TECH EDUCATION

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Cell Phones In Schools

By Philip Yiga | February 14, 2017

With all the technological-advancements of today, cell-phones are one of the best technologies that have become essential in our lives and it’s actually very hard for most people to live without using cell-phones since they make communication easy and faster than never before. In fact, even school are now allowing students to go with their cell-phones into classrooms because they can actually play a big role in the learning process although some students tend to use their cell-phones for wrong-purposes. On the other hand, most smartphones today can easily access the internet and this means that they can be used for research-purposes but schools should also consider putting in place rules on how to use cell-phones at school inorder to achieve effective results from students since some students may use these devices for selfish-reasons like entertainment while in the classroom and this can be bad because it creates distractions thus affecting students grades in the long-run. All, in all, below are some of the Pros and Cons of using cell-phones in schools and I think they will be of great help to both teachers and students:

Advantages of using cell-phones in school:

Easy and fast communication: parents actually need to stay in touch with their children while at school and this can actually be achieved by allowing students to go with cell-phones at school. In fact, cell-phones make communication very simple and fast than never before and students can even use their cell-phones to carryout group-discussion over online educational social-networks thus helping them to learn more new things easily and conveniently since they can ask different questions anonymously than when in the classroom. On the other hand, even teachers and students can easily communicate while using cell-phones whereby teachers can use text-messages to send a simple assignment to their students outside school-hours.

Facilitate for mobile-learning: with the use of cell-phones in schools, students can actually learn from anywhere at any time even when outside the classroom. in fact, today some students can attend virtual-classrooms while using smartphones that have been connected over the internet and the fact is that online-learning is becoming very popular than never before. On the other hand, advanced smartphones with large-screens, great-resolutions and good-storage can be used to store electronic-books that can later be read by students when not at school. Lastly, mobile-learning applications like piazza.com allow teachers to create virtual-classrooms and even assign coursework’s to their students while using smartphones and this has actually made education very convenient and efficient than never before.

Act as a researching-tool: advanced cell-phones can be used for research-purposes and this actually makes them ideal for students who do courses that require field-work or researching. In fact, smartphones can take pictures, create reports using word-processor applications and even submit data to school-networks. In fact, smartphones will also enable students to make research on different topics online as long as they have an internet-connection and this has actually helped to improve on the learning-process today.

Access to instant answers: with the use of smartphones coupled with internet-connectivity, students can easily and instantly gain access to answers of different questions without even asking their teachers while in the classroom. In fact, this gives students a chance to get answers to questions that they may feel uncomfortable to ask while in a classroom environment. For example; if a teacher uses a technical-term that you don’t understand then a student can use his/her Smartphone to make research and get answers to that term discretely without interrupting a classroom-environment.

Wider access to educational-content: with the use of smartphones in school, students will be able to gain access to a lot of educational-content that they may not have received during classes/lecturers. On top of that, the internet exposes students to world of new, creative ideas that are outside a classroom environment like; students can learn new languages, new-games and even teach themselves about different topics as long as they have access to the internet.

Easy access to educational media-content: smartphones actually provide students with quick and easy access to educational media-content like tutorials, picture-illustrations, audio-clips and a lot more. This will help to enhance on the learning-process of students while in a classroom environment. In fact, research shows that students learn faster and better with the help of educational-media like videos, audio-clips, picture-slides and a lot more.

It promotes social-learning: the use of cell-phones in schools actually promotes social-learning amongst students whereby they can easily share information, ideas and thoughts on different subjects over a social-media network. In fact, with proper focus and attention, students will be able to learn a lot of new things faster and conveniently than never before. However, you should know that social-media has its own disadvantages like distraction of students and a lot more.

Saves schools a lot of money that would have been spent of technological-advancements: allowing students and teachers to use cell-phones at school for educational-purposes is actually a cost-effective way for schools to save-up a lot of money that would have been spent on implementing technological-advancements into classrooms like projectors, equipping teachers and students with laptops and a lot more. This is because every student and teacher will have to carry their own Smartphones to school and then use them for educational-purposes while in a classroom-environment.

It teaches students to be more responsible: the use of cell-phones in schools actually helps to make students become more responsible since they will have to learn how to take care of their own devices compared to when using school-equipment. In fact, it will be up to the student to protect and take good care of his/her cell-phone while at school thus saving schools a lot of trouble and work. All in all, allowing cell-phones in schools actually helps to instill a sense of responsibility amongst students thus making them better citizens of the future.

Improved relationships students and teachers: with the use of cell-phones at school, teachers can use certain online-apps to connect with students and this actually helps to improve on the teacher-student relations at school. additionally, teachers can easily send coursework and even students can also ask teachers different questions easily while using text-messages or different mobile-apps when at school. In fact, students feel free to communicate with teachers via text-messages and this even gives teachers a chance to help students on a personal-basis.

