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Jenna Suggs

Professor Barnes

English 1201

4 April 2019

Are teachers doing enough to keep students phones from becoming a distraction?

According to a 2016 survey, today 435,500 students in kindergarten through twelfth

grade have access to their own smartphones. Smartphone use begins to increase steadily as grade

goes up (“Opposing Viewpoints”). The rate of cell phone ownership among students in the

United States has increased rapidly in the past four years. Cell phones are a huge part of life in

the 21st century today. We often question whether or not schools are protecting children enough

from the dangers of allowing cellular devices in class. These “dangers” include the cell phones

being a distraction to learning, the start of cyber bullying, mental and social health risks,

cheating, and other less talked about issues such as if an intruder were to come in, the students

could lead the intruder to them by sharing their location and so on. I would like to know more

about the schools policy on cell phones, and how effective they have been thus far.

Growing up, I watched as the mass increase in the use of technology and cell phones

effected individuals life’s more and more, including my own. Cell phone ownership rates have

gone up rapidly in students in the US in just a few years and this has inspired me to want to learn

more about how cell phone use has affected the learning environment and what schools are doing

to protect their students. This topic of interest has had a massive impact on people’s day to day

lives. Cell phone use has mainly affected students in school and their willingness to learn. I think

that schools can be in control of the student’s cell phone usage and by setting rules and engaging

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students, learning will be a high priority for students again. This topic has many counterarguments

that follow along with it, and I am not opposed to all. In some ways, I do understand why teachers

and parents may see students having their devices in school as a negative and unsafe thing. What

I already know about this topic is that the mass increase in technology usage among students has

had an impact on schools in ways that are good but also in ways that are bad.

When I was in elementary school and half way through middle school I did not yet have

technology access to myself yet. We had computers at school of course, but we only used them for

research projects or making presentations. I was an eager to learn new things student. I loved going

to school and was ready to learn something new each day. Soon, I got my very own iPhone as well

as almost everyone else in school did. At that time, I noticed that I was not learning as well in

school. Our cell phones have become a huge distraction. When the cell phone ownership increased,

it had begun a big issue for all student’s willingness to pay attention. Schools have now set policies

when it comes to allowing students to have cell phones at school. My school added a policy

towards cell phones and slowly my eagerness to learn started to come back.

Since the mass increase of smartphone ownership among students, according to my

research, schools began to think of ways students could be able to bring their smartphones to school

for different learning purposes, rather than them bringing their phones just to be distracted by them

during class. Many schools established a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. This policy is

where students are able to bring and use their own cellphones in class, but only under the strict

rules stated in the policy. This BYOD policy also includes the disciplinary action that will take

place if they do not obey the schools guidelines on cell phones, consequences will be taken place.

For example, Pymatuning Valley School district added a BYOD policy to their school and included

it on their schools website listing the rules as well as the consequences for not obeying the rules.

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By adding this policy, schools are showing that devices in schools can be manageable in class.

Adding smartphones into the learning environment with the bring-your-own-device (BYOD)

policies can save so much money for schools, and makes sure that every student has access to an

internet device (“Opposing Viewpoints”). With this policy set in place, the school does not have

to spend a fortune buying a device for every single student, they will only need to purchase a few

for the students who don’t own their own smartphones.

There was a point where schools discussed banning cell phones, this did not work out for

many reasons. In the article “Allowing Cell Phones in Schools Impacts the Learning Experience”,

Author Tim walker shares that cell phones are evolving and that they aren’t going away anytime

soon so why not put them to good use (Walker). “If the school tried to impose a ban, that’s how I

would spend my day. What a waste of time and energy,” Teacher Chris Davis states in the article

in which writer Tim Walker interviews teachers on cell phone use in class (Walker).

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Fig. 1. This chart shows the percentage of 12-17-year-old students in 2004-2008 who have

ownership of their own cell phone. (Older teens 1).

As you can see in figure one, the rate of cell phone ownership in teens has gone up dramatically

for each age as the years go on. This graph stops at 2008 and I am sure the percentage would keep

going up if the graph would continue. More and more children are getting cell phones at an earlier

age, so keeping them completely away from children at school is almost impossible.

One of the more intense dangers of allowing students to bring cell phones to schools, is

cyberbullying. Many parents as well as students fear of bullying, and by allowing children to bring

their cell phones into school just adds onto another form of harassment that could happen to

students. In the article “Cyberbullying” written by Gale, a Cengage Company, they explain “Many

schools have created new policies specifically designed to address cyberbullying. Similarly, many

US states have updated their definitions of criminal harassment to include cyberbullying and

attacks made via electronic media.”(Cyberbullying). What parents do not realize is that most

cyberbullying happens more so at home than at school and that they are expected to also play a

role in the prevention and reporting of cyberbullying activity.

