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TLDR: As a high school level teacher, this would be less of a problem if teachers had stronger enforcement powers. Since we often don't - I would strongly favor

TLDR: As a high school level teacher, this would be less of a problem if teachers had stronger enforcement powers. Since we often don't - I would strongly favor a ban. If students need a computer, we have them available all day, every day. As a high school level teacher, I appreciate the attitude that there are amazing opportunities for learning and skill development with computers. I agree with this wholeheartedly. That said, a majority of my students are addicted to social media (they are teenagers, after all) and cannot self moderate their attention and/or behavior on this issue. They are not, generally, breaking their attention away from class for some other kind of educational outlet (for which I am already fairly lenient when appropriate). They are sending their friends snaps, plays both games, and texting. Of course, using phones in class is already against school policy, but it will remain and issue until I am able to take a phone away from a student. At a prior school, this was explicitly against policy becuase it was considered a liability issue as phones are expensive personal property that the school did not want to be responsible for them. Additionally, parents give minimal support and/or flip out when it happens. Very few have the willingness to keep their student's phone at home during the school day even when it is a known and acknowledged problem. Often, they simply don't want to argue with their teen about it. I believe that we - as a American culture - are still too enamoured with our smart phones to effectively acknowledge the potential negative effects they can have on our attention/learning/cognitive development.

philamonster 9y ago
>They are not, generally, breaking their attention away from class for some other kind of educational outlet (for which I am already fairly lenient when appropriate). They are sending their friends snaps, plays both games, and texting. I'm all for moderation but the kids I have come across in my K-12 experience, if they're not paying attention, are generally pretty bored out of their minds with whatever else is going on in the classroom. Which begs the question; whose fault could that possibly be? The child's or the adult in the room?
- cicero 9y ago
  Wrestling with learning a hard subject, even under the best teacher, will often lose out to the instant gratification that is available from a phone if that distraction is available. Adults have problems with this, so why wouldn't children?
- coldtea 9y ago
  >* I'm all for moderation but the kids I have come across in my K-12 experience, if they're not paying attention, are generally pretty bored out of their minds with whatever else is going on in the classroom. Which begs the question; whose fault could that possibly be? The child's or the adult in the room?* Well, the kids are supposed to learn things, not to be entertained. Sometimes the two can coincide, and it's great and inspiring when it does, but the idea that learning must be an entertaining activity only does a disservice to learning, and hampers the progress of the learners. Sometimes it's just hard practice with no fun, and it's done for the sake of learning, not for giggles.
  - virtualized 9y ago
    Learning the right things, in the right ways, is entertaining. I'd argue that school is neither about learning nor about entertainment. School is that experiment with the monkeys and the ladder. Its original purpose was making mindless factory workers. Students became teachers who taught more teachers and so on. What is the actual purpose of school nowadays? It's a place where you can leave your children while you work and it's a checkbox on a CV.
    - sillypog 9y ago
      The school I attended was founded in 1206. I don't think training factory workers was a top priority back then.
    - bengillies 9y ago
      Schools exist for the same reason that farms and factories exist: it's a lot more efficient having specialised workers (in this case teachers) who can do the job far more effectively (in this case teach 30 or so children) than having every person do it themselves (in this case every parent take a large portion of time out of their day to teach their own child individually). The alternative to school was for girls to help out around the house until they were married off and for boys to either learn their father's trade and then do that for the rest of their lives or get apprenticed off to whoever could take them and then do _that_ for the rest of their lives. School helps children create a life for themselves. If children don't learn anything there they'll find far fewer paths open to them later on.
criddell 9y ago
At my kids' school, they encourage appropriate cell phone use in the school. For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board. They also insist on the kids using some kind of calendar to track everything and most kids use their phone calendar. There's some kind of Twitter-like service that is used for teacher-student communication and of course they use email and Google Docs a lot. My kids have had assignments that involve making a movie and their phone is their video camera. If the kids want to use a computer, they can (they are all issued ThinkPads that are frankly awful) but I think most kids would prefer to use their phones when they can. Also, the school has a pretty aggressive filter on the wifi so kids that want to access the internet in the school end up using their phone to get access to the things they need.
- devmunchies 9y ago
  > For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board just post the assignment online. Not a reason to allow phones in class.
  - zxd1098 9y ago
    At work, you’d take a picture of the whiteboard with your phone. It’s a valuable life skill.
    - andrepd 9y ago
      It's snapping a picture of a whiteboard. It's not a "life skill".
      - abakker 9y ago
        At least, not one people really need to be taught.
      - criddell 9y ago
        The life skill is the responsible and appropriate use of technology. The worst thing the school can do is come up with constraints so narrow that the kids get through school without having to exercise judgement or restraint.
imgabe 9y ago
Would it not be possible to have a box at the front of the room that everyone has to put their phone in when they come to class, then they can get it back after class is over? If anyone's ever been in a secure facility, they have little mail slots, sometimes locking with a key you can take, to store your phone while you go inside. Seems like we could just put one of these in every classroom. That should take care of the liability issue.
- irrational 9y ago
  Then kids would just bring two phones. The real phone and a dummy phone.
  - ctrl-j 9y ago
    Seems like it'd be pretty easy to enforce this one. A teacher will still catch students on their phone, and then it goes in the box with the dummy phone. Plus punishment for sneaking a phone in.
- amigoingtodie 9y ago
  We used to call them 'lockers'.
  - brewdad 9y ago
    And those lockers were not at all secure, at least in my HS. There is no way I would encourage my kid to leave his phone in his locker. He'd be on his 3rd or 4th phone of the year by now.
surge 9y ago
It'd be kind of neat if the phones had a mode similar to the "car mode" on Apple phones, where it goes into a DnD mode and becomes inconvenient to unlock and use when at a certain location. So a kid can use the phone, but texting or other features are harder to access in a non-obvious manner and notifications are muted. Almost like being in Airplane mode by default except during in between class breaks. They are useful tools, but even outside of school they constantly suck away our attention, and apps are designed for this, the constant distraction needs to be curbed, not their use as a pocket computer.
- curt15 9y ago
  Tasker on Android is probably comes closest ( http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/change-your-android-phones-settings-based-on-where-you-1597903597 http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/change-your-android-phones-set... ).
noobermin 9y ago
This is such a luddite view and frankly almost a power tripping view. Have you thought that they are "addicted" to being social with their friends like normal teenagers are? It already is against policy in most places to have smart phones during class, why ban them during breaks? It's during freaking breaks. How about let kids be kids for once and stop trying to grope into their personal lives! Why do you need to police their breaks too? How is this not a civil rights issue? As millenials and gen xers age, they are forgetting they were kids once and are quickly becoming twice the son of hell authoritarians their parents were.
- germinalphrase 9y ago
  Take a breath. My students have full access to their devices during breaks. They have full access to their friends. They have significant opportunists throughout eh day to socialize. That's not really a problem. The ability to maintain some sustained attention to a task is a pretty fundamental developmental skill that I - as an educator - am tasked with helping my students develop. Many of my student display a compulsive behavioral need to be on their phones and this has very obvious and immediate impacts on their focus and learning. That's a problem that I don't see being solved at the high school level by casual/cultural policing of behavior during class.
  - daveFNbuck 9y ago
    The break thing is a reference to the ban. The second sentence of the article is "Children will be allowed to bring their phones to school, but not allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks." So the ban sounds like your current situation, plus a ban on using phones during breaks.
- molsongolden 9y ago
  Your comment seems to be lashing out vs. actually addressing the parent comment. The user you are responding to already acknowledged the students are "addicted" to being social and using social media because that is the nature of being a teenager. > "Of course, using phones in class is already against school policy, but it will remain and issue until I am able to take a phone away from a student. " They also noted that using a phone in class is against policy but they have no way to enforce this policy... which is their reason for supporting a ban.

