Mobile phones to be banned in all state primary and secondary schools from 2020

[Bri MT]

At my school we had the rules in the article (except only yr 11 & 12 students could use phones for educational purposes (teacher permission also required)) and I can guarantee you that we still had issues with distraction, cyberbullying etc. I don't think the answer is to just give up and say that there's no fixing it so students can do whatever but, as per Aaron's statements, consistency is definitely key; having a state policy means nothing if individual teachers don't enforce the rules.

Seems like a policy designed to look like the government is being proactive and making a difference.

[caffinatedloz]

Sorry to jump into this thread so late, but I am not at a state school and our school has decided to impliment the same policy for next year. While I can definitely see the merits in it, especially in the classroom, it still find the idea as a whole frustrating. Despite almost never taking my phone out of my locker, I still don't like the idea of being told what to do. Perhaps that's just the inner rebel in me.

However, I have genuine uses for my phone throughout the school day. The biggest thing is the ability to take pictures of the board when teachers have written something or to take photos of my pracs in science. When we were having a discussion about the phone ban I brought this up and a teacher told me that I could go to the IT department and ask to borrow a camera to take photos of my science pracs. I think that this is ridiculous because it will certainly be a waste of time. I know that this is one small issue and there would be many benefits, but honestly, teachers saying that they will never allow them in their classroom thoroughly frustrates me as they are purposefully blinding themselves to the benefits of technology, particularly technology that has photo taking capabilities.

[Ionic Doc]

Sorry to jump into this thread so late, but I am not at a state school and our school has decided to impliment the same policy for next year. While I can definitely see the merits in it, especially in the classroom, it still find the idea as a whole frustrating. Despite almost never taking my phone out of my locker, I still don't like the idea of being told what to do. Perhaps that's just the inner rebel in me.

However, I have genuine uses for my phone throughout the school day. The biggest thing is the ability to take pictures of the board when teachers have written something or to take photos of my pracs in science. When we were having a discussion about the phone ban I brought this up and a teacher told me that I could go to the IT department and ask to borrow a camera to take photos of my science pracs. I think that this is ridiculous because it will certainly be a waste of time. I know that this is one small issue and there would be many benefits, but honestly, teachers saying that they will never allow them in their classroom thoroughly frustrates me as they are purposefully blinding themselves to the benefits of technology, particularly technology that has photo taking capabilities.

Going to the IT department just to borrow a camera seems to be an immense waste of time and effort.
My school already bans mobile phones, however they are lenient (especially with senior students) who want to take photos of the whiteboard and stuff.
I feel like schools shouldn't completely ban it but rather make sure students use their phone for the right purposes. 

[caffinatedloz]

Going to the IT department just to borrow a camera seems to be an immense waste of time and effort.
My school already bans mobile phones, however they are lenient (especially with senior students) who want to take photos of the whiteboard and stuff.
I feel like schools shouldn't completely ban it but rather make sure students use their phone for the right purposes.

I agree, but I can see how difficult it is for teachers to enforce that they are being used for "the right purposes". They have enough trouble making sure we are doing the right thing on our laptops.

[Aaron]

It's an interesting one that's for sure.... you argue distraction, you then can also make a case for any device and its potential to distract (e.g. for BYOD/1 to 1)
you argue photos/privacy, devices can also take photos (in most instances) as well
you argue potential for cyberbullying, devices can also do that

While I support a restriction in terms of technology because jesus I see it on a daily basis the impact of distraction based on device use (the kids here are glued to their devices) I don't think a phone ban is the answer and I would say that this a kneejerk reaction from people in suits who have never taught in a classroom.

For context in my classes we have a HIGH rate of device/technology use along with earphone/headphone use. Our school has a policy that manages it and it's usually well enforced. I rarely see a mobile phone out in the yard etc. and if I do it's quickly addressed. If anything I think iPads/full devices are more of a problem than mobile phones (at least at my school) so the way to handle this is to have strong local policy that is well enforced, not some quickly whipped one that's mandatory for all.

Just an additional note as well - I can understand the issue about independence etc. but if you were caught on your phone at work doing irrelevant activities you'd be sanctioned as well just like you currently are at school. I dunno, I think policy is good when it's done right..... I relate this alot to uniform and the discussions about whether that's an appropriate thing to be doing at school (I think it is, by the way... primarily the work reason as above).

The other concern here is a legal one - a mobile phone is a personal device owned by the student which isn't subject to any sort of acceptable use agreement that has been signed by student/parent etc.. whereas devices are covered by it. Sure a teacher can confiscate a phone but requesting to unlock/view it goes beyond the scope of that. Thought i'd raise that too...... just incase it hasn't been considered by readers

However, I have genuine uses for my phone throughout the school day

Such as? Do you not have a device which can do this? The only reason I can think of that separates a phone and a device e.g. laptop is call capabilities and with that comes a legal issue in terms of school's duty of care. When teachers tell you that contact between parent/student has to go through the office, they're not doing it to be assholes, they're doing it to enact their duty of care requirements.

