I chose to analyze the article “Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cellphone use” by Nadine Yousif. I thought that this article was written to an older audience, like students parents and grand parents who would be reading it thinking, wow that’s such a great idea. No offence to those who believe that it is, however I think it past time for teachers to welcome technology, including cell phones into the classroom. Yousif says “Its just another attempt at the seemingly impossible: separating teens from their smartphones”, in reference to a teacher who decided to lock his students phones in bags that can only be opened with a special device. Perhaps we shouldn’t try to go against the culture, or against what is normative for teens. Instead I think we should shift the focus from separating students from their smartphones, to integrating them in meaningful ways. The idea of banning cellphones in schools and classrooms is regressive in todays society.
Cellphones are a powerful tool that allow us to have access to the world at our fingertips. We have a wealth of knowledge in our hand, it is a library, a thesaurus, it allows us to connect to experts and thinkers in all fields, as well as have social connections and PLN without much effort. Teachers should welcome such an incredible learning tool and integrate it into their pedagogy and teaching practice. Doug Ford also suggests in a citation from the article that schools should have a phone ban to maximize learning time. I don’t think this will help math scores or school performance from students. I think it is not reflective of the real word. I think that having hard lines like a ban only makes students use their phones secretively, and when that’s the case they will never use them as a learning tool. No student is going to sneak on their phone and risk getting in trouble to look up information or fact check. Even the teacher who used a less severe method and had students put their phones in a bag that had Velcro (as a deterrent due to the noise) strikes me as a very authoritarian approach. This reminds me of an industrial teaching model where students are workers and the teacher is the rigid supervisor. I think teaching approaches are moving away from this model and becoming more student centered, and a student centered model considers students needs and learning preferences.
As a student in high school I remember having a total phone ban. If (or should I say when) a teacher caught you using your phone they would take it away and bring it to the office. We never were allowed to use our phones during class, nor did we have computers anywhere except the library (no tablets either). We were unable to access any information outside our often dry text books. As a student I find researching subjects, and looking at examples online very beneficial for a deeper understanding, and for idea generation. Sometimes when I don’t know where to start a quick google search helps me, as I am a visual learner. Also, even though we didn’t use our phones for education we all would use them to text as soon as we felt the teacher wasn’t looking. Due to the fact that they were banned I don’t think they were used to their potential.
My associate teacher in a grade 8 classroom had a great system going for appropriate use of technology. He had made a pouch at the back of the room where each student had a slot for their phone with their name on it. Students put their phones in the slot during direct instructional time. When he had them working on an activity or looking up information they were allowed to go and get them and put a orange piece of paper in their slot. There where times were he would ask them to keep their phones in the pouch, and he would make some keep their phone away if they abused the privilege. I found that students were very respectful, and this system worked well. My AT was aware that they may check a few texts or Instagram, however they did not take advantage of that. My AT was very engaged with his students and would walk around interacting with them during seat work. This classroom did not have computers or enough tablets for every student. Much of the research and information gathering they did was on their phones and with a handful of tablets. I think his classroom was a great example of what student led learning looks like. In my future classroom I would like to follow a similar structure. I would also have an ongoing conversation with my students about being polite while being tech savvy. I do think its rude to be on your phone while someone is talking to you, but if the teacher is done talking and the student is engaged in learning, tech and phones can aid and engage students in the process!
Tabitha Klein
I decided to do a rant style video on some initial thoughts I had while reading the article.
#rantandrave