Blog Review:- Ben Johnson 'How to manage cell phones in the classroom'

Modern technology.....a saviour or a curse ? discuss........

As a newbie to the education world and a student teacher I was heartened to see that my concerns and frustration at students using mobile phones in the classroom whilst one is trying to teach them is a phenomenon experienced by many.  Ben Johnson in his blog tries to explain that what today's students are doing by being virtually physically attached to the mobile phones is no different to what the the Sony Walkman generation did. I remember it as if it were yesterday. A Walkman was a portable cassette recorder and if you could afford it, you could have a radio with it as well. According to Johnson his students liked to play music to themselves via earbuds, which by the way also excluded any other audible noise....in this case the teacher. The students enclose themselves in a cocoon of music and according to Johnson when asked to remove the earbuds, they inform him that the music helps them to study .....yeah ok ....pull the other one its got bells on it. The human brain can only focus on one thing at a time so the excuse is not a valid one but still the problem exists.

And if that is not enough you have the problem of texting. Johnson complains of being tired of students texting each other in the classroom, even whilst writing with one hand and texting underneath the desk with the other hand. Even to the extent that texting slang appears in his students assignments. I myself, have personally witnessed students sitting a desk or two away from each other texting to each other instead of paying attention to the lecture.Unfortunately, we cannot uninvent the mobile phone, it is here to stay. Johnson poses the question's 'How do you monitor and keep 30 phones busy doing productive work'? and 'What do you do with the few students that do not have phones' ? or do you have a completely phone free environment and be an ogre. The choices left are either to embrace a 'bring your own technology' or 'you take it  out and I take it away'.
     

Johnson goes further in his blog and discusses banning phones from schools and the logistical problem of enforcement. He quite rightly starts with the fact that whatever policy is enforced it must have the backing of the administration.  To me this is where the problem lies, Johnson, discusses where the problems lie but does not come to a conclusive conclusion. He appears to make an excuse that if you ban phones in the classroom then there will be an endless queue of repeat offenders being sent to the office. I disagree here, the simple solution is to set down rules BEFORE the start of the lecture and if necessary get the students to place their phones in a storage box out of their teach on the lecturers desk if they cannot be trusted to have the good manners not to use their phones during the lecture. However as he quite rightly stipulates it has to be backed up by your administration and also reinforced throughout the educational establishment by all concerned to create a level playing field. 

Many schools and educational establishments do not have rules regarding mobile phones. Johnson suggests that students who cause no problems with their phones should be allowed to use their phones outside the classroom. He also states that teachers should decide how much their students use their phones in class. Here he quite rightly states that this can be a significant issue and will then involve a struggle between the lecturer and the student, creating a significant discipline situation which impacts on the rest of the class and their learning too. it is therefore imperative that strict guidelines are established and followed from the first day. 

To conclude it is important in my view that you have to have a level playing field for all your students to have the SAME opportunity to learn in your lectures. If the lecture is distracted by one or more students using or playing with their mobile devices then firstly it distracts you and your ability to teach and continue with your lecture, secondly, and more importantly it distracts the students. Simply because you have interrupted your flow and the students have had their learning curve interrupted by you having to veer off course from teaching in order to chastise a pupil who does not want to conform because they have a diversion to attend to....namely a mobile device...whether it is to play a game, use twitter, answer a text, or Facebook someone during your lecture. This can also have a damaging effect on a student who has learning difficulties and who requires a quiet stable environment in which to learn.

 

 Johnson admits that as soon as he walks into a classroom and he sees earbuds and mobile phones out during a direct instruction lesson he sees it as a problem that needs to be corrected, I agree. Banning mobile phones can also produce better academic results according to a report in the guardian,  resulting in an extra week of classes over a students school year. If that's not a good result of managing students mobile phone habits I don't know what is.