Smartphone in the classroom

Why on earth should we allow students to carry cell phones to school? Seeing that many schools have introduced prohibitions, so why can we not simply get a government ban and thus get rid of the problem of unfocused and asocial students once and for all!

It might be tempting to use the sledge-hammer, but maybe it's still a good idea to stop and think about whether we are on the right path. Will students be better prepared for the future with a ban, is the question we must ask. Obviously there are many functions at a smartphone that can take the focus away from the teacher who is standing talking up at the blackboard. But I think I am not totally wrong when I say that students could have a lack of concentration before the invention of smartphone as well. I am a teacher, working at a school where cellphones are allowed, but like every other school we certainly have rules about the use. Even though some smart guys manage to have a peek at some snaps during my lessons, I don’t think the smartphone is the main reason if someone should have a lack of concentration. The mobile phone, however, can be a way to get students to focus better on the academic, because it offers new educational opportunities. The advantages of mobile, used properly, outweighs certainly drawbacks.

Think about what you use your mobile phone to - banking, social media, news, weather, photos and video, messages, translator, GPS, maps, music, call, calendar, buy tickets, notes, clock, seek and find answers to questions, email - mobile is simply, and without comparison, the most widely used tool and important information bank for most people today. Learning opportunities, which is embedded in these just over 100 grams with electronics, totally exceeds all the tens of pounds of textbooks students are through during the three years at secondary school - if used wisely. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come as a surprise that schools are on collision course with the society. Just think about when businesses hunt for workers who can collaborate, communicate, share experiences, and find creative solutions using all available means - in school we call it cheating! When it pops up a fantastic multi-tool – the smartphone - that can be used pedagogically in very many contexts, the school finds it dangerous and makes prohibitions against it.

In my music- and English classes I let my students use their smartphones if they first ask me. Examples on when applicable can be to quickly find answers to questions, translate words, take pictures and document their own work, record songs they compose and present, Kahoot-quiz, and so on. Yes, of course we use computers too, but different from high school, each one of our students in secondary doesn’t have her or his own computer. The smartphone is also better suited than the computer in some cases.

The students don’t talk to each other during the recesses, they just watch their screens! This is a widely used argument to introduce a ban. Certainly it might be like this, sometimes a small group of students is lost in their smartphones, other times many are. But may this have something to do with the activities the school offers students? Experiences from my own work is that organized activities like different kind of sports or playing chess reduces the number of visible smartphones among the students (another question is whether it is worse to play games together with your friends on a screen, than on a chess board?). Some schools have also introduced mobile-free zones, which means that students actually have to consider their mobile use. An important task for the school is to raise awareness among students that they actually have choices - by imposing bans we take from them the opportunity!

Several newspapers have recently been written about schools that have introduced mobile ban. These schools have indeed pointed out that they still occasionally let students use their phones in class, and that's good. But the signal effect is still negative since the words we are left with are ban, remove and clamp down on. The alternative would be to meet students at their home ground, discuss mobile use when the topic naturally emerge in lessons or breaks, and working with attitudes about where, when and how one should use mobile phones.

Education Act§ 1-1 tells us what the purpose of the school is. It says among other things that education should "... open doors to the world and the future ...", "... develop knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to cope with their lives and to participate in work and fellowship in the community ..." and "... think critically and act ethically ... ".

The curriculum “Kunnskapsløftet” (K06) describes five basic skills that should appear in all subjects in school, one of them is digital skills:

Digital skills mean being able to use digital tools, media and resources appropriate and responsible for solving practical tasks, collect and process information, create digital products and communicate. Digital skills also mean developing digital judgment through acquiring knowledge and good strategies for online use.

Digital skills are important prerequisites for further learning and active participation in a labor market and a constantly changing society. Digital developments have changed many of the premises for reading, writing, numeracy and verbal expressions. Therefore, digital skills are natural parts of the basis for learning activities both within and across disciplinary topics. This creates opportunities for new learning strategies, but also increases the demands for judgment.

From what the Education Act, and the digital skills say, a ban on mobile phone is such as walking backwards into the future blindfolded. The school is supposed to give students knowledge, skills and positive attitudes, so that they are prepared for the life that faces them in the future, a future that just gets more and more influenced by technology where mobile phones play a central role.