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Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Cellphones in Schools Typically, the around cellphones in school — whether they are learning tools or distractions — has revolved around their impact on measures of academic success like test scores or grades. But in his research, Ed School alum Dylan Lukes looks at other outcomes policymakers should be considering. Dylan Lukes Why are cellphones in schools such a contested topic among educators, parents, and students? The motivation for many of these policies comes from a desire to limit distractions. If you think about it, from a school’s perspective, if a cellphone ban can improve student learning, that’s a great low-cost intervention with a favorable benefit-cost ratio.

• However, from a parent’s perspective, the calculus is a bit different, and the cost of not being able to get a hold of their kid(s) may outweigh any potential benefit accrued from the ban.
• How have cellphone policies evolved over the years? Over the past several decades, many large urban school districts have intermittently experimented with cellphone bans.

However, most cellphone bans have been repealed due to their unpopularity with parents and students and concerns over equity, In March 2015, the NYCDOE lifted their longstanding districtwide cellphone ban and provided schools with significant discretion in designing and implementing school-level policies governing student cellphone use — and that shift is what I explore in my research.

• Most research around cellphone use in schools looks at the impact on test scores, reaction time, and the ability to focus.
• You look instead at two areas: discipline and a sense of safety.
• The existing studies provide evidence that allowing phones in the classroom negatively impacts test scores and long-term learning retention.

There are some correlational studies that suggest negative relationships between off-task device use and student achievement. Further, in psychology, research on multitasking generally finds negative effects on learning and task completion and, more generally, research has shown that cellphones distract and negatively impact reaction times, performance, enjoyment of focal tasks, and cognitive capacity.

In my research, my thinking was that as schools consider removal of bans or enforcement, they should also consider often overlooked dimensions of school culture that could play a role in educational productivity and student wellbeing. That is not to say academic achievement is not important — it is — but there are other potentially important inputs that contribute to educational productivity such as school discipline and culture.

Why? From a disciplinary standpoint, if the school has a cellphone ban and there are students breaking that cellphone ban, it’s possible that over time — and I’ve seen this from survey responses from NYCDOE school principals and parent coordinators — at some point there can be some punitive measures if you’re caught breaking that ban.

1. That’s one of the reasons I explore the impact on discipline and suspension — you could be using a cellphone which, yes, could be distracting, but even more negatively, have the student removed from school.
2. That kind of impact on learning could be a net-negative, even when you consider that against the positive effects a cellphone ban may have on a student’s learning and their peers’ learning.

I also think it’s important to look at other factors we don’t typically think about, like school culture, that might also have a big impact on learning. And what did you find? So just as a disclaimer, there might be policies I can’t control for that impact these outcomes.

For example, in 2014, there was a new chancellor who made changes to the discipline code. With that caveat, I do find that the ban removal positively impacted school discipline but had negative impacts on student perception of school culture across the dimensions of respect, student behavior, and school safety.

It also had negative impacts on teacher perception of school safety. My findings suggest an improvement in educational productivity due to the NYCDOE’s ban removal. But there’s a tradeoff — a cost to school culture. What do you mean by safety? When it comes to emergencies, students likely feel safer having access to a phone.

But the day-in and day-out component of school safety is how students use phones within school. This might include things like bullying, harassment, videotaping, and posting to social media. Those are reasons why having phones within schools could potentially be accelerators of negative student behavior.

These safety measures which look at how safe students feel in classrooms, hallways, locker rooms, cafeterias, show a pretty negative jump after the ban has been lifted, which suggest to me that having a phone is at least interrupting a student’s ability to safely navigate those spaces.

• So what should policymakers think about moving forward? This is just the tip of the iceberg.
• It would be interesting to look at how cellphones further contribute to school culture using more robust measures across time.
• And to be clear, I don’t think there’s anything inherently bad about cellphones but I do think it’s key to engage in a discussion around the tradeoffs of having them in schools and classrooms.

There might be some interesting ways to balance the tradeoffs of their distractions and their benefits — something like having magnetized pouches and allowing students to take out cellphones under special circumstances (e.g., class activity, lunch). Some schools are already experimenting with these alternatives and there are some prime opportunities in this space to evaluate impacts of these polices on educational outcomes, including school discipline and school culture.
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Why cell phones should not be used in class?

This week’s debate regarding the use and existence of cell phones in the classroom generated a lot of interesting points, making it even more difficult for me to decide whether I agree or disagree. The agreed team includes Echo, Lovepreet, and Amanpreet, while disagreeing team members include Bret, Reid, and Leona.