The school can only do so much, their main job is to teach. Parents should be monitoring

what their children are doing on the internet and they should teach their children rules to using

social media. This article also states that “Educators have developed systematized protocols for

dealing with suspected and reported cases of cyberbullying. Schools have created specific response

strategies, with a range of interventions that depend on the extent, circumstances, and severity of

each case. These interventions range from conflict resolution mediation and no punitive actions to

suspension, expulsion, and the involvement of police.” (Cyberbullying). With this information

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provided, the reader can see that schools will do their best to prevent this from happening, but

parents play a big role in this as well.

Referring back to the article titled “Allowing Cell Phones in Schools Impacts the Learning

Experience”, Author Tim Walker provides a few paragraphs explaining long term consequences

from being able to use cell phones in school. In one paragraph he interviews Dr. Richard Freed, a

child and adolescent psychologist who states “It is past time to start calling teenagers’ attachments

to these devices—or more accurately their applications—what it is: addiction.”(Walker). Other

than students and people becoming addicted to their cell phones, there has been no proven

documentation that cell phones lead to other long term health risks.

Another danger schools face with children having access to the internet is cheating. With

little computers in almost every child’s pocket it can be easy for them to cheat on assignments or

tests. They can simply google answers or they could even text each other answers. What parents

need to know is that cheating has always been around, even since before the internet. Schools do

have no cheating rules and policies set into place but that does not always stop students. The best

thing to do to protect students from cheating is to educate them on the importance of not cheating.

Teaching a child that cheating is wrong should be taught at home too, not just at school. I read this

article by Laura Hudgens, a part-time high school teacher and writer, who made some very valid

points on cheating now vs then. She states that “Students cheat because of the pressure to succeed.

They cheat because they’ve seen it modeled by politicians, athletes, and corporations…They cheat

because they are lazy. And they cheat because cheating is so common that they don’t even think

of it as cheating anymore. They don’t even think it’s wrong.” (Why cheating hurts students). She

then goes on and talks about how she teaches her students that cheating is wrong.

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One example of how teachers show students the wrong in teaching is to ask students how

they might feel if they had found out about a surgeon cheating on all their medical exams and then

that surgeon doing surgery on them. The school can only put so much impact on a student’s

realization that cheating is not okay to do. Children need to hear it from other people too, aka their

parents. Parents must explain to children why cheating is not something to be proud of and how

dishonest cheating is. The school can only do so much to protect the children from cheating.

One concern with students having cellular access is in the event of an intruder, the student

may spread false information to the internet or accidentally share their location to the intruder.

This is something that teachers could easily include into their lesson plans to inform students on

safety precautions in terms of electronics during an intruder or mass shooting. Meanwhile allowing

children to bring their phones to school is a great was toc stay in communication with their families

for some reasons. Maintaining this communication is important in helping students manage their

schedules (“Cell Phones in Schools”). Many parents whose kids walk to school also feel less

worried when their child can reach out and let them know when they get to school and back home

safe.

Cell phones can be used for so many different educational purposes in the classroom, such

as researching information on the internet for research projects, staying in communication with

their families in case of emergency, and teachers can make plans without requiring the school to

purchase a device for every person in class and many more. Cell phones can also be used for setting

reminders, texting other peers about partnered projects, taking notes in class, and other

participation purposes. Many schools make learning fun with competitive apps like “Kahoot!” Or

even apps like “Quizlet” for studying. Most teenagers take their phones with them everywhere in

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today’s world and they rely on their phones for communication, information, and entertainment.

(“Incorporating Smartphones”).

Why take away cell phones from children at school when it can be a benefit for their

learning. Understanding that parents may worry about the cell phones becoming a distraction in

the classroom and a temptation to check text messages or social media dependency on that cell

phone is crucial, but there are always ways to help prevent this from happening. There are many

more positive mind expanding ways of learning about using technology to learn and explore.The

cell phone is an important part of everyone’s everyday life in this generation, and many generations

to come. Instead of trying to take that away, let’s teach children to be smart with their devices.

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Works Cited

"Cell Phones in Schools." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/YYOJUC287392073/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVI

"Cyberbullying." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing

ViewpointsinContext,http://link.galegroup.com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/PC3010999

103/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=60b3fbfd. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.

“B.Y.O.D. Policy and Summary.” Pymatuning Valley Local Schools, www.pvschools.org/b-y-o-

d-policy-and-summary http://www.pvschools.org/b-y-o-d-policy-and-summary/

Accessed 24 Mar. 2019.

"Incorporating Smartphones into the Classroom." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale,

2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/GCBWGG147631894/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVI

https://grownandflown.com/cheating-hurts-students-now-and-future/

“Older teens more likely to own cell phones” Pew Internet, 2008,

https://www.pewinternet.org/2009/08/19/teens-and-mobile-phones-over-the-past-five-

years-pew-internet-looks-back/. Accessed 3 Apr 2019

Walker, Tim. "Allowing Cell Phones in Schools Impacts the Learning Experience." Opposing

Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/VAABQX311303391/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVI

C&xid=097fedf6. Accessed 17 Mar 2019