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My thoughts as a High School teacher: I have tried[1] to allow students to have their phones, teach them to use their phones responsibly, etc. It doesn’t work.

My thoughts as a High School teacher: I have tried[1] to allow students to have their phones, teach them to use their phones responsibly, etc. It doesn’t work. They are banned in my class. I’m just a single teacher with basically no budget. I can’t compete with giant corporations that spend millions on design, UX, UI, etc. [1] Also, technically trying to teach kids to use their phones responsibly (or even generically teaching them how to be responsible adults) isn’t legal state standard for any of my subjects so I could get yelled at by parents or admin for doing it and I would have no recourse. It’s unlikely to happen out, but it is something admin can use if they don’t like you and want to nail you on something.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago
It's not only competing with the addictive nature of smartphone apps, but competing with a child's interests too. Personal anecdote, but, going to school and learning stuff was more about discipline than enjoyment, that only came later on subjects in college I actually found interesting. But I do support that method of education, and I also support a ban on smartphones by extension.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > I also support a ban on smartphones by extension I support a ban during class. Between classes, however, it seems fine to let students co-ordinate extra-curricular activities on their phones.
  - DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago
    Kids standing around checking phones or kids talking to each other. That the basic choice. The trade off of some small convieneice seems worth while. If hadn't thought about it much, mobile phone didn't exist when I was at school. However I recently visited a school as a prospective parent and they had a strict no phone policy. Locker or lose it. After listening to the principle talk about the problems they had with bullying, distractions, social status, I'm supportive. I can see that not being able to co-ordinate activities could be a non-trivial inconvenience, though.
skate22 8y ago
In college if i was goofing off on my phone during lecture I would likely pay for it on an exam. You could try silently writing down which days you saw a student on their phone & which days you taught the specific subject material. Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone" You would also then have a nice report for parent student meetings, and the parents can do the enforcing
- Yoric 8y ago
  > Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone" In my experience, by the time you realized you failed the exam, it's often too late to start learning all the things you didn't think you needed to learn. Which is also one of the reasons for which I hated exams as a teacher.
  - skate22 8y ago
    I was thinking the first couple would be a learning experience and kids might curve their behavior over time. (Maybe this was a terrible idea lol)
- Symbiote 8y ago
  Except the general purpose of school is for the children to be educated, not to make a smart comment when they fail an exam.
  - skate22 8y ago
    It was just a thought. I feel like the teacher should not be tasked with policing phone useage, but teach kids to take personal responsablity for their actions / education. Maybe this wouldnt be effective, i just thought after one or two of these exams kids might take initiative to not use their phone as much. I was not imagining a passive agressive one liner to the students, but i understand how it sounded that way lol
- 8y ago
fossuser 8y ago
When I was a student I didn't care about the ban in class - seemed reasonable to me and generally fair. The rules that bothered me were the ones I thought were unfair or didn't make sense - not being able to use the phone in the hallway or between classes to call a parent/organize something later in the day. We had teachers that would grab it out of your hand and take it from you. Our school also had an 'upstairway' and a 'downstairway' though where you'd get yelled out for going down the upstair way and have to lap the building to get to the downstairway though so they weren't really about reason.
- magnetic 8y ago
  > Our school also had an 'upstairway' and a 'downstairway' though where you'd get yelled out for going down the upstair way and have to lap the building to get to the downstairway though so they weren't really about reason. It may seem like no reason to you, but I've witnessed a much higher flow of people when the direction is set and nobody goes "against the current". This is one mistake I made the first time I went to Japan: I was going "against the current" at the train station and clueless me was wondering why it was taking so much effort for me to make progress... Even entrances to some public bathrooms now have a divider that splits people entering from people exiting (you can see this at airports sometimes).
  - fossuser 8y ago
    Yeah but when you have 3min to get to your next class (or you get detention), you can't run, hallways are crowded, and you have to walk across the building to get to your class that's right downstairs it feels a bit kafkaesque. We also weren't allowed to talk during lunch for half of it.
    - lostlogin 8y ago
      > We also weren't allowed to talk during lunch for half of it. You’re giving me ideas - a child who likes to chat and isn’t particularly interested in food can draw out a meal for an eternity.
HIPisTheAnswer 8y ago
No teachers ever taught me as fast as a computer can today. State school are an anachronism.
- tonysdg 8y ago
  Out of curiosity, how would you say you "learned how to learn", so to speak? Did it just come naturally to you? Was it a parent who taught you?
- PhasmaFelis 8y ago
  Can you cite studies showing that unsupervised online education is more effective than supervised/classroom?