Cell-phones engage students into the learning-process: the use of cell-phones in school actually helps to actively engage students into the teaching-learning process because technology actually makes students eager and more excited to learn new things than old-methods of teaching. In fact, cell-phones can provide students with educational tutorials, audio-clips, picture-slides and a lot more which actually make learning more fun and effective while in a classroom environment.

Increased motivation of students while at school: the use of cell-phones in schools actually helps to encourage students stay focused on a particular task until it’s completed. In fact, there are a lot of cool and exciting educational mobile-apps that will help to keep students motivated while learning at school hence leading to an improvement in the performance of students who study in schools that allow the use of mobile-phones in classrooms.

Act as a learning-aid: cell-phones actually act as learning-aid in schools whereby most smartphones can use various educational-applications that can be used in a classroom environment. In fact, today smartphones can run programs found on laptops/desktop-computers like word-processing, internet-connection and a lot more. This implies that students will be able to make research on different topics and even read e-books while using cell-phones at school. Additionally, teachers can use smartphones to provide students with coursework and carryout group discussions outside the classroom-environments.

Provide students with different reminder-apps while at school: cell-phones are actually equipped with different reminder applications like; a calendar, clock and reminder-feature whereby these apps help to let students time themselves during school-hours so that they can be able to-do anything on time.

Easy tracking of students when at school through GPS-tracking: most smartphones are actually equipped with GPS-trackers and these can be of great help to teachers and parents in case they need to keep track of students while at school. In fact, GPS-trackers will enable parents to know their children’s whereabouts during school-hours and they will help teachers track-down a student who has gone missing during school-hours.

It can be used for emergency purposes: allowing students to use cell-phones at school actually enables parents to make contact easily in case there is an emergency. In fact, with cell-phones students can easily contact their parents, teachers or police in case an emergency arises while at school.

Disadvantages of using cell-phones in school:

Cause distractions at school: young people can easily get distracted by cell-phones because these devices can do a lot of things like playing music, games, connecting to social-media sites and a lot whereby this makes it much easier for someone to lose focus while in the classroom. In fact, this has made it difficult for some students to learn new things while at school because they use cell-phones for other purposes and that why it’s recommended for schools to put in place strict on how to use cell-phones while in classroom.

Increased cheating of tests and exams at school: today, students can actually sneak cell-phones in classrooms during tests or exam-time inorder to cheat. In fact, smartphones enable students to search for answers online in real-time while doing exams/tests and this has actually led to the production of lazy students but with higher-grades which is not fair. So, it’s recommended for schools to thoroughly check students to ensure that they don’t enter with cell-phones when going for exams/tests.

Increased theft in schools: allowing students to go with cell-phones to school actually increases on the theft levels whereby students with expensive cell-phones are most vulnerable to theft. Additionally, some bad students may decide to break into lockers of other students in case they notice that they left a cell-phone inside it and this actually leads to destruction of school-property and theft. So, schools should consider putting in place strict rules on how to handle cell-phone thieves in schools and also students should consider taking extra-care for their cell-phones when at school.

Easy access to inappropriate content by students: with use of cell-phones in schools, students most especially teenagers are more likely to gain access to inappropriate content like pornography and this can actually create a great distraction if seen by other students in the same classroom. Additionally, students can even use cell-phones to take inappropriate pictures while at school and then share them over the internet inorder to get attention for others.

Cell-phones are expensive: cell-phones like smartphones are very expensive to buy and this implies that some students may fail to acquire their own cell-phones to use while at school. On top of that, even some parents may not have extra-money to spend on buying a Smartphone for their kids and this can actually create a great line between the poor and rich kids while at school.

Increased addiction to cell-phones: with use of cell-phones in schools and at home, most students have actually become addicted to using cell-phones and this has actually affected their social-life and behavior while at school. In fact, some students spend most of their time on cell-phones chatting with friends, playing-games and doing a lot more things that are not related to education and this affects their overall performance at school in the long-run.

Cyberbullying in school: with every students equipped with a cell-phone at school, you should expect to experience cyberbullying issues at a certain point. In fact, cyberbullying is a form of online-bullying which involves one students sending text-messages or images that irritate the other students inorder to exploit them while at school. So, it’s for this reason that schools are advised to put in place rules that handle students involved in cyberbullying cases.

Note: All in all, cell-phones play a great role in schools today whereby they have helped to improve on the performance students and have even led to the creation of more innovative and creative people. However, cell-phones also have several disadvantages and that’s why some schools are still refusing the use of cell-phones by students while at school.

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