Can’t be up to the teacher to enforce
From an email:
The lines between technology in the schools and using personal cellular devices have become fuzzy. There are many ways to allow students to use technology in the classroom without making cell phones permissible at all times. Based on my personal observations and conversations with teachers, cell phones, for the most part, are a mere distraction in the classroom. It is not realistic for classroom teachers to try to monitor the use of the personal devices (face it…..parents do not even do an effective job of this let alone having 30 students at the same time) so therefore, rampant abuse of cell phones occurs on a daily basis.Think about a teacher has a decision to make: Do I monitor what the students are accessing on line or do I focus on the topic I am suppose to cover in today’s lesson? Because educators have many more important things to focus on than what and when the students are using cellular devices, cellular use during instructional time is used and abused. However, making rules and regulations that the educators have to enforce is not fair to them and will only take further time away from actual instruction. Although I do not have a simple solution, I am confidant that the introduction of cellular devices into the classroom has truly negatively impacted classroom instruction. A system must be in place to 1. provide technology in the classroom that students use for a specific assignment 2. Provide rules for the use of cellular devices that the classroom instructor will not have to be responsible for implementing and monitoring. In other words, if students want to use their cellular phones during breaks okay but there must be other ways for them to have access to technology without having to use cellular devices. Ask the average parent how many texts they receive from their child during the day? Or how many things their child orders from “online stores” during the day. Absolutely out of control.
