Now Teachers Want Mobile Phones In Class

NOW TEACHERS WANT MOBILE PHONES IN CLASS


Mick Brookes, head of the largest teachers’ union, is now asking for a review of the long standing ban on mobiles in the classroom.

Says he:

‘Schools should be harnessing the fantastic educational opportunity children carry around in their pockets, instead of banning the phones with their cameras, voice recorders and internet access’.

Responding to an incident where one pupil used his phone to take a picture of the homework written on the board had his phone confiscated he said:

‘He broke the rules but we need to ask why the ban was put there in the first place.  We have to recognise the world that children inhabit, not expect them to leave it at the school gate’.

The fact is, of course, the ban on phones was imposed because of their use to disrupt lessons, surreptitious texting, virtual bullying, sneak videos of teachers being made and posted on the internet and the fear that phones would be lost or stolen.

Says Chris Keates, general secretary of teachers union NASUWT:

‘You can’t just say that because the phones contain useful technology you remove the systems in place to protect children and staff from the abuse of them’.

Brookes response?  ‘Whatever young people bring into school there’s a chance it is misused in some way.  In my day we had ruler fights.  We mustn’t be Luddite about technology that young people take for granted’.

Source:  The Observer

Have Your Say

Do YOU believe it’s a mistake to miss an opportunity to bring the curriculum alive with the audio and video technology and internet access these phones afford?  Or do you think the negatives outweigh the positives? Leave a comment below.