The Pros and Cons of Cell phones In

Schools
Posted by: Karehka Ramey in Techucation December 10, 2012 5 Comments

As technology keeps on advancing, cell phones have almost become essential gadgets of our
lives, it is next to impossible to leave without these cell phones, because they make
communication easy. Students have also found a great use of cell phones and most of them go
with their cell phones to school. Cell phones are not bad or harmful as some educators can think,
but the problem is that some students use them for wrong reasons and this makes them bad
in school. Since most cell phones now days can access internet, students tend to use them for
selfish entertaining reasons while in the classroom, this creates distraction and it also affects that
students’ grades.
RELATED:
:- Use Cell Phones at School – 25 Tips For Teachers and Students
Students are the top most users of social networks like Facebook, Zynga , Twitter,
YouTube and many more, all these social networks have mobile phone applications which can
enable user of a cell phone to easily access them. So when ever students get a chance to come
with their cell phones at school, they end up using them for personal entertainment during
classroom hours. This behavior has forced many educators and parents to ban cell phone usage in
schools. Below i have listed detailed points on the pros and cons of cell phones in schools

PROS OF CELL PHONES IN SCHOOLS:

 Easy communications: Both parents and teachers will need to stay in touch with their
children and students, so cell phones will make this communication simple. Also students use
cell phones to join peer to peer discussions which can help them ask any thing educational
during this discussion. This discussion can be hosted on online educational social networks
like Piazza.com, this network has mobile phones apps which a student can install and join any
academic discussion using their mobile phones. In most cases, shy students find such remote
platforms useful, because they can stay anonymous and ask a question, as opposed in a
live classroom where they will fear to raise their hand to ask a question or help from the
teacher or their fellow students. Teachers can also use text messaging service to send simple
assignments to their students while at home. Parents can easily keep track of their children
 using cell phones, so in case some thing pops up during school hours, the child will just
contact their parents.
 Safety Reasons: Since cell phones are light and easy to carry, they can act as emergence
contact tools for students. Disasters are unavoidable and they always distrust our daily
activities. It is very important if a student has a personal phone to use and contact their
parents, head teachers or police in case some thing wrong happens. Many times students get
mixed up in wrong groups while at school and they get bullied or get involved in wrong acts
like drug use. These two harmful behaviors have resulted into deaths on many students, but
when a student has a cell phone, they can call for help from their parents, friends, teachers or
the police. Child bulling is on the rise in many schools, shy students can’t fight back, so they
need to have a cell phone with them, so that they can call for help at any time.
 Mobile Learning: It is very important for students to be in position to learn from anywhere at
any time. The education world is changing and many scholars are attending virtual
classrooms. Online education is now becoming so popular than before, mobile phones have
also helped in the growth of M-Learning. Unlike a computer, cell phones are light and easy to
carry. Advanced cell phones like theiphone, sumsung galaxy, have wide screens which can
display data in high resolution and they also have big storage hardware which can be used to
store electronic books. Services like Dropbox.comand Box.com can be used to store
academic notes remotely and students can access this data anywhere. Mobile learning
applications like Piazza.com can allow teachers create virtual classroom and assign course
work to their students.
 Use cell phones as research tools: Students who do subjects which require field work
research will need cell phones while in the field. All modern cell phones can be used to take
pictures in the field, create reports using simple word processing applications, save and submit
data back to their schools. If their school has a remote storage facility, students can easily back
up their field work notes, videos and picture on that server while in the field. Most mobile
phone service providers offer cheap internet subscription packages, so students will find it
easy to transfer data or make more extensive research online using their cell phone.
 Improve relationship between teachers and students: Since teachers can easily text their
students course work, also students can easily ask their teachers questions using text
messaging services . During this discussion, both teachers and students get to know each other
deeply. The teacher will get to know the weakness of their student because text massaging on
cell phones is more personal and private. A student will feel free when communicating with
their teachers via text messaging and the teacher will have a great chance of helping their
students on a personal basis using a media familiar and comfortable to their student.
CONS OF CELL PHONES IN SCHOOL:
 Distraction: Since today’s cell phones have more than one application, students will always
get distracted in the quest of trying to discover and try out new cell phone applications.
Female students are more likely to get distracted by mobile applications like Pinterest.com,
Facebook or twitter, then for the male students, they can get distracted by cell phone game
applications or video streaming applications. This continuous distraction will affect a student’s
concentration in the classroom, and it can also distract other students around them. At the end
of the term these students will fail their exams because during classroom hours they where
playing games or watching youtube.com videos.
 Cheating of exams: Since student X was watching videos during classroom hours, when it
comes to exam time, they will resort to cheating. So they can decide to scan their notes on
 their cell phones or use text messaging service to cheat exams. Then some students can
Google exam questions and copy whatever they find online, and in most cases this data
published online is not correct which results into exam failure.
According to my view, cell phones are more helpful to students. The two major cons
‘’Distraction & Cheating of exams ‘’ can be controlled with strict guidelines on how and when to
use cell phones in schools. Educators should not ban cell phones in schools, but they have to
teach students on how to use cell phones to improve their grades, teachers can create some phone
text based quizzes to ensure that students are always alert at all time in the classroom. A cell
phone as a gadget is not bad, so we just have to find better ways of using it.
 SHOULD MOBILE PHONE BE BANNED IN SCHOOLS ?

