Phones: To Stay In or Out of Classrooms?’
Once upon a time, phones in the hands of students were merely toys. You know, for games--tetris, snake--and nothing more. This is changing. Many times, students, like many other people go to Professor Google for answers to their questions.
Many have advocated for phones to stay in classrooms, like other tech gadgets. With smart phones, anyone anywhere can learn. What is there not to love? They are portable. They can carry a wealth of information without being burdens. This wealth of information can be useful to both students and teachers. Think about the potentials of information sharing...
The downsides: they can be distracting. How many teachers have lost focus just because a phone rang in class? How many students have ended up playing games rather than researching for their assignments? Imagine how frustrating it would be to see students bent over phones rather than listening to their teachers? Can they increase cyber bullying or cheating?
In Nigeria, there are also still challenges with power to charge the phones and accessible content in local languages for instance.
Many students already use it outside the classrooms. And they use it well. In Nigeria, phones remain largely proscribed in classrooms. They stay outside classrooms.
And with organisations like Phonelabs making educational content for phones; with “eduphones” making a in-road into the country, one should ask again: Should phones be accepted in classrooms?
Only time will tell whether phones will remain outside the classrooms. However it is largely a policy and regulation issue.
What do you think? Phoneducation, anyone?