1. Both the team did a wonderful job of representing their arguments.
2. I believe that the effects of mobiles phones at school is a hotly debated topic in many countries.
3. Some advocate for a complete ban to limit distractions, while others suggest using technology as a teaching tool.
4. Schools have introduced the bans for various reasons including to improve academic outcomes and decrease bullying as its indicate in this article by agreed team.

Several researches point to positive impact of banning mobile phones at school on student performance and other outcomes. Understanding the evidence is crucial for best policy. Smartphones make it difficult for students to concentrate in class. Kids might play games, watch videos, or check out apps instead of paying attention to the teacher.

They can easily miss important information. Plus, a ringing or buzzing phone distracts other students. Also, some kids might be tempted to use their phones to cheat. They could go online and look up answers during a test, or they could text their friends for help. It’s critical that they don’t bring their phones to school – not only because of the distraction in class, but also because there are issues with students filming each other or the teachers, or taking pictures of the teacher.

The amount of online bullying and peer-on-peer harassment drops when mobile phones are banned. In class, students frequently forget to switch off their phones, causing ringing noises or text message notifications to disrupt learning and schoolwork. Since text messaging has become a high-tech form of sharing notes in school, cell phones can still cause distraction for students and educators, even if they are set to silent.

Young people and adults, as seen in the popular Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma from 2020, have an addiction and need to check their phones and notifications anytime they are available. This would suggest that even when the phone’s sound is turned off or the phone is switched off completely, the mere existence of the phone might be distracting.

Increased screen usage has also been linked to negative effects on learning and development. There is emerging evidence that phones can be a distraction to learning. As one of the agreed debtors raises an important point that allowing cell phones in schools will give rise to an unhealthy, unwanted competition as students with expensive and latest model phones will overwhelm those who have got low-cost or old model phones.

Not only would there be disparity within a single group but parents would be under constant pressure to get new expensive phones for their children Additionally, students might also start browsing irrelevant, inappropriate websites and waste their time which can be utilized for studies. Also, they will be negatively influenced by the content of badly chosen sites which will hamper their overall growth, mindset, and personality as indicated by this article mentioned by the agreed team.

While the problems with cellphones in school are valid, and clear consequences for misuse should be enforced, implementing a blanket policy forbidding the resource altogether would be severely counter-intuitive and unrealistic! as explained by the disagreed team.

1. Reasons Why Phones in School Should Be Allowed in an article : 1.
2. Cellphones in school are inevitable.2.
3. Phones in school are good for the environment! 3.
4. Phones in school teach digital literacy.4.
5. Phones in school improve communication.5.
6. Cellphones in school increase flexibility, convenience, and organization.6.

Phones in school increase a sense of safety.7. Phones in school saves up money.8. Phones in school provide easy access to information.9. Cellphones in school provide supplementary learning materials.10. Cellphones in school serves as a memory aid.11. Phones in school promote independence.
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Should cell phones be allowed in school essay?

Topics:	High School Smartphone
Essay Type:	Argumentative
Words:	1295
Pages:	3

Cite This Essay Download This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students’ samples. Phones have become a big part of our life no matter who we are. They are part of our lifestyles from the moment we wake up to the moment we close our eyes.

It is already a major gadget that if it is taken away will just cause a major shift in people’s lives. Their phone is part of their daily life and can’t be taken away just like that knowing 90 percent of teens have a phone, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln made a study with 777 students and found that an average respondent used their technology 10.93 times on a school day.

(‘Mobile Devices and their Place in the Classroom.’) As you can see that’s actually a pretty low number than expected of phone usage. Cellphones are portrayed as such a negative technology that people seem to ignore the benefits they can bring you. While students being addicted to cell phones can be a problem, schools should allow students to carry cell phones with them because of their freedom to practice self-discipline with their phone usage, maximize school resources, and students’ safe.

1. First, schools should allow students to carry cell phones with them because of their freedom to practice self-discipline with their phone usage.
2. Children need to learn to treat freedom responsibly.
3. What I mean by this is that if we get children to get used to someone always being on them telling them what to do, as they grow up they won’t know how to take their own decisions and know the limit to their freedom.

Phones should be allowed in class because it allows students to exercise self-discipline no matter their age or activity, which is proved by a study by the University of Pennsylvania, that self-discipline plays a big part in a student’s success. Also, them having the freedom of their phone usage allows them to learn how to deal with freedom in a workplace responsibly.

Greenling, director of instructional technology, believes that some classrooms are just not interesting enough and that’s why students get distracted with other things like their phones because their brains are wired to do that. Before passing notes, portable cassettes, or daydreaming was their form of distraction, so it will still occur with or without cellphones.

