Times are changing! I'd have said a big NO straight away if this questions was posed to me years ago when I was still in secondary. And that's because I knew even then just how much of a distraction phones were to us at home talk more of in school where we had to focus and understand what is being taught. Phones to students are indeed double-edged swords, how?
I remember back then, the big girls with not so smart phones that never used it for the purpose of studying, instead, they became distractions to themselves and to the others who didn't had the opportunity to own a phone. Talk of the times where they won't stay quiet for a minute without talking about their online boyfriends or games they play forgetting what they must have learned.
Should the use of phones with AI capabilities by students be allowed in schools?
Well, in today's world of digital era where everything seem to be happening virtually and people are actually finding it easy with these digital upgrades they are opportune to have, I think it makes sense to think different about schools employing the use of smartphones in the education system. A lot of students today are exposed to really good smart phones at home.
With that in mind, I don't see the need of strictly banning phones from school. We really can't imagine what students could do with smart phones now, of course, not only in the negative aspects. What about the great innovations they might come up with if they are allowed to use their phones in school? So my take is, yes, schools should allow the use of smartphones.
Will this make things easier for the students in the long run? A whole lot easier, but things will be a lot easier for students to become geniuses just as it will be easier for them to go wayward and even pose a threat to the society on the long run. I guess this is where restrictions come in if it is going to be allowed in schools. Restrictions by the age, class and intellect of each student.
Will it simply make things worse? What could be the long term effect? Allowing what has always been banned in schools is definitely going to bring all kinds of new situations, habits and outcomes that the school system may not have been ready for or find very difficult to handle. So there is no way such decision will not have a long term effect but I don't believe things will get worse because it is allowed now and not before.
I also think things won't get any better banning phones from school when they can actually make use of it as they like at home. Imagine a student actually learning how to use a smartphone to his or her benefits from school instead of just doing whatever with it at home. It's just best to me, that schools allow it and give proper guidance to how it should be use while in school and at home too.
It's a two way thing, but I think it's worth taking a decision since the world is going towards the digital era even strongly than before. We do not want to have kids that know nothing about the digital phase of life in general nowadays, so the early and well guided exposure will do the society more good than bad, from the way I see it. Highlighting "Proper guidance" as a way out of worse case scenarios or limiting them at least.
Images are AI generated