In California, a high school teacher complains that students watch Netflix on their phones during class. In Maryland, a chemistry teacher says students use gambling apps to place bets during the school day.

Around the country, educators say students routinely send Snapchat messages in class, listen to music and shop online, among countless other examples of how smartphones distract from teaching and learning.

The hold that phones have on adolescents in America today is well-documented, but teachers say parents are often not aware to what extent students use them inside the classroom. And increasingly, educators and experts are speaking with one voice on the question of how to handle it: Ban phones during classes.

  • andrew_bidlaw
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    010 months ago

    It matters who have that survelliance capability. With phones all parties are equal to report problems, with cameras - it’s school, and it’s not that hard to imagine them losing data when they themselves are at risk of a lawsuit. Besides, mass surveiliance via cameras would rightfully meet a pushback (and it’s an overkill) while phones are already here and already fixated tons of problems.

    • @SkippingRelax
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      110 months ago

      Totally agree camera it’s an overkill and they rightly meet a push back, I’d be one of those. It’s just that we are trying to fix something that in dont see as a problem, with something that doesn’t make any sense. Phones haven’t been in a classroom for long. If the main reason you think they should remain is because they have a camera and they might catch something, it looks like a pretty weak one to me given all the downsides - kids at school are not schooling l.

      • andrew_bidlaw
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        010 months ago

        It was one of the reasons why banning phones is stupid. Besides obvious, like a way to contact a child when it’s not at home, or using it to find information, access cloud documents, editing them.

        Phones aren’t a problem. Bad parenting and bad teaching are.