philamonster 9y ago

>They are not, generally, breaking their attention away from class for some other kind of educational outlet (for which I am already fairly lenient when appropriate). They are sending their friends snaps, plays both games, and texting. I'm all for moderation but the kids I have come across in my K-12 experience, if they're not paying attention, are generally pretty bored out of their minds with whatever else is going on in the classroom. Which begs the question; whose fault could that possibly be? The child's or the adult in the room?

cicero 9y ago
Wrestling with learning a hard subject, even under the best teacher, will often lose out to the instant gratification that is available from a phone if that distraction is available. Adults have problems with this, so why wouldn't children?
coldtea 9y ago
>* I'm all for moderation but the kids I have come across in my K-12 experience, if they're not paying attention, are generally pretty bored out of their minds with whatever else is going on in the classroom. Which begs the question; whose fault could that possibly be? The child's or the adult in the room?* Well, the kids are supposed to learn things, not to be entertained. Sometimes the two can coincide, and it's great and inspiring when it does, but the idea that learning must be an entertaining activity only does a disservice to learning, and hampers the progress of the learners. Sometimes it's just hard practice with no fun, and it's done for the sake of learning, not for giggles.
- virtualized 9y ago
  Learning the right things, in the right ways, is entertaining. I'd argue that school is neither about learning nor about entertainment. School is that experiment with the monkeys and the ladder. Its original purpose was making mindless factory workers. Students became teachers who taught more teachers and so on. What is the actual purpose of school nowadays? It's a place where you can leave your children while you work and it's a checkbox on a CV.
  - sillypog 9y ago
    The school I attended was founded in 1206. I don't think training factory workers was a top priority back then.
  - bengillies 9y ago
    Schools exist for the same reason that farms and factories exist: it's a lot more efficient having specialised workers (in this case teachers) who can do the job far more effectively (in this case teach 30 or so children) than having every person do it themselves (in this case every parent take a large portion of time out of their day to teach their own child individually). The alternative to school was for girls to help out around the house until they were married off and for boys to either learn their father's trade and then do that for the rest of their lives or get apprenticed off to whoever could take them and then do _that_ for the rest of their lives. School helps children create a life for themselves. If children don't learn anything there they'll find far fewer paths open to them later on.

