To think personal smartphones have no place in the classroom?

[Lookingforastronauts]

After trying to find DS new schools mobile phone policy, and failing after 20 mins searching online. Am I being unreasonable to think that mobile phones should be off and out of sight, or collected in a box at the start of a lesson (I suppose infection control prevents this atm)

DS complained about being bored in class because everyone had been asked to login to Google Classroom on their smart phone. He said he was bored and embarrassed because he didn't have one and had nothing to do.

Surely if this is part of lesson delivery the school should provide them?

They're sticklers for uniform, surely these rules should apply to phones as well?

It feels discriminatory to me.

FFS. Most kids have phones. There is a ton of stuff out there that can support learning in lessons. If not all students have phones, we double them up. Of course, that may well now be an issue post-COVID but was something we did all the time before March.

FFS?

Can you expand on the pros of this beyond there being a "ton of stuff"

Because I can only see the draw backs.

The school mine go to is phones switched off all day and if caught it is confiscated. Caught a second time and detention. Caught a third it is exclusion as wilful disobedience.

What I would like to see is the same for teachers...keep having mine tell teacher is on their phone during class so that is my first complaint in sept.

I agree OP. Surely the point of being in class is that there is a teacher present to impart knowledge.

Looking up things online can be done later to enhance the class content. And should not be a critical part of the lesson as not every child can access the internet.

I teach art and smartphones are great for taking progress pictures for sketchbooks. My school has embraced smartphones, albeit with very strict rules about their use. We always have to have a backup plan for students who don’t have them though.

I assume that you’re in Scotland, and I assume that they are getting them to log onto google classroom so they know that they majority have the app, logged on and working, for if there is another local lockdown.

This is a dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t scenario.

Actually they have many uses. DS uses his as a voice recorder and camera to support his Specific Learning Difficulty. He can use this without feeling different or it calling attention to his needs- vital when you are 15.

They can be used to capture footage for sports analysis, record work for media, become a scientific calculator and look up information and ideas. They shouldn’t be the whole lesson, but are useful for some things.

DS’s school has a practical aporoach- they can’t be seen or heard in lessons unless the teacher has allowed it (or SEND department have included it in the pupil’s learning profiles).

Nope, yabu. It would be difficult for schools to sanitise shared devices and many (majority?) don't have the budget to provide personal devices. If the school can creatively deliver content using smartphones more power to them. There should be something available for those without a device though.

Are most students using smartphones to complete Google Classroom assignments? I thought they'd be using pcs/laptops/tablets.

Also, kids already on Google classroom as was part of the transition process.

Also, I think that one of the purposes of school is learning to concentrate on what another person is saying and engage with that. To be in that moment, rather than distracted by something else.

@tootiredtothinkofanewname the kids can take photos of their own work with their own phones. I have a camera, but before the new mobile phone policy came in I’d have to go around each kid individually taking photos. This would be on top of actually helping them with their art. It’s much quicker when they can take their own photos, especially when there is 30 of them.
That’s my school’s policy and I am happy with it. Other subjects use the phones for things like Kahoot, but I don’t use that much.

When you’re training at work how do you do it? I use my phone all the time - courses, surveys, photos, emails. I couldn't do my job without my phone.

It’s 2020 this is how the world works now. Phones are an integral part of life.

@Pangur2

I teach art and smartphones are great for taking progress pictures for sketchbooks. My school has embraced smartphones, albeit with very strict rules about their use. We always have to have a backup plan for students who don’t have them though.

Likewise my son's school had the same idea. Embrace smartphones but be VERY strict as to when and where they are used. Anyone seen using one at the wrong time would have it confiscated. My son says it worked very well - they were even allowed to listen to their own music via earphones if they were doing something like artwork etc to help them concentrate. But if a teacher saw a game or SM on the screen it would be confiscated, no questions asked, no leeway given. The kids knew the rules, the rules were enforced!

That's great QueenofLouisiana, why don't the schools provide them then? Why should these benefits only be accessible to those who have these devices. Where does it leave those who don't.

They aren’t allowed to be visible in my school. BUT I’m a teacher and we often ask kids to use their phones to look at stuff (due to massive lack of investment, laptops are about 15 years old and don’t work properly). This is fine with senior management.

If they do t have a phone they just share with a friend. It’s no big deal.

@QueenofLouisiana sounds like my school’s approach. Phones are allowed if teachers want to use them, but if they are used in an inappropriate way the sanctions are harsh. They also have to use the special mobile phone school network, which blocks lots of inappropriate and silly stuff anyway.

@KingOfDogShite

When you’re training at work how do you do it? I use my phone all the time - courses, surveys, photos, emails. I couldn't do my job without my phone.

It’s 2020 this is how the world works now. Phones are an integral part of life.

Fully agree. Schools and teachers need to adopt to the modern world - they can't pretend smart phones don't exist. Especially when schools themselves are putting more and more on the internet - i.e. online textbooks, worksheets, VLEs, homework apps, emails, even class group chats. They can't expect pupils to ignore all that except at home on their home computer can they?

When you're at work you get a work phone.

You don't use your personal number for work?

Ours have to have them for homework apps.

I didn’t want them to have one yet. It’s yet another expense

[quote tootiredtothinkofanewname]@Pangur2

You should not be using personal phones though. At all. Most schools issue staff with ipads/tablets that back up onto the school system so there is proof if ever an accusation was made. Using personal phones leaves you in a very precarious position. [/quote]
I’m not sure what schools you know about but I can categorically tell you that in my local area and in my school we don’t have any tech provided for us at all so definitely not MOST schools at all. All tech we did have is now out of date and takes longer than a lesson length to start up and allow anyone to login so totally useless. Our school has no money at all for anything like that.

I don’t agree that phones have no place at all in a classroom, because the other functions of a phone can be useful without using the actual phone technology.

Like you though, I’d be upset if my son was excluded from a lesson because he didn’t have a smartphone. I also wouldn’t like it if a teacher thought she/he had the right to tell my dc that they had to shared their phone with another pupil so that all had access. That is not what I provide my dc with a phone for, they have a laptop for schoolwork. I’m usually well on the side of teachers on the many teacher complaint threads on here, but I really can’t see why teachers need students to have access to smartphones in a lesson. If they need IT for a lesson then the school should be providing laptops, and if that can’t happen then teachers need to think of other ways to deliver their lessons. Using phones to take pictures or take notes for personal use is fine, but needing to have a smartphone to access the lesson is not.

@Lookingforastronauts schools can’t afford to buy all students mobile phones, would you ever cop on. But most students have them, so why not use them?

We have to have a backup plan for kids without mobiles (or kids running low on battery or memory.) If I was running a lesson where googling something or taking part in a Kahoot quiz individually was integral to the lesson I’d book the school tablets, but taking the odd photo in a GCSE Art lesson? Nah. If they have a camera phone they can use it, I can’t see the issue. If they don’t have a phone or memory I’ll use my camera. Sorted.