Photo Credit: The staff ofThe Declaration

Researching articles on genocide for an essay in English class, Freshman Sean Dressler uses his phone with the teacher’s permission.

In our modern day world electronics make up a huge part of our daily lives. From the moment you wake up until right before we go to sleep we’re using electronics everywhere we go. The one place we do not use electronics, however, is at school. Yes, we get laptops every now and then to help do a project and gather information, but the rarity of the chance to use those results depends on teachers to teach their students all of the material with no help from anything except a textbook. In June of 2013, President Obama introduced ConnectED, which plans to connect 99% of America’s student to the internet in a 5 year time frame. He also wants teachers trained and using the internet in the classroom.

So the question is raised, should schools allow electronics like cell phones and laptops to be used in class? While many might argue that they should be allowed I consider them to be a major distraction to the learning environment and should not be allowed anywhere except the lunchroom or if extra research for a project is needed. Let’s face it, if schools allowed students to use any kind of electronics on a regular basis that privilege would get taken advantage of with students doing things besides using them for good. For instance, I have seen students abuse the use of cell phones in class by texting, playing games, or looking at stuff other than school material. Electronics are evolutionary in many ways and in some schools across America, are in fact used in class and are used successfully. However, there isn’t enough success across all schools for phones to be used as a learning device in school.

The problem of students not being able to handle using electronics can be solved by teachers paying closer attention to the students while they use the electronics in class. If the teacher can monitor their students and make sure that the students that do abuse the right to use them gets punished, and the ones who are actually using them for good do not get punished, then using cell phones in class wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Schools can also start a Wi-Fi system that the students can log into that can block inappropriate websites and stop texting while class is in session. With all of those things combined, cell phones in class can stir away from being a distraction and being frowned upon, and can be used for good.

Some may argue that cell phones can be used for good, and not be a distraction to the students in the classroom. The idea is that schools can allow most students to pull out their cell phones and use them to look up all the information they need on the school under the school Wi-Fi, under some restrictions like blocking inappropriate websites and not allowing the use of games or texting. In a study completed by the Pew Research Center in February, 73% of Advance Placement and National Writing Project Teachers allow their students to use their phones in the classroom to conduct research and complete assignment. With mobile apps and the Internet at their fingertips, students can use phones as clickers to answer questions, document labs, collaborate on group projects, set reminders for homework and capture teachers’ notes in a picture. The electronics can then be used to further research in class, and even for assignments since there are websites that can be used to turn in worksheets. An argument can be made that not all students and schools are the same, and that that not all students would abuse the use of cell phones in class, leading to cell phones being a successful tool in the learning environment. In conclusion, the argument that cell phones can be used is not a crazy one, and maybe under certain circumstances they can in fact be a educational piece in school.

Altogether, in my opinion I don’t think schools should allow the use of electronics in class. As stated, students would abuse the rights to use the electronics and use them for personal use. For now, I think students should stick to using textbooks and using computers only for research instead of being able to use any electronics in class until students can one day be able to focus on work and not do anything else that they shouldn’t.