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The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

icelandmonitor.mbl.is

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Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#121
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use my phone to look up words/concepts/references all the time while reading - I couldn't do without it, flipping through a dictionary or walking up to a computer to read a quick Wikipedia intro to a concept/person/place/etc would just get me far more distracted.

There’s always a reason why we “need” our phone at all times, isn’t there? For the purposes of public policy (where schools are concerned), or even holding a meeting at work, what should be the best recourse?

I find an eink tablet with no browser or a digitizing pen good for taking notes in this tech era.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#122
post #62

It really can't be underestimated either for children or adults how much we are dependent on ease of access. If you're stuck in a room and the only thing you can do is read a math textbook you are going to do it. If you are stuck in a room and you have a math textbook and a novel you now have a choice. A phone? A phone is everything else. You're putting "the thing we are supposed to be doing" and "everything else" in…

Managing distraction in an age where everything is at our fingertips is a hard task

I personally balk at the idea that everything is at our fingertips. Yes, a lot of information is readily available, but it is mostly very shallow, poorly referenced, and in short form. It is actually very hard to find in-depth, long form content on the Internet these days. You have to look very hard. Almost the only way to find it is by crawling dedicated forums and getting links that way. It's still much easier to find information in books.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#123
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should've been expanded into driving a long time ago. There are laws against distracted driving but I still see people weaving around like they're drunk on the roads. When I look into the car they're usually holding a phone (on speakerphone) or holding it up to their ear. People suck at driving enough as it is without driving one handed and distracted.

In the daily downtown crawl at 5PM I count about one in four drivers on their phone. Is there a way to tell apart the adaptive cruise control cars from the ones without ? ACC is the only way I can explain why there isn't a crash every 5 minutes.

ACC won't engage under 25 mph. The reason for the lack of crashes might be that driving isn't that hard for most people.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#124
Maybe it's a translation issue, but it seems in this article that the effect on school work (i.e. tests, quizzes, reports, homework assignments, etc.) was not studied, as I think the title of the article implies it was. Rather, they studied the phone ban's effect on school culture and bullying.

To be clear, I believe a phone ban in schools would have a positive effect on academics, and that that would show up if it were studied. It's just that it doesn't seem like that's what they did in this case. Thus, arguing about whether phones affect attention span, memory, even reading time, is not relevant in the context of this article.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#125
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qualitative observations can often also be useful, even if they can’t be relied upon as proof.

It could also be the students hide them better, because they aren't allowed to have them. When I visited one of our offices in India there was a phone ban. Employees were given a locker for their phone (and other stuff if they wanted), where the phone was to remain while they were in the work area. Being a visitor, I complied, but then quickly found out almost no one else did. They all secretly had their phones out d…

That’s possible, but harder to hide for students than employees. Employees are given, generally, a bit more trust than students are. At a lot of schools, students aren’t even allowed to leave for lunch.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#126
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managing distraction in an age where everything is at our fingertips is a hard task

It's not only distraction though. The phone is a window to the internet which offers all the knowledge of the world. And in 'my day' I spent a lot of time at the library which was full of thrillers and comics. And spent most of my time learning about computers and electronics. It's not an unprecedented problem and offers new offers new opportunities too.

Having instant access from your pocket to an infinite source of entertainment is literally an unprecedented problem.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#128
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird my experience as a teenager in the early 2000s was being told how much everyone had carnal relations with my mother on multiplayer games on the internet.

That’s just socializing with other kids, not being preyed on by an abusive game industry.

It was still a form of abuse, just not backed by multimillion corporations. Boys will be boys, but it’s less toxic when it’s in real life with kids you actually know and can see, vs. anonymous strangers over Xbox Live.

Re: The phone ban has had a big impact on school work

#129
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the school by me every day is a line that stretches for blocks of parents picking up their kids at 3pm. All of these cars and human time was previously handled by a school bus and one driver.

Why does this craziness happen?

Because clearly a school bus is too expensive. /s
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