THE PLAN TO ALLOW secondary students to have their mobile phones at school was inevitable.
Even without the results of a scientific survey, it seems as if the majority of students take these devices to school, with the full knowledge of parents.
This is a point which must have caught the attention of Minister of Education Ronald Jones whose new policy of open acceptance goes into place in September at the start of the new school year.
The mobile phone has shifted the way we communicate, and the advent of the smartphone has changed the world in a more fundamental way, and for the better. We must either embrace this new technology in the classroom or be left behind in a rapidly changing world which requires students to be properly equipped for life as productive citizens.
There has been a furore about the use of cellphones in schools worldwide largely because a minority of students misuse them. But this can be no sound justification for allowing the minority to deter us from taking full advantage of the potential of this new technology in our schools.
The times have shifted beyond the traditional chalk and blackboard. Teachers are no longer faced with the problem of using simple hand-held calculators in the classroom. And at one time it was about students passing a note. Today it is texting.
Understandably some educators will find it difficult to accept smartphones and the changes they will bring. But the objective must be about exploiting the educational benefits to be gained from incorporating mobile devices as learning tools in the digital classroom.
Some of the advantages are very clear. They range from students getting answers quickly, bringing learning to life thanks to the audio and video functions, allowing students to work in groups, accessing a variety of educational apps, and students learning at their pace and in their own comfort.
We need to understand our environment. The smartphone is undoubtedly the most used device by anyone under 25 and any thinking society must respond to this new way in which things are done. In education it presents a wonderful opportunity to enrich classroom learning, in and out of the physical plant, to meet the changing needs of students.
We can hold on to the few pitfalls in our efforts to fight the change already upon us. But this is nothing which cannot be easily overcome with school-specific policies governing the use of mobile technology.
What’s needed is excitement that can be created as we exploit the real educational benefits by incorporating this new technology in our schools. It must be about what’s best for this country.
It undoubtedly is no longer a matter of if the mobile phones should be used in the classroom. It is how best to use them.