(Why Students should be using their Phones in Class) Additionally, phones also maximize school resources. Schools see a phone as an obstacle to learning. They focus on what is wrong with a phone and not think of options a phone can bring to your classroom.

But many schools are realizing that students have found ways to make good use of the phone, for example with educational apps like Remind101 to remind students of their school work due date. This type of app a phone is willing to offer does not just benefit the student but the teacher and the whole classroom.

Students being able to bring their own technology helps teachers maximize their resources when not enough Ipads, Chromebooks, or devices are available. Implementing phones into classrooms allows students to use their phones for more school and less personal use.

Mobile Devices and their Place in the Classroom) This benefits the school because they don’t have to spend money on tablets or laptops. These devices are very helpful due to the fact there are many helpful acts like dictionary apps for foreign students or Kahoot which are educational apps. (‘Why Students should be using their Phones in Class.’) It is even more beneficial because they are free apps without a charge.

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Place Order Finally, the most important reason Schools should allow students to carry cell phones with them is students’ safety. Cellphones are slowly gaining a place in schools according to statistics. K-12 grade schools had a ban percentage of cellphones which dropped to 66% then to 35%, this has been a dramatic drop in a matter of years from the beginning according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Cell phones keep students connected to the outside world during times of emergency. For example, during the school shooting in Florida many students were able to communicate with their parents and call 911. Also, Leslie Meredith, TechNewsDaily, stated that after the Chardon High school shooting, students either used their mobile devices to call 911 or check in with their parents.

After this incident and experiencing this emergency situation they obtained new ideas for their “alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate”, where phones will be a big part of it. (‘Why Students should be using their Phones in Class.’ ) The argument of students being addicted to cell phones might come up.

They say the addiction to phones is affecting children’s mental health. Students can’t even focus in a classroom with everything that is going on, on their phones. As studies show, Kids spending hours in front of a screen instead of socializing is unhealthy. Due to this, skills that help you into a successful person are being delayed.

This is significant because as a Pew Research Study shows, 95% of Americans have a cellphone, and 7-year-old kids are already carrying a cellphone on their first day of school, affecting their development at a young age. This addiction can create isolation, obesity, and depression, a child psychologist states.

Jean M, Twenge, San Diego State psychologist, research has shown that teenagers who feel better online than being out in the world are on the edge of mental problems. Twenge’s surveys also state that kids spend so many hours on social media that they forget about the socializing world outside and end up feeling lonely.

But this might not be as oppositive because even the strictest school N.Y.C is thinking of opening the door to cell phones for various reasons. The largest school district plans on allowing cell phones in school, taking into consideration that many other schools see the cellphone as something efficient.

1. The New York city school which is one of the strictest is planning to undergo some changes that will align it with other school districts’ systems and policies.
2. This is because Mayor Bill and Chancellor Carmen Farina pushed to end this ban on cellphones in the most populated school. (‘N.Y.C.
3. Schools to Open Doors to Student Cellphones.’) The people in favor of allowing phones argue that it is for safety purposes and not classroom disruption.

But allowing cell phones might be a problem for 88 schools that have metal detectors trying to keep phones out. If this policy comes into place students who desire to own a phone would have to pay to keep them in a commercial cell phone storage vehicle.

Class Size Matters has never agreed with banning phones. Ms. Haimson believes the banning of phones in some schools affects poor and colored people the most. She believes the schools that ban cell phones are unevenly distributed mostly in poor neighborhoods, where there are more people of color, and dangerous neighborhoods, where cell phones are actually needed the most.

Tenika Boyd, a mother of a 3rd grade, the primary concern is safety. A report showed support from parents towards the potential of cell phones, with over half of parents agreeing that schools should find more educational uses for cell phones. Keith R. Krueger, the CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, said that over the past five years, many schools have adjusted their cell phone policies.
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Should students use mobile phones in class or not?

Final Thoughts – There are some pros and cons to consider regarding using cell phones in the classroom. However, given all the benefits that were shared above, I think the reasons to allow cell phones in school far outweigh the reasons against allowing them.

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Simona Johnes is the visionary being the creation of our project. Johnes spent much of her career in the classroom working with students. And, after many years in the classroom, Johnes became a principal. Follow Simona: Latest posts by Simona Johnes ( see all )
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How do phones affect children?

Attachment can become addiction – As more and more is written about the how these miraculous devices are purposely designed to keep us coming back for more, parents have good reason to be concerned. The average teen spends about nine hours a day using electronic media, according to a survey by Common Sense Media.

