By Philip Yiga | January 24, 2017

Today, cell-phones are almost everywhere and many kids and teenagers own mobile-phones which wasn’t the case in the past. Cell-phones are of great use in our communities today and they have mostly helped to improve on the way humans communicate globally. However, cell-phones also have their own disadvantages most especially to kids who use them at school and there has actually been a public-debate against using cell-phones at school. All in all, cell-phones are great devices that have helped to change the lives of people today and even help kids to experience an awesome educational-experience than never before.

 

RELATED POST: Why Cell Phones Should Be Allowed In School

 

Pros of Cell Phones in Schools:

1. Cell-phones enable students to access the internet easily: with the use of cell-phones at school, students can easily access the internet in-order to get all the educational-content they need instantly when in the classroom. In fact, this even enables students to get answers to questions that they may feel uncomfortable to ask in the classroom thus improving on their learning-curve. All in all, cell-phones will enable students to make research on different topics without interrupting the classroom.

 

2. Cell-phones are easy to carry to school: students can easily remember to carry their mobile-phones to school than carrying textbooks and notebooks. In fact, this has saved students a lot of work involved in carrying textbooks or notebooks to school thus improving on the way students learn today.

 

3. Cell-phones save schools a lot of money on technological-equipment: with the use of cell-phones by students and teachers in classrooms, schools will be able to save a lot of money that they would have been spent of installing technological-equipment into classrooms. In fact, students and teachers can easily use cell phones to connect to a school-network inorder to gain access to all the educational-content they want during lessons. So, cell-phones have enabled schools to provide students with more advanced learning-techniques without investing a lot of money in installing technological-equipment.

 

4. Cell-phones enable students to learn outside school-hours: another great advantage of using cell-phones is that they enable students to continue learning or make research outside the classroom. This has actually enabled students to learn more things without the help of teachers when at school. On the other hand, students can even use cell-phones to make extensive research when at home and this actually saves schools a lot of money that they would have spent on providing students with textbooks to use when at home.

 

5. Cell-phones enables parents to contact and track their children easily when at school: with the use of cell-phones at schools today, parents can easily communicate with their kids when at school and this is actually a great thing. On top of that, most cell-phones today are equipped with a GPS-feature which enables parents to track the location of their children inorder to make sure that they are at school thus improving on their learning-routine.

 

6. Wider access to educational-content: with the use of cell-phones in schools, students can easily gain access to unlimited educational-content when in the classroom thus enabling them to learn more new-things than in the past. In fact, with the access to internet by using-cell-phones, students get exposed to different creative ideas outside the classroom thus making them more valuable citizens of the future.

 

7. Cell-phones make the teaching-learning process more fun: with the use of cell-phones in classrooms, teachers can easily show students illustrations and even students can even view these illustrations easily on their cell-phones thus making learning more interesting. In fact, cell-phones provide students with live videos, pictures and audio-clips which facilitate for easy learning thus making going to school more fun and exciting.

 

8. Cell-phones facilitate for social-learning amongst students: today, students can actually use different social-media platforms like facebook to share educational-information, thoughts and ideas on different topics. This is actually referred to as social-learning and it’s actually very important for students who shy in classrooms because such students will be able to ask question easily when using these social-media groups.

 

9. Students feel more comfortable using their cell-phones for learning at school: most students actually feel comfortable using their own cell-phones to study when at school than using the technological-equipment installed by schools. This is mainly because students will feel like they have less-control over school technological-equipment than their own cell-phones and at times they have to learn how to use certain devices installed at school which is a bit hectic.

 

10. Cell-phones promote independent learning in students: with the use of cell-phones in schools, students will actually be able to learn new-things independently without the help of teachers. This actually helps to improve on the learning-process of students without having to ask a lot of questions in a classroom environment. Additionally, independent-learning through the use of cell-phones and an internet-connection has enabled students to become more creative and innovative than in the past thus leading to the improvement in the way people live today.

 

11. Cell-phones prepare students for the future technological job-markets: using cell-phones in schools actually helps to prepare students for the future competitive job-market which is full of using technological-equipment. In fact, using cell-phones at school helps to equip students with some technological-skills like using social-media to communicate, configuring of networks and a lot more thus preparing them for the future technological job-market.

 

12. Easy storage and access to their class-work and notes: with the use of cell-phones in schools, students can easily store and access their class-work than in the past. In fact, cell-phones will enable students to become more organized since all their assignments and notes will be kept digitally and in one place thus making cell-phones a better choice than carrying textbooks to school.

 

13. Cell-phones facilitate for easy communication between teachers and students: with the use of cell-phones in schools, teachers can use certain online-apps to connect with students and even with parents thus making education more efficient and effective than never before. This implies that students can communicate with their teachers even after school and even parents can contact the school-administration easily inorder to know the performance of their kids at school.

 

14. Cell-phone technology engages students into the teaching-learning process: students actually love technology and this implies that using cell-phones at school will help to engage them into the teaching-learning process in the classroom than never before thus making education more exciting and fun.

 

15. Using cell-phones at school makes students more responsible: with the use of cell-phones at school, students can learn to take control of their devices and even make sure that they are working properly compared to using school technological-equipment. So, this instills a sense of responsibility amongst students at an early stage which is a great thing.

 

16. Easy delivery of eBooks by schools: if all students have cell-phones, then it will be much easier for schools to distribute eBooks to them using a school-network and this actually helps to save schools a lot of money that they would have spend on acquiring or printing new-textbooks for each student.