OLEH
SURYANI
DESTI NUR'FIANI
FAISAL AFIF
TENGKU NADILA SASKIA
DERI GUSTANTO
PUTRI RAUDATUL MUNAWAROH

XI IPA 1
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1 SIAK
School year 2011/2012

Should Mobile Phones be Banned in Schools?

In the last few years there has been an explosion in the use of new
communications technologies, including mobile phones; it is estimated
that over 70% of young people aged 10–14 now own one. Considerable
debate has taken place in the press recently as to whether pupils should
be allowed to take their mobile phones into school.

The Pro
 Students often forget to turn off their phones in class, and ringing noises or
text-message alert disrupt learning.

 Even if to silent, cell phones can still cause distraction, since text
messaging has become a high-tech method of passing notes in school.

 Students have been known to use cell phones to call in bomb threats to
schools, to avoid or condense class time

 In the event of a widespread crisis, rampant cell phone use can overload
communication systems and render them inoperable

 Student cell phone network add to the apread of rumors and

misinformation, which can be harmful during a widespread crisis.

 Phones can be used as cheating devices during exams.

 The long-term physical effects to cell phone use are still undetermined

The Cons

 You can be in touch with your children, and know their whereabouts

 Your kids can reach you in the event of an emergency, and vice versa

 If in danger, your children can reach the authorities or a medical provider

 Phones can be silenced during class or study periods, and active only in
appropriate plces

 Cell phones create a convinience that was previously unavailable. With cell
phones, you can easily reach your kids for any reason : to ask them
questions, change plans, or to simply say hello.

No one can deny the positive benefits of children communicating

freely with each other, and pupils argue that using a mobile phone to
talk to or text-message their friends is simply one way of doing this,
using new technology. Many parents are in favour too, and like the
reassurance of knowing their child can be safer and more independent if
 they have a mobile phone, since they can contact them at any time if
necessary. They cite the potential risks faced by some children
travelling alone.

However, schools point out that carrying a mobile phone could in

it self make a child more vulnerable to theft or mugging, both on the
street and even in the playground. Police figures confirm that a high
proportion of crimes committed against young people involve thefts of
mobile phones. Schools are concerned, moreover, that allowing pupils to
bring their mobiles to school could create a competitive atmosphere
amongst children and result in some children feeling left out and
unvalued. In addition they claim that pupils’ education would be
affected by the distraction of phones ringing in class.

Some doctors fear that children using mobiles could suffer long-
term brain damage. Until this is disproved, it would seem that schools
might best protect their pupils from this and other problems by making
them leave their mobile phones at home.

In fact, the real decision regarding cell phones lies with parents.
Short of checking each and every backpack, school officials can only
enforce cell phones bans if they catch a student with a pprohibited
device.

TEXT LEVEL

A question summaring the issue being discussed. Keywords : mobile

phones, banned, schools.

ntroduction First paragraph

Present the facts that have given rise to the question in the title.

Argument Paragraph 2

Against a ban. Sentence :

1. Present an argument based on children’s needs.

2. Adds a new argument (safety)

3. Elaborates on this with evidance.

Paragraph 3

For a ban. Sentence :

1. Contests the safety argument in paragraph 2.

2. Adds confirming evidence.

3. & 4. Introduce two new reasons for a ban.

