Source: Independent >> Read full article and comment
By Hilary Wilce
Hilary’s advice
This teacher says he is older, and does not want to look like a technophobe, but that mobiles have no place in his classroom. His argument must be that they will be distracting and annoying, with pupils texting, sexting and cyber-surfing under their desks and not concentrating on their lesson.
But is this argument right? Phones are evolving rapidly and, as one head has pointed out recently, many schoolchildren now have more technological power in their pockets than their school will ever be able to buy for them.
Also, teenagers live by their phones, and it makes obvious sense to them to use their mobiles everywhere. So teachers who make them, say, laboriously copy a diagram off the board when the obvious thing to them would be to whip out their phone and take a photograph of it, will not seem very relevant to their lives.
No, phones are here to stay and it makes sense to consider how to harness their power to education. They will obviously need close management, and issues such as what to do about pupils who have no phone will need to be addressed. But to continue to operate a blanket ban increasingly seems a blinkered option….Continue reading
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