criddell 9y ago

At my kids' school, they encourage appropriate cell phone use in the school. For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board. They also insist on the kids using some kind of calendar to track everything and most kids use their phone calendar. There's some kind of Twitter-like service that is used for teacher-student communication and of course they use email and Google Docs a lot. My kids have had assignments that involve making a movie and their phone is their video camera. If the kids want to use a computer, they can (they are all issued ThinkPads that are frankly awful) but I think most kids would prefer to use their phones when they can. Also, the school has a pretty aggressive filter on the wifi so kids that want to access the internet in the school end up using their phone to get access to the things they need.

devmunchies 9y ago
> For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board just post the assignment online. Not a reason to allow phones in class.
- zxd1098 9y ago
  At work, you’d take a picture of the whiteboard with your phone. It’s a valuable life skill.
  - andrepd 9y ago
    It's snapping a picture of a whiteboard. It's not a "life skill".
    - abakker 9y ago
      At least, not one people really need to be taught.
    - criddell 9y ago
      The life skill is the responsible and appropriate use of technology. The worst thing the school can do is come up with constraints so narrow that the kids get through school without having to exercise judgement or restraint.

imgabe 9y ago

Would it not be possible to have a box at the front of the room that everyone has to put their phone in when they come to class, then they can get it back after class is over? If anyone's ever been in a secure facility, they have little mail slots, sometimes locking with a key you can take, to store your phone while you go inside. Seems like we could just put one of these in every classroom. That should take care of the liability issue.

irrational 9y ago
Then kids would just bring two phones. The real phone and a dummy phone.
- ctrl-j 9y ago
  Seems like it'd be pretty easy to enforce this one. A teacher will still catch students on their phone, and then it goes in the box with the dummy phone. Plus punishment for sneaking a phone in.
amigoingtodie 9y ago
We used to call them 'lockers'.
- brewdad 9y ago
  And those lockers were not at all secure, at least in my HS. There is no way I would encourage my kid to leave his phone in his locker. He'd be on his 3rd or 4th phone of the year by now.

surge 9y ago

It'd be kind of neat if the phones had a mode similar to the "car mode" on Apple phones, where it goes into a DnD mode and becomes inconvenient to unlock and use when at a certain location. So a kid can use the phone, but texting or other features are harder to access in a non-obvious manner and notifications are muted. Almost like being in Airplane mode by default except during in between class breaks. They are useful tools, but even outside of school they constantly suck away our attention, and apps are designed for this, the constant distraction needs to be curbed, not their use as a pocket computer.

curt15 9y ago
Tasker on Android is probably comes closest ( http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/change-your-android-phones-settings-based-on-where-you-1597903597 http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/change-your-android-phones-set... ).

noobermin 9y ago

This is such a luddite view and frankly almost a power tripping view. Have you thought that they are "addicted" to being social with their friends like normal teenagers are? It already is against policy in most places to have smart phones during class, why ban them during breaks? It's during freaking breaks. How about let kids be kids for once and stop trying to grope into their personal lives! Why do you need to police their breaks too? How is this not a civil rights issue? As millenials and gen xers age, they are forgetting they were kids once and are quickly becoming twice the son of hell authoritarians their parents were.

germinalphrase 9y ago
Take a breath. My students have full access to their devices during breaks. They have full access to their friends. They have significant opportunists throughout eh day to socialize. That's not really a problem. The ability to maintain some sustained attention to a task is a pretty fundamental developmental skill that I - as an educator - am tasked with helping my students develop. Many of my student display a compulsive behavioral need to be on their phones and this has very obvious and immediate impacts on their focus and learning. That's a problem that I don't see being solved at the high school level by casual/cultural policing of behavior during class.
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  The break thing is a reference to the ban. The second sentence of the article is "Children will be allowed to bring their phones to school, but not allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks." So the ban sounds like your current situation, plus a ban on using phones during breaks.
molsongolden 9y ago
Your comment seems to be lashing out vs. actually addressing the parent comment. The user you are responding to already acknowledged the students are "addicted" to being social and using social media because that is the nature of being a teenager. > "Of course, using phones in class is already against school policy, but it will remain and issue until I am able to take a phone away from a student. " They also noted that using a phone in class is against policy but they have no way to enforce this policy... which is their reason for supporting a ban.