Realizing the importance of technology as the indispensable part of the individual’s life, smartphone integration in institutes has increased. Recently many institutes to assist the students in their academic venture have embraced smartphones. It could be regarded as the social experiment, as many of these institutes have imposed a ban on its usage. Various obstacles and hurdles were resulting and due to which the learning was being disturbed. Let’s have a look at the concerns to evaluate whether the decision to ban these phone is the school is right or wrong:
Debate Against Smartphone presence in Educational Institutes
The points that raised high concerns on the smartphone usage in the institute are as follows:
- Source of Distraction
There was continues nagging in the minds of the student. This keeps them distracted, as there was this instant urge to get a hand on the mobile to get to view the new notifications and messages that await our reply. This dropped their concentration level in the class, as they fear that they are missing out on something incredibly amazing. This point was highly emphasized by the course facilitator and teachers that students, in order to use the social media apps installed on their cell phone, were missing from the lecture that was being delivered to them.
- The Decline in Physical Activities
With the permission of using a cell phone in class, the students limited their participation in outdoor activities. Various researches held by essay service also highlighted the fact in their surveys as they showed the percentage of decline in physical activities by 35%. Students started spent the majority of their time in the classroom to use their smartphone without any distraction. This limited their physical movements and activities essential for their well being. Since physical wellbeing is related to the mental health, therefore it was impacting their learning and memory retention ability which was evident from the low-test score. A continuous decline in these scores makes it all more essential for the institutes to ban its usage within the school boundaries.
- Excess to prohibited material
Use of smartphone also opened gates for the unwanted exposure to things which they have been prohibited to use. No matter how much the staff tries to supervise the activities of the children, they cannot still prevent the student from accessing such material. This not only has a detrimental effect on the students who have a smartphone but on those as well who don’t. Software’s are available be for preventing the students for its access, though the student belongs to Generation XZ which is said to rest at the supreme level of technological learning. they are smart enough to devise new ways to pass all the measures implemented.
The debate in Favor of Smartphone presence in Educational Institutes
There are certain points raised by the individuals which favored its usage in class
- Collaborative Learning
The smartphone has allowed the institute to make learning collaborative. There are certain schools and areas where equipment is it available to provide the information to in the most effective way because of lack of resources. The use of cell phone covers this point. The teachers can make use of the smartphone by directing the students to the particular website through its web address. Students can also record the lessons which can be used later in case they have confusion regarding a certain term or concept.
- Source for Contacting
Mobile phones have allowed students to keep in contact with their parents. Parents can directly contact the student on his cell phone instead of following the troublesome procedure of dialing the school helpline number, and then going through all the individuals for delivering a certain message to the child. This also facilitates students as they can easily let their parents know about their whereabouts, their after-school study sessions or perhaps a place they wish to explore with their friend after school. This has allowed mental peace for both the parents and the child as well.
- Make them Future-Ready
We are in a global age, where technology is connected directly with every dynamics of our life. Its teachers can teach the students the effects of it as students can be made aware of when is the time they should use it and when is the time they should not. The institute itself can teach the proper usage of the device, as they can make students aware of the cyberbullying and the way to tackle it.
Sum Up:
Keeping in consideration the future prospects, the integration of smartphone in the classroom is preparing the students for the future to come. But the negative impact it posses on the students physical and mental health makes its usage questionable. According to our evaluation, the negative consequence of its usage is more at the moment than positive, therefore, I agree with the decision of banning smartphones in schools and believe that it’s a good idea.