Despite almost never taking my phone out of my locker, I still don't like the idea of being told what to do. Perhaps that's just the inner rebel in me.

Authority will be around for decades to come, with more significant repercussions for failure to comply (e.g. loss of job/income).

[caffinatedloz]

Such as? Do you not have a device which can do this? The only reason I can think of that separates a phone and a device e.g. laptop is call capabilities and with that comes a legal issue in terms of school's duty of care. When teachers tell you that contact between parent/student has to go through the office, they're not doing it to be assholes, they're doing it to enact their duty of care requirements.

I understand that, but for me it's not the call capabilities of my phone the set it apart from my laptop. For one, it's the ability to take pictures. My laptop does have a camera on the front, but the pictures are such poor quality that I doubt I'd be able to use them for a scientific report or read the writing I took photos of. Just today, I was able to use my phone to take pictures of a worksheet that my teacher gave out while I was away and didn't have a spare copy of so that I could do that work tonight.
I also use my phone for some mental health related apps and I find it helpful to be able to use them if I want/need to. I wouldn't want to have to explain that to a random teacher. There are heaps of great apps for anxiety, and sometimes during school, spending five minutes on my phone in the bathroom on one of these apps and then going back to class if far more constructive to sitting in class for an hour, not being able to focus or doing any work and just waiting until the bell rings and I can go get some air.
While I understand that using phones in school makes like difficult for teachers, I don't believe that writing them off completely is useful as I think that there really are some legitimate benefits, although I can definitely see the other side. I think that my argument about this is probably quite selfish as I'm thinking about how a phone ban would affect me personally, but I still stand by what I said about phones having unique uses.

Authority will be around for decades to come, with more significant repercussions for failure to comply (e.g. loss of job/income).

At the end of the day, I will do whatever I am told to by authority. But if I think that what they are imposing is not well thought out, then I will explain why I think so. However, once I've said my piece I'm not going to walk into school and whip my phone out. I'll abide by the rules.

[DrDusk]

In all honesty I don't believe that phones should be banned =)

The reason being is in the classroom those that want to genuinely learn will listen and those that don't will be on their phone. I had my phone and laptop every lesson but I never went on my phone when the teacher was explaining a concept because I genuinely wanted to learn. However what I saw was when people did get their phone taken away, they ended up distracting the rest of the class. At least if they're on their phone the people who want to concentrate can. It was annoying when your sitting their trying to learn and others are just distracting you.

As for the cyber-bullying thing. I don't get it. I can't say I've particularly heard of anyone getting cyber-bullied at school, and I mean the bully can cyberbully someone from their phone at home too. I don't exactly follow how it prevents cyber-bullying.

[Aaron]

As for the cyber-bullying thing. I don't get it. I can't say I've particularly heard of anyone getting cyber-bullied at school, and I mean the bully can cyberbully someone from their phone at home too. I don't exactly follow how it prevents cyber-bullying.

It's essentially the equivalent of note passing in digital form. Sure, it can happen outside of school but for some kids school is (a/the only) safe place and we as teachers have to do everything we can to prevent cyberbullying. While preventative measures only go so far, every bit plays a part.

I can respect the fact that you haven't experienced it but from my personal experience it is real and it does happen. Maybe not infront of you or at your school, but elsewhere, absolutely.

Since my teaching is primarily middle years, I see and hear things all the time particularly hate messaging through social media. A lot of it is over the smallest things which have escalated but its enough to cause truancy and other risk factors to a student's education.

That's all i'll say about that since it's starting to veer off topic a bit, but cyberbullying definitely happens in a schooling environment and as mentioned above if we can provide at least one safe place for students where they don't have an opportunity to receive hate messages etc, then I think it's a small but meaningful step.

[Stormbreaker-X]

Lucky me, I am unaffected by this cuz I never use my phone during school. 
But I think phones should be allowed tho, I mean why not

[brothanathan]

We can't solve this dilemma if laptops can be used for the same motives. A better solution in terms of eliminating this "cyber-bullying" under school provisions, would be the implementation of the good ol' Macintosh (irony was not intended).

[DrDusk]

It's essentially the equivalent of note passing in digital form. Sure, it can happen outside of school but for some kids school is (a/the only) safe place and we as teachers have to do everything we can to prevent cyberbullying. While preventative measures only go so far, every bit plays a part.

I can respect the fact that you haven't experienced it but from my personal experience it is real and it does happen. Maybe not infront of you or at your school, but elsewhere, absolutely.

Since my teaching is primarily middle years, I see and hear things all the time particularly hate messaging through social media. A lot of it is over the smallest things which have escalated but its enough to cause truancy and other risk factors to a student's education.

That's all i'll say about that since it's starting to veer off topic a bit, but cyberbullying definitely happens in a schooling environment and as mentioned above if we can provide at least one safe place for students where they don't have an opportunity to receive hate messages etc, then I think it's a small but meaningful step.

Hmm wow I was not aware that people actually did this =(

Mostly the types of bullying I had seen were Verbal and Physical, and I mean you take away phones and  people will resort to bullying using words or physical contact, both of which just as bad if not worse.