 

17. Cell-phones enable students to accomplish their class-work easily: with the usage of cell-phones at schools, students will be able to complete class-work or assignment easily since they will have instant access to a lot of educational-content while using their cell-phones. In fact, cell-phones will greatly inspire students to stay on a particular task until it’s completed thus improving on their learning-process.

 

Cons of Cell Phones in Schools:

1. Cause Distractions at school: with the usage of cell-phones at school, students can easily get distracted from their studies because cell-phones enable someone to gain access to a lot of unnecessary content and this in-turn makes it much easier for kids to lose focus when in the classroom. For example, if a student gets bored when a teacher is carrying-out lessons, then he/she (student) can easily pull-out their phone and begin playing games, chat on facebook or whatsapp and even do other distractive things. This means that some students won’t be able to pay attention to what is being taught in class if they go with cell-phones at school.

 

2. Cell-phones can be used for cheating exams in schools: students can easily use cell-phones to cheat exams when at school and this is possible especially if a student sneaks his/her cell-phone into the examination-room. In fact, this is a great challenge for schools today because they won’t be able to know whether the best students used their brains or technology-devices to score higher grades.

 

3. Harmful health-effects from use of cell-phones: the EPA is actually concerned about the long-term usage and exposure to mobile-devices by students in schools because such devices can give-off radiations which can be harmful to human-health. In fact, it’s for this reason the EPA has discouraged too-much exposure to mobile-devices by students when at school inorder to keep them living healthy. All in all, if students use mobile-devices at home then extra-exposure at school can be harmful to their health. In fact, mobile-devices have been linked to the rise of cancer today and that’s why it’s not healthy for children and even teachers to use cell-phones at all times when at school.

 

4. Access to inappropriate content: although schools may limit the availability of websites to be accessed by students when using a school-network, some students can still find loops in the school-network and gain access to inappropriate content like; pornography, online-games and a lot more thus causing a great distraction when at school. On top of that, some students can even decide to access the internet without using the school-network and this gives them access to all the inappropriate content they will be looking for.

 

5. Cyberbullying and child-predators: cyberbullying is actually an increasing online-issue today and this means that allowing students to go with cell-phones to school just accelerates this habit amongst them. On the other hand, there are also child-predators today who use online-networks to manipulate students. So, this implies that allowing students to use cell-phones at school puts them at a higher-risk of being attacked by child-predators.

 

6. Mobile devices disconnect students while at school: although some people say that cell-phones improve on communication of students at school, some people believe that they have just disconnected students from face-to-face communication and activities, nature and even from family-communication. In fact, today students use social-media platforms like facebook, twitter and whatsapp to communicate and this greatly disconnects them from the surrounding environment or community. Lastly, the use of cell-phones also limits on physical communication between teachers and students in a school-environment whereby this is not good when it comes to achieving an effective teaching-learning process.

 

7. Several cell-phones can overload a school-network: connecting too many cell-phones on a wireless school-network can actually overload it and even lead to high data-usage. This implies that a school will have to spend a lot of money on subscribing for unlimited data services. Additionally, if a lot of mobile devices are connected onto a school-network, then the network tends to slow down thus inconveniencing students and teachers that might be using that network.

 

8. Cell-phone technology increases on inequality within students at school: using cell-phones in schools has actually become a status-symbol for certain students thus creating a great division between the rich-kids and poor-kids. This has actually led to several wrangles within schools today than in the past.

 

9. Smartphones or network-enabled cell-phones are expensive: allowing students to go with cell-phones to school implies that parents are supposed to buy for their kids smartphones which are quite costly. In fact, some parents may not feel happy about paying for mobile-devices for use in classrooms because some schools include the cost on the school-fees thus making education more expensive. Lastly, some students may not be able to afford a good Smartphone for use at school thus leading to theft issues in schools.

 

10. Increased theft at school: when students go with their cell-phones to school, it increases on the possibility of theft whereby these mobile-phones can be easily stolen at school especially if a student is irresponsible. In fact, if a child loses a cell-phone at school then he/she will be very disappointed because they need to acquire a new-phone immediately. So, sending your child to school with an expensive cell-phone will actually make him/her a target for thieves and this even puts the child’s life at risk.

 

11. Cell-phones can interrupt lessons at school: some kids actually forget to turn-off their cell-phones during lessons and this means that if a cell-phone beeps or plays music during lessons then it will distract other students in the classroom thus affecting the teaching-learning process than never before.

 

12. Some school-apps may not be compatible with particular cell-phones: some schools have educational-apps that can be accessed by students while using cell-phones inorder to learn and collect class-work. However, not all cell-phones will be compatible with such school-networks and Apps thus inconveniencing some students at school.

 

13. Some students my resist using their mobile-devices for school-work: there are actually some students that want to use their cell-phones privately and not for use of school-activities and this actually makes implementing use of cell-phones at school very hard.

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REFERENCES:

• http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/tech-ed/pros-and-cons-of-allowing-digital-devices-in-the-classroom/
• http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/20-Pros-and-Cons-of-implementing-BYOD-in-schools
• http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1072022/pros-and-cons-of-mobile-phones-at-school
• http://cellphones.lovetoknow.com/Pros_of_Cell_Phones_in_School
• http://cellphones.lovetoknow.com/Cons_of_Cell_Phones_in_School