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Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

portlandtribune.com

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Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#51

Post by Neywiny »

dgxyz wrote: post #30

UK here. My kid's school is insane. They think they are so progressive because they banned personal phones entirely, which is fair enough. But they forced us to buy marked up Yondr pouches, which is not fair. However this isn't the only problem. They also force us to pay monthly for iPads with wonky ass Logitech cases to be issued on which they do everything on Google classroom. Google Classroom is an abhorrently bad…

When I was in uni I would repeatedly get told that such issues with their software were fine because the lowest N quizzes/homeworks/etc wouldn't get counted. So instead of spending that leeway on a bad day I had to use it on their servers being down or whatever.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#52

Post by wjholden »

For what it's worth — my last workplace did not allow cell phones in the building and I learned to love it. When people attended meetings, we all made eye contact and talked about the task at hand. Nobody ever got distracted by notifications or tuned out with boredom. And since we all had traditional telephones at our desks, someone would come get you if your family was calling with for an urgent crisis. I miss it.

My kids' school banned phones during the school day. The principal promised that the office would relay any messages if parents call, and they do. I would be interested to see if there are already statistics showing academic success. That is, are grades and test scores affected by phone bans? The article talks about graduation rates, but doesn't directly address grades and scores.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#54

Post by jedberg »

bawolff wrote: post #21

I'm a little confussd... was there a point they were allowed? I went to school in the late 2000s, and even at that point if a teacher saw you with a cell phone it was immediately confiscated.

In the last 10 years, driven a lot by school shootings, the tide shifted and parents started fighting schools about letting their kids keep their phone "so they can be contacted in emergencies". The schools gave up fighting with the parents.

Laws like this give the school cover to confiscate the phones and say "talk to your congressperson if this bothers you, my hands are tied".

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#55

Post by caderosche »

shimman wrote: post #24
caderosche wrote: post #15

I don't think banning is the right solution to this. At some point, I think we are going to have comms devices imbedded in our heads and whatnot. I think the right approach is finding teaching techniques that still work when every human has all the world's info at their finger tips 24/7. At some point, an uninterruptible, 24/7 live connection to the rest of the world is inevitable. I'm not convinced a human teacher i…

Ah yes, some point (possibly 100s of years into the future) we have to be concerned with a sci-fi scenario not borne in reality so we can't possibly ban cellphones now. Just ignore all the negative externalities of these mass misery machines, we have to plan for a future that has no basis in reality! There needs to be a politics of rejection, because I an assure you 95% of humanity does not want a device implanted in…

"imbedded in their heads" was a bit over the top.

All I actually mean is I'm sure that soon there will be some cell phone equiv tech that teachers won't be able to ban/control without scanning their entire bodies every day for RF signals.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#56

Post by bitexploder »

dgxyz wrote: post #30

UK here. My kid's school is insane. They think they are so progressive because they banned personal phones entirely, which is fair enough. But they forced us to buy marked up Yondr pouches, which is not fair. However this isn't the only problem. They also force us to pay monthly for iPads with wonky ass Logitech cases to be issued on which they do everything on Google classroom. Google Classroom is an abhorrently bad…

Probably a similar problem to AI. Using AI for the sake of AI in an engineering workflow probably wastes time right now. Using technology in the classroom for the sake of using technology is probably similar. Is it really creating access, opportunity, saving time. All that? I am skeptical. I have had similar experiences with my children over time. There was a layer of technology that made sense for education. Probably peaked when I was in school in the 90s.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#57

Post by [deleted] »

mentalgear wrote: post #28

'Engaged Students, Joyful Teachers' ... but sad Zuck ! As soon as this becomes popular and Zuck's engagement numbers tank, prepare for a propaganda campaign of nuclear proportions - maybe they even pull the OG Sheryl Sandberg back to steer the PR ship. And with the current crop of cronies in office, don’t be surprised if a new ID bill will be introduced that requires "social connectivity" as requirement for ID verifi…

[deleted]

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#58

Post by engeljohnb »

bawolff wrote: post #21

I'm a little confussd... was there a point they were allowed? I went to school in the late 2000s, and even at that point if a teacher saw you with a cell phone it was immediately confiscated.

I was in high school in the early 2010s. In 2010 I went to a school that gave all students ipod touchs, which seemed futuristic at the time. By 2012 phones weren't banned from school, but a teacher would still take it if you were blatantly using it during class.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#59

Post by SunshineTheCat »

It's tough to imagine how different it must be for kids now than when I went to school.

I know there's a billion other reasons, but I've heard parents say they want their kid to have a phone so they can keep in touch if they need to.

When I was a kid, cell phones weren't a thing (at least for kids) so the once or twice a year I needed to call a parent I went down to the office and asked to use their phone.

Then I got to have whatever, usually embarrassing, conversation with my mom while everyone in the school office stared at me. Good times.

Re: Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'

#60

Post by caderosche »

scuff3d wrote: post #26
caderosche wrote: post #15

I don't think banning is the right solution to this. At some point, I think we are going to have comms devices imbedded in our heads and whatnot. I think the right approach is finding teaching techniques that still work when every human has all the world's info at their finger tips 24/7. At some point, an uninterruptible, 24/7 live connection to the rest of the world is inevitable. I'm not convinced a human teacher i…

We're talking about kids, not adults. You ban cell phones for the same we weren't allowed to play our Gameboy during class when I was a kid. They lack the self control and decision making capabilities to forgo something fun for the sake of something important. Not to mention we have plenty of studies that show even a silent phone sitting quietly in your pocket or on your desk can be an attention drain, as you're subc…

I don't disagree that people lack self control.

My only disagreement is that bans on cellphone-like tech will be at all enforceable in the near future.

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