Republican lawmakers are proposing blocking kids from accessing social media in schools that receive federal broadband subsidies.
Republican lawmakers are proposing blocking kids from accessing social media in schools that receive federal broadband subsidies.
This was actually the default across the country in the 90s. Anything electronic, no matter if it was a cell phone, pager, or Walkman, was banned. As an older person who hasn’t been in school for 23 years, I’m surprised that schools nowadays are so lenient with it.
Do they actually let you use the cellphones in class during instruction or assignments (in the districts that haven’t banned them)?
Graduated over 30 years ago. Rules, on paper, were the same for me back then. However, the rules were really only enforced when the student was using the device in class or was otherwise being disruptive with it. They didn’t try to enforce it on every kid with a set of headphones on because they’d have to suspend 3/4 of the school.
My guess is that over time, the same thing happened everywhere: More kids had more and more electronic devices, and as the years went on, support for rules banning them dropped more and more to the point where at least some districts have attempted to stop trying.
Having access to research resources in your pocket can be a good thing for in class assignments. I haven’t been in school for 10 years, but given the right curriculum and teachers, cell phone use in classrooms can be beneficial. My history classes were less about memorizing dates and more about understanding how historical events impacted the world and led to other events, like the direct line that can be drawn between WWII, the cold War, and modern conflicts.
But you need proper oversight and instruction to ensure it’s relevant use.
At last year’s school, my kids were not allowed to use phones in class (except legitimate uses), nor to have notifications/ringers on audible, but if course the kids carried them.
This year: new school so I don’t know. However the combination of really crappy Chromebook from the school (don’t ask me how they managed to have a new Chromebook worse than the five year old one I bought previously), and more online research from more advanced classes makes phones necessary