• That survey also found that half of teenagers felt addicted to their phones, and 78 percent checked them hourly or more.
• Multiple studies link addictive relationships with mobile devices to mental health problems in teens, including depression, anxiety, and disrupted sleep.
• Neuroscience tells us that tweens’ and teens’ developing brains make them especially vulnerable to both addiction and mental health crises.

Since teens use their phones for everything from schoolwork to socializing to getting around, it can be hard to distinguish between use that is appropriate and beneficial on the one hand, and obsessive on the other. Red flags include missing out on in-person interactions with friends or family in favor of time on devices and neglecting their other activities and responsibilities.
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Should kids under 13 have a phone?

What’s the Right Age to Get Kids a Cellphone? The right age to give kids their first cellphone is really up to you. Age isn’t as important as your kid’s maturity level, ability to follow rules at home and school, and sense of responsibility as well as your own family’s needs.

Getting your kid their first phone is a very personal and individual decision, but lots of kids start asking for (and receiving) them That kind of peer pressure makes it tougher for parents who want to hold off. When you hand your children a cellphone, you’re giving them a powerful tool for communication and media production.

They can create text, images, and videos that can be uploaded to websites instantly and widely distributed. Parents and caregivers need to consider whether their kids are ready to use a phone responsibly and respectfully. If you think your kids’ tech skills are greater than their ability to use it wisely, pay attention to that gap.

Do your kids show a sense of responsibility, such as letting you know when they leave the house? Do they show up when they say they will? Do your kids tend to lose things, such as backpacks or homework folders? If so, expect they might lose a phone, too. Do your kids need to be in touch for safety reasons? Would having easy access to friends benefit them for social reasons? Do you think they’ll use a cellphone responsibly – for example, not texting during class or disturbing others with their phone conversations? Can they stick to limits you set for when, where, and how long they can use the phone? Will they use text, photo, and video functions responsibly and not to embarrass or harass others?

Adding a kid to your service plan can get expensive. For your kids’ first phone, consider these options:

A smartwatch with limited features like or the, A prepaid phone that doesn’t lock you into a long-term contract. A “feature” phone with large icons and a limited range of functions, such as the Nokia 225. A flip phone, like the Jitterbug Flip, which is designed for seniors but great for kids too because it has large numbers and GPS tracking. Low-cost, prepaid carriers, such as Boost, Mint, Twigby, and Tello.

: What’s the Right Age to Get Kids a Cellphone?
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Do phones affect students?

Abstract – Research on smartphone use among college students is extensive. Although numerous studies have examined the relationships between mobile phone use and academic achievements, many such studies have yielded mixed findings. Hence, the overarching goal of this meta-analysis was to comprehensively synthesize existing research to investigate the effects of smartphone addiction on learning. The authors included 44 studies (45 effects) in the analysis yielding a sample size of N ​= ​147,943 college students from 16 countries. The results show that smartphone addiction negatively impacts students’ learning and overall academic performance ( Q (43) ​= ​711.87, p ​< ​.001, r ​= ​−0.12). Further, findings suggest that the greater the use of a phone while studying, the greater the negative impact on learning and academic achievement. Additionally, the results suggest that skills and cognitive abilities needed for students' academic success and learning are negatively impacted. Implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are delineated. Published by Elsevier Ltd. View complete answer

How are cell phones a distraction?

KEY CONCEPT – Cell phones are distracting, pulling our attention away from our current tasks and activities. New research reveals that the mere presence of the phones, even when they are turned off and we are consciously focusing our attention on another task, is enough to reduce our thinking capacity.
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Should we use mobile or not?

Health problems – Excessive use of mobile phones causes the health problems such as swelling of the eyes and other eyesight problems. Mobile phones include mental disorders such as Anger, depression, anxiety, tension, and others.
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How mobile phone usage affects academic performance senior high school students?

What the Latest Study Says – Many studies have sought to investigate the relationship between mobile phone usage and academic performance, but much of this research has relied on students themselves reporting their usage, which they often underestimate.

However, one recent study offers conclusive evidence. In this particular experiment, 43 students had their phone usage recorded in real time via an app for 2 weeks, to allow the researchers to determine whether student phone usage had an impact on academic performance as measured by where the students were ranked in their class (which, in itself, is far from an ideal measure).

The researchers discovered a negative relationship between mobile phone usage and students’ academic performance, such that every 100 minutes that a student spent using their phone a day lead to the student dropping 6.3 places in terms of their academic school ranking.
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