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

It's not only competing with the addictive nature of smartphone apps, but competing with a child's interests too. Personal anecdote, but, going to school and learning stuff was more about discipline than enjoyment, that only came later on subjects in college I actually found interesting. But I do support that method of education, and I also support a ban on smartphones by extension.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> I also support a ban on smartphones by extension I support a ban during class. Between classes, however, it seems fine to let students co-ordinate extra-curricular activities on their phones.
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 8y ago
  Kids standing around checking phones or kids talking to each other. That the basic choice. The trade off of some small convieneice seems worth while. If hadn't thought about it much, mobile phone didn't exist when I was at school. However I recently visited a school as a prospective parent and they had a strict no phone policy. Locker or lose it. After listening to the principle talk about the problems they had with bullying, distractions, social status, I'm supportive. I can see that not being able to co-ordinate activities could be a non-trivial inconvenience, though.

skate22 8y ago

In college if i was goofing off on my phone during lecture I would likely pay for it on an exam. You could try silently writing down which days you saw a student on their phone & which days you taught the specific subject material. Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone" You would also then have a nice report for parent student meetings, and the parents can do the enforcing

Yoric 8y ago
> Then when students get it wrong on a test that you grade you can add a comment along the lines of "this was covered on day X when you were on your phone" In my experience, by the time you realized you failed the exam, it's often too late to start learning all the things you didn't think you needed to learn. Which is also one of the reasons for which I hated exams as a teacher.
- skate22 8y ago
  I was thinking the first couple would be a learning experience and kids might curve their behavior over time. (Maybe this was a terrible idea lol)
Symbiote 8y ago
Except the general purpose of school is for the children to be educated, not to make a smart comment when they fail an exam.
- skate22 8y ago
  It was just a thought. I feel like the teacher should not be tasked with policing phone useage, but teach kids to take personal responsablity for their actions / education. Maybe this wouldnt be effective, i just thought after one or two of these exams kids might take initiative to not use their phone as much. I was not imagining a passive agressive one liner to the students, but i understand how it sounded that way lol
8y ago

fossuser 8y ago

When I was a student I didn't care about the ban in class - seemed reasonable to me and generally fair. The rules that bothered me were the ones I thought were unfair or didn't make sense - not being able to use the phone in the hallway or between classes to call a parent/organize something later in the day. We had teachers that would grab it out of your hand and take it from you. Our school also had an 'upstairway' and a 'downstairway' though where you'd get yelled out for going down the upstair way and have to lap the building to get to the downstairway though so they weren't really about reason.

magnetic 8y ago
> Our school also had an 'upstairway' and a 'downstairway' though where you'd get yelled out for going down the upstair way and have to lap the building to get to the downstairway though so they weren't really about reason. It may seem like no reason to you, but I've witnessed a much higher flow of people when the direction is set and nobody goes "against the current". This is one mistake I made the first time I went to Japan: I was going "against the current" at the train station and clueless me was wondering why it was taking so much effort for me to make progress... Even entrances to some public bathrooms now have a divider that splits people entering from people exiting (you can see this at airports sometimes).
- fossuser 8y ago
  Yeah but when you have 3min to get to your next class (or you get detention), you can't run, hallways are crowded, and you have to walk across the building to get to your class that's right downstairs it feels a bit kafkaesque. We also weren't allowed to talk during lunch for half of it.
  - lostlogin 8y ago
    > We also weren't allowed to talk during lunch for half of it. You’re giving me ideas - a child who likes to chat and isn’t particularly interested in food can draw out a meal for an eternity.

HIPisTheAnswer 8y ago

No teachers ever taught me as fast as a computer can today. State school are an anachronism.

tonysdg 8y ago
Out of curiosity, how would you say you "learned how to learn", so to speak? Did it just come naturally to you? Was it a parent who taught you?
PhasmaFelis 8y ago
Can you cite studies showing that unsupervised online education is more effective than supervised/classroom?