Technology in Classroms

Caitlin Bridges

September 12, 2016

A3

        School is a place for learning and acquiring new and valuable information. So should cell phones be allowed in these learning environments? Right now, this is the topic of discussions for many schools around the nation. Cell phones in schools are seen either as inauspicious, or as a substantial learning tool. Based on my personal experiences, I believe cell phones do have the potential to be distracting and often have the ability to lessen one’s own thoughts, however, if limited and used right, the access of mobile devices could be effective towards the learning environment.

        It is hard to stay focused when you feel the buzz of a notification coming from your pocket. You become tempted to check your phone, and one notification leads to another, and finally you have wasted an hour checking your much “important” social media. This is a habit many teens face. I am guilty of this bad habit, and it could be difficult for me, along with many other students to stay on task, if cellphones are allowed to be used so freely in classes. With so much internet access and hundreds of thousands of games and apps to choose from on a tiny phone at your fingertips, the ability to concentrate can be exigent. Therefore, there is always the possibility  that  when cell phones are  introduced into classrooms, the potential of creating a  distraction for teachers and students will arise.

        Besides just becoming distracted, cell phones in class lead to the complication of students thinking for themselves less and less. With every answer in the palm of their hand on a nifty iPhone, when does the student ever get to develop their analytical reasoning and out-of-the box thinking? Google now serves as a student’s essential brain, and is diminishing one’s curiosity and developing serious laziness in teens. Students seem to rely solely on the web, browsing for answers, relying on numerous opinions, and no fact checking in this process.  With a mobile device available at school, it is easy to see why intellectual thoughts could be lost because of the easy access to unlimited data.