Proactive Ways Teachers Are Using Phones In The Classroom
Teachers are now using phones in the classroom for educational purposes. The Educational Code of California frowns upon the use of phones on campus. Yet many teachers are taking a more proactive look on the use of phones.
November 11, 2017
Teachers are now using phones in the classroom for educational purposes. Teachers are using online programs on the phone other than just using Google Search. Regardless of if the Educational Code frowns upon the use of phones at school, teachers have decided to utilize cell phones and the information they offering a beneficial way.
Teachers still do let students use the phones for research with Google Search, with the main reason being that in the future most research will be done on the student’s phones. Mrs. Lord, an English teacher at Don Lugo, states “If we are trying to teach them to have skills that will help them in college and in the real world, then we have to acknowledge in those scenarios a majority of their research is going to happen in the moment with their phone.” Students need to learn how to do research on their phones to be able to succeed.
One main fear of teachers is that the students are going to take advantage of the freedom of using phones in class. Mrs. Lord comments in regard to this issue, “Abuse of phones is, for the most part, a result of not establishing expectations early on,” continuing with, “I find that if it wasn’t their phones, it would be doodling on a piece of paper, or carving into a desk, or painting their fingernails, distraction is going to happen regardless.” Teachers need to be proactive and teach students how to use phones effectively instead of just taking away the phones completely.
The programs that are used on the phones tend to be Newsela, because of Mrs. Deming’s recommendation for all the English teachers use Newsela. Other programs that are used include, but are not limited to, Google Classroom, Office365 and Remind101. So many of these programs online have made it easier for students to learn and for teachers to teach in many cases.
Another concern for teachers is that students might have too much information, some of which is false information. Mrs. Lord attests this by saying, “I think we cannot complain as teachers about students not knowing what to do with information, and what information is good if we are not willing to teach them.” Some teachers fail to teach students how some information is factual, while some is false.
Some teachers believe that the Educational code should be changed to be less strict on phone restriction while others believe that it should stay the same. “Current ED code is to protect the students, yet it is unrealistic, we cant make the technology go away,” Mrs. Lord continues with, “we may need to update the ED Code to teach students how to use them respectfully.” Many students use the phone to text when they feel they have downtime, yet when there is no downtime, students feel rushed, so there may have to be a middle ground.
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