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.

@C8H10N4O2

Do you think we shouldn't have teams or our work email on our iPads or phones?

Is it not safe

Thanks

Smartphones aren't officially used in our lessons however they were used by most students to access work over lockdown. Many don't have another device.

Currently there are 59m smartphones in the UK. Yes, many of them will be company phones, but let's be fair - you can get a smartphone for 18 quid.

"The reality of living in poverty
A couple with two children living in poverty has less than £58 per day – that’s £15 each - after housing costs to pay for food, bills, childcare, transport, household items, clothes and other expenses like school trips or children’s activities." according to the Children's society.

Even with this it is one day's money and they have a smartphone.
I don't think the cost as an issue is a valid point.

The tiny majority where it really is a point (as UK poverty margins are very high) - there can be funding found.

Our school hasn’t yet gone back but has informed us that the kids need to have phones/tech and what they need to do. Exercise books are no longer to be collected in. The child will scan their work at their desk with their phone so the teacher can mark electronically. Our school intends to keep teachers safe. Tech is necessary.

Night mare in a classroom in students control.
Savouir at home during lock down

@cricketballs3, absolutely. All my kids want to type out their essays, even pre-Covid and it takes a while to get through to them that we ALL type faster than we write, but their exam is going to be handwritten! So they need to get used to it.

I work in a secondary school and the idea of handing in phones at the beginning of a lesson and hand them back at the end would take about what, 15 minutes out a 60 minutes lesson? not acceptable.

On occasion some teachers will let pupils do research on their phones. Usually the phones have to be switched off and out of sight. Otherwise phone confiscated, and if this happens three times parents are called.

I think it's standard in most schools.

I really like the idea of pupils taking photos of their work and sending it to teachers in order to save the handing in of books and marking.

ScorpioSphinxInACalicoDress Time for exams to move into the 21st century too and be done on Word processors.

I had to hand write a three hour exam for my Master's. I'd been out of university and working for five years (long distance study for the MSc) and had barely written a word. My hand was cramping within ten minutes and I expect my handwriting was barely legible for the examiners. Would've been better for everyone if I'd been able to type it.

@Lookingforastronauts

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.

Why don't the schools provide them?!?!

Haha. Best sentence so far.

DD's school allows phones but they have rules about when they can / can't be used. So in class you're not allowed to use phones unless as already pointed out - taking photos of things (such as sketchbooks), filming things (in drama) or in DD's case to briefly use an app to help calm her down (she has a lot of anxiety and has panic attacks).

Secondary school down the road does not allow them at all and if you are found with one it's confiscated. This would be a nightmare for DD as she often messages/phones when she's had a panic attack and has left the classroom and is on her way to the SEND department or support officer. There have been times when she's left the classroom and I've managed to calm her down and talked her into going back in to lesson, if phones were not allowed she would probably have been out of lessons even more.

@ScorpioSphinxInACalicoDress

Digital literacy not big on your priorities OP?

What we found during lockdown when we used G-Suite with the kids was how clueless,despite the insta culture etc that we associate with teenagers, a lot of them were about how a phone is, these days, basically a PC with internet, but one you can put in your pocket.

Fortunately our HT is very switched on (pardon the pun) digitally so not only were our lessons and admin up and running on G Suite within days of lockdown being announced but it's all been left there so should distance learning arise again, were good to go.

The school's policy is no phones on in class unless being used for didactic purposes. I teach languages and last year various classes designed apps, virtual tourist tours, made interactive maps, set up a series of podcasts in their target language which were exchanged with a school in the target language country etc etc. Flipped classroom techniques, for years the norm in language teaching are now far more common thanks to digital content available through the coursebooks.

Not my school, but another school in the area has a "digital only" class which doesn't use any textbooks but only the digital version.

Books, pens and paper have their place, of course they do, and give me a book any day of the week, but our kids can't be left behind just because we don't like it.

This is an incredibly important message. Many parents think they’re children are amazing at using computers as they can fix their internet or something else the parents can’t do. In reality these same students are incapable of using google appropriately or saving a document with a appropriate file name. Each year I was surprised at the new year 7’s ability to do basic tasks on a computer, these are children who’ve grown up surrounded by computers. Most can barely type (this is made more complex now that touchscreens are some prevalent) I’ve not had to use pen and paper my entire career, schools should be preparing children for the realities of work and typing at 2wpm will not help them. It’ll surprise many parents on here that are saying what about the poor, they are the students (in my experience) who come to school with a full pencil case, the children whose parents had little money worries would often turn up with nothing and take from my pen pot (that I provided with my own money).

[quote tootiredtothinkofanewname]@Clive222

Equipment is allowed to be shared in a bubble. But kept to a minimum. All this nonsense about not touching the same piece of paper is just scaremongering.