Conclution Final paragraph

Sentence :

1. Offers compelling reason for a ban, based on the issue of safety

2. Adds to this clinching argument a summary of paragraph 3.

Haruskah Mobile Phones akan Dilarang di Sekolah?

Dalam beberapa tahun terakhir telah terjadi ledakan dalam

penggunaan teknologi baru komunikasi, termasuk ponsel, diperkirakan
bahwa lebih dari 70% orang muda berusia 10-14 satu sekarang
sendiri. Perdebatan telah terjadi di media baru-baru ini, apakah siswa
harus diperbolehkan untuk mengambil ponsel mereka ke sekolah.

Tidak ada yang dapat menyangkal manfaat positif dari anak-anak

berkomunikasi secara bebas satu sama lain, dan murid berpendapat
bahwa menggunakan ponsel untuk berbicara atau teks pesan teman-
teman mereka hanya merupakan salah satu cara untuk melakukan ini,
dengan menggunakan teknologi baru. Banyak orangtua yang
mendukung juga, dan ingin kepastian mengetahui anak mereka bisa
lebih aman dan lebih mandiri jika mereka memiliki ponsel, karena
mereka dapat menghubungi mereka setiap saat jika diperlukan.
 Mereka mengutip potensi risiko yang dihadapi oleh beberapa anak
bepergian sendirian.

Namun, sekolah menunjukkan bahwa membawa ponsel bisa dalam diri

membuat anak lebih rentan terhadap pencurian atau penjambretan,
baik di jalan dan bahkan di taman bermain. Angka Polisi
mengkonfirmasi bahwa proporsi yang tinggi dari kejahatan yang
dilakukan terhadap orang-orang muda melibatkan pencurian ponsel.
Sekolah yang bersangkutan, apalagi, yang memungkinkan siswa untuk
membawa ponsel mereka ke sekolah bisa menciptakan suasana
kompetitif di antara anak-anak dan hasil pada beberapa anak merasa
ditinggalkan dan unvalued. Selain itu mereka mengklaim bahwa
pendidikan murid akan terpengaruh oleh gangguan dari dering ponsel
di kelas.

Beberapa dokter khawatir bahwa anak-anak menggunakan ponsel bisa

menderita kerusakan jangka panjang otak. Sampai hal ini dibantah,
akan terlihat bahwa sekolah terbaik mungkin melindungi siswa
mereka dari masalah ini dan lainnya dengan membuat mereka
meninggalkan ponsel mereka di rumah.

pro
• Siswa sering lupa untuk mematikan ponsel mereka di kelas, dan suara dering
atau teks-pesan peringatan mengganggu belajar.
• Bahkan jika untuk diam, ponsel masih bisa mengganggu konsentrasi, karena
pesan teks telah menjadi metode teknologi tinggi yang lewat catatan di sekolah.
• Siswa telah dikenal untuk menggunakan ponsel untuk menelepon ancaman bom
ke sekolah, untuk menghindari atau menyingkat waktu kelas
• Jika terjadi krisis meluas, penggunaan telepon seluler merajalela dapat
membebani sistem komunikasi dan membuat mereka bisa dioperasi
• Mahasiswa sel jaringan telepon menambah apread rumor dan misinformasi,
yang bisa berbahaya selama krisis meluas.
• Telepon dapat digunakan sebagai perangkat kecurangan selama ujian.
• jangka panjang efek fisik dengan penggunaan telepon seluler masih belum
ditentukan
kontra
• Anda dapat berhubungan dengan anak Anda, dan tahu keberadaan mereka
• Anak-anak Anda dapat menghubungi Anda dalam keadaan darurat, dan
sebaliknya
• Jika dalam bahaya, anak-anak Anda dapat mencapai berwenang atau penyedia
medis
• Telepon dapat dibungkam selama periode kelas atau belajar, dan hanya aktif
dalam plces sesuai
• Ponsel membuat convinience yang sebelumnya tidak tersedia. Dengan ponsel,
Anda dapat dengan mudah mencapai anak-anak Anda untuk alasan apapun:
untuk meminta mereka pertanyaan, rencana perubahan, atau untuk sekadar
menyapa.