School administration updates cell phone policy for new school year. How teachers have adapted their learning environments for new cell phone policy.
In today’s fast-paced digital world, cell phones have become an important part of our lives. Recognizing this, the school’s administration has updated and revised our current cell phone policy that aims to improve the balance between using phones for educational purposes and also reducing distractions in class.
Having cell phones in our lives is a very normal thing now and we can just use our phones for just about anything now including school. “Part of learning is learning how to use technology appropriately, and being able to not be reliant on your cell phone throughout the day. Being able to have those moments where you can focus solely on classwork and information and gaining that knowledge of the subject is really, really important to me.I don’t think that we will ever be in a society that doesn’t have cell phones or some sort of technology on our persons.In the future.I don’t think that will go backwards”. Alec Shern said. Shern is the school counselor for the Red Pony Center and he views our school and society’s dependency on technology as a good and bad thing. In the case of school though he views it as a bad thing for a student’s education.
One of the many challenges teachers have faced is trying to teach students who are distracted on their cell phones. Economics and Law and Justice teacher Mike Puhrmann believes that students will always find their phones more interesting than him.
I tell the kids the phone is better than me. The phone is more fun than me. And I can’t beat the phone. It’s better. It is more interesting. It just grabs their attention to such a greater extent than I ever could as a teacher.
— Mike Puhrmann
“I tell the kids the phone is better than me. The phone is more fun than me. And I can’t beat the phone. It’s better. It is more interesting. It just grabs their attention to such a greater extent than I ever could as a teacher. But my job is teach economics. My job is to teach law and justice. And if their phone is on them, I don’t think I could do my jobs as well,” Puhrmann said.
Students also do not necessarily need their phone for education purposes because the technology levy that was approved a couple of years ago provided each student with a chromebook that’s specifically for school work. Robert Bach adds that phones are not really necessary for education purposes.
“The community voted to approve a technology levy, and a huge part of that was to be able to provide every student with a technology device. So to the extent that students need technology in their classes, they have a device that allows them to do that. So therefore, they shouldn’t even need their cell phone to be able to do that,” Bach said.
Although phones have many benefits there are many things that are bad about phones too. Bach adds that phones contribute to a lot of unsafe environments.
“The reality of cell phones is they actually contribute to a lot of unsafe environments where students will use it to communicate to meet up,” Bach said. With the updated cell phone policy the student body is safe and has students focusing on class rather than their phones.
With the cell phone policy providing clear guidelines, allowing for responsible use, and respecting individuals in the classroom, the school strives to create an environment where students can use technology for their educational benefit and making sure that distractions are kept to a minimum. The updated cell phone policy is preparing students for the challenges and opportunities of the digital world.
