Fair Cell Phone Policies

I think it’s hard to come up with a fair cell phone policy for everyone. The stereotype is think about those youngsters playing on their phones all the time. But in reality, our learners have jobs, families, and other commitments. I tell my students to keep their phones on silent. If they have an important call to take they can step out of the class. The main reason I don’t like students texting in class is because it is distracting to myself and others. It also decreases their overall performance in class. A quote from the following article:

“Research has indicated that student performance is significantly correlated with cell phone use. A study by Duncan, Hoekstra, and Wilcox (2012) demonstrated that students who reported regular cell phone use in class showed an average negative grade difference of 0.36 ± 0.08 on a four-point scale. Students also underestimated the number of times they accessed their phones while in class. While students reported an average access rate of three times per class period, observation data showed the rate was closer to seven times per period. An interesting finding is that other students are distracted when students text in class (Tindell and Bohlander, 2012). So while a student may claim he’s only hurting himself when texting, studies show that others are affected also.”

Something else to notice from the article linked above is that the author asks the readers for their ideas about cell phone policies. There are nearly 100 comments to read and lots to learn.