaged, the student can access the files from another device whenever he is.

Duolingo: This is a learning app that helps the students in learning foreign languages. The mobile application features over 30 languages and various lessons, including speaking, translation, and choice challenges. The app is available on both Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play Store.

Should The Cellphones Be Allowed Or Banned In Schools?

Umh, which do you personally support? Allow or Ban? We have provided you with all the information you were looking at why cell phones should be allowed in school, alongside useful apps like Edmodo Tutorial. So, we do believe the handsets are of great benefit to the students than harm. I hope that we can make a decision by 10 reasons why cell phones should be allowed in school.