6 ms·

Schools that ban mobile phones see better academic results

18 points by frostmatthew 11y ago

alttab 11y ago
I doubt this would transfer to an individual parenting level. If your student is the only one in the class without a cell phone, there is still plenty to distract them. School-wide bans would clearly be most effective.
stegosaurus 11y ago
Err. Schools without academia would see better sporting results. I know that I performed worse in school due to computing. Longer term that seemed to work out better for me. (horrendous secondary school results, decent college and university, because I was lucky enough for the gatekeepers to see past marks on a sheet.) We need to stop this idea of grading people. Really. It is not reasonable to bin people at an early age and assign them to a class based on this.
- ende 11y ago
  Agree completely. A life time of privilege is codified in a series of classifications that have absolutely zero predictive value of a person's intellect or capacity for learning. Cue the refrain: "but we need SOMETHING to differentiate students by"
asadlionpk 11y ago
I think children in that age shouldn't be given a cellphone. A shared iPad at home is much better.
- detaro 11y ago
  For young kids I can see the arguments, but for 16 year olds I think the benefits are worth a lot.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
tobylane 11y ago
Schools where the students and parents don't revolt against a phone ban probably have better motivated students.
fwn 11y ago
I think this is not surprising. After all, "academic results" in schools are measured by your grades, or: how much you participated in the given courses. Smartphone usage leads you away from that curriculum, grades therefore may fall. But this doesn't say much about your knowledge gain. I can only refer to my German experience. In a single "Wikipedia night" (I had a lot of those) I learned more on let's say geography than in the entire 14 years of school. (With ca. 45 minutes a week in time allocation) That said my grades were probably much worse than they could've been but technology enabled me to fight back the outrageous forced inefficiency we call school.

18 points by frostmatthew 11y ago

I doubt this would transfer to an individual parenting level. If your student is the only one in the class without a cell phone, there is still plenty to distract them. School-wide bans would clearly be most effective.

stegosaurus 11y ago

Err. Schools without academia would see better sporting results. I know that I performed worse in school due to computing. Longer term that seemed to work out better for me. (horrendous secondary school results, decent college and university, because I was lucky enough for the gatekeepers to see past marks on a sheet.) We need to stop this idea of grading people. Really. It is not reasonable to bin people at an early age and assign them to a class based on this.

ende 11y ago
Agree completely. A life time of privilege is codified in a series of classifications that have absolutely zero predictive value of a person's intellect or capacity for learning. Cue the refrain: "but we need SOMETHING to differentiate students by"

asadlionpk 11y ago

I think children in that age shouldn't be given a cellphone. A shared iPad at home is much better.

detaro 11y ago
For young kids I can see the arguments, but for 16 year olds I think the benefits are worth a lot.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

tobylane 11y ago

Schools where the students and parents don't revolt against a phone ban probably have better motivated students.

fwn 11y ago

I think this is not surprising. After all, "academic results" in schools are measured by your grades, or: how much you participated in the given courses. Smartphone usage leads you away from that curriculum, grades therefore may fall. But this doesn't say much about your knowledge gain. I can only refer to my German experience. In a single "Wikipedia night" (I had a lot of those) I learned more on let's say geography than in the entire 14 years of school. (With ca. 45 minutes a week in time allocation) That said my grades were probably much worse than they could've been but technology enabled me to fight back the outrageous forced inefficiency we call school.