All families might have a mobile but is it a smartphone? And work should not provide employees with a personal mobile. But if schools use smartphones for lessons than they should be provided by the school.

Adults using personal phones for work uses is different. In an ideal world work mobiles should be used but adults are responsible enough not to commit, share or photograph indecent material. Safeguarding is much less stringent for non-vulnerable adults than it is for young impressionable, impulsive and hormonal teenagers. [/quote]
really? Adults are responsible? Why do we need policies for inappropriate behaviour on corporate devices? Oh and why then do we need to enforce said policies with people who do share inappropriate content? I wish what you said was true however in my experience the adults are worse than the children.

Agree with OP. Not all children can afford smartphones, so they therefore discriminate, and on that basis alone they shouldn't be allowed in class.

Not only that, given of the mountain of evidence about the dangers of smartphone usage for children, published by mental health experts, law enforcement agencies, psychologists and educators, I feel schools need to adopt greater scrutiny in this area.

They absolutely shouldn't be allowed. There is no evidence that they improve learning outcomes and significant evidence that they impact learning negatively.

To a large degree their use, as well as Chromebooks and similar, has become a crutch for teachers and schools, and often an excuse to not bother with things like proper funding of libraries.

What's ironic is that often people who work at the forefront of IT choose to shelter their kids from technology in their school choices.

Emmanuel Macron planned to ban them from school classrooms, not sure if it happened but I supported the idea. Regardless of the impact on learning, teaching children about time away from technology is no bad thing. Less chance of them answering work emails at all times of the day when they are adults in the workplace.

OP should talk to the school. Many people are on a reduced income during the pandemic and may have other priorities than a phone for their children.

Why does your child not have a mobile phone if they're in high school? Not just essential for KIT with friends but also important for safety reasons (bus breaks down, forgotten cooking ingredients, running late from extra curricular etc)

We all managed to cope with those things back in the day.

Doesn't mean they aren't a huge help, but just saying we did manage!

I actually think that there is a great scope for these to be used well and effectively to enhance lessons, and think it's a good idea to train teens to use them responsibly and appropriately as a tool, with a clear policy and student contract in place, and massive repercussions if misused.

But there does need to be some alternative in case students don't have one/have had it confiscated/run out of battery. A pp said earlier it's unfair to ask them to double up if someone doesn't have one...I think that's a bit precious tbh, as long as owner is the one handling the device and shares with someone they are happy to do so. "Find a friend to partner with if you don't have a phone" rather than "You, share with him." But it is reliant on goodwill - it's personal property, not everyone would be happy to share and it should be accepted that that's okay. Teacher needs a Plan B in case of things like that.

@MiddleClassMother

Why does your child not have a mobile phone if they're in high school? Not just essential for KIT with friends but also important for safety reasons (bus breaks down, forgotten cooking ingredients, running late from extra curricular etc)

Really??

@Goosefoot
Yes really, my children have mobiles and they're still in primary school. They're very important in modern society. I love that they can go to the park with their friends and I can see where they are with "find my friends", it's also a great comfort that if they was ever in an emergency they can call for help.

Yes really, my children have mobiles and they're still in primary school. They're very important in modern society. I love that they can go to the park with their friends and I can see where they are with "find my friends", it's also a great comfort that if they was ever in an emergency they can call for help.

Ok but that’s your parenting decision (and by the sounds of it largely about you and your peace of mind).

Another parent might make a different decision, for any number of reasons, and that doesn’t make their decision wrong.

Get ypur child a smart phone. In many countries parents buy all the text books and exercise books for their children every school year. I do not understand the total reluctance of so many British parents to invest in their children's education. It's like education is an encumbrance like
tax rather than an investement in their children.

I completely agree- they should be handed in at the start of the school day- they’re not learning aids!

I loathe how they’ve crept in to modern life. It’s ridiculous how young children are now expected to have them.

I have no problems with them at secondary school but not in the class but they should be in bags/pockets IMO it should not be the responsibility of the teacher/staff to have to collect and/or distribute, kids should just not use in class time.

Same with Ipads/laptops etc. yes use for school work and free time if the teacher allows but just not use otherwise

There is no reason a child needs to use a mobile in class time

[quote MiddleClassMother]@Goosefoot
Yes really, my children have mobiles and they're still in primary school. They're very important in modern society. I love that they can go to the park with their friends and I can see where they are with "find my friends", it's also a great comfort that if they was ever in an emergency they can call for help. [/quote]
That you find it comforting I believe, that they are necessary for safety or even important, not so much. In many ways I think they have created new dangers and contributed to a society where people are less likely to offer help when they see someone in distress, as well as disempowering young people.