Mobile Phones In Schools

[peak4]

8 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Fair enough - but some of us don't watch/listen to the 'news'. Hence my request for a source.

The same story seems to be widely syndicated, but the official paper is here
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65cf5f2a4239310011b7b916/Mobile_phones_in_schools_guidance.pdf

[RollingJ]

Thanks, @peak4. Good to have the 'official' documentation, rather than an interpretation, but as usual there is a load of official guff to get through before you read the important bits.

 

How did we get on at school without a mobile phone - or any electronic devices?

[Mister M]

21 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Talking about grabbing attention 

You are free not to give the subject any attention.

[hackey lad]

2 minutes ago, Mister M said:

You are free not to give the subject any attention.

Thank you .

[abbeyedges]

Mobile phones are important but as has been mentioned earlier there are greater priorities.

 

Special Education Needs are vastly more important.

 

I'm 68 and belong to the 'lucky geneation'. We have let this generation of kids down so badly. 

[peak4]

19 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Thanks, @peak4. Good to have the 'official' documentation, rather than an interpretation, but as usual there is a load of official guff to get through before you read the important bits.

 

How did we get on at school without a mobile phone - or any electronic devices?

Folk probably said the same when slide rules were allowed in lieu of log tables; I'm of the era when calculators were first introduced, but you still had to show all workings of how you achieved the answer.
Reverse Polish Notation did present some initial difficulties as I recall.
Times and technology move on, I believe sat navs are now part of the driving test, but measures should be proportionate.
The mobiles in schools stuff is also referenced by other educational bodies, such as The UN, rather than just UK politicians' posturing.

A new UN report raised concerns on Wednesday about the excessive use of smartphones in schools worldwide. According to the UN's education, science and culture agency UNESCO, the over-use of mobile phones impacts learning.

[Axe]

1 hour ago, steved32 said:

"New guidance instructs headteachers on how to ban the use of phones not only during lessons but during break and lunch periods as well."

 

All schools have policies and procedures in place.  I would have thought Keegan has more important priorities...RAAC concrete, staff recruitment and retention, unauthorised absence rates.

 

Yet another attempt to grab headlines from this woeful government.

All schools do not have the same policies in place.  For example some schools allow the children to use phones at break times while others do not.  It about time all use of mobile phones was banned during school hours.  They are sorting out the RAAC problem.  Banning mobiles phones should not cost any money to implement and is a sensible policy to introduce. 

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, peak4 said:

Folk probably said the same when slide rules were allowed in lieu of log tables; I'm of the era when calculators were first introduced, but you still had to show all workings of how you achieved the answer.
Reverse Polish Notation did present some initial difficulties as I recall.
Times and technology move on, I believe sat navs are now part of the driving test, but measures should be proportionate.
The mobiles in schools stuff is also referenced by other educational bodies, such as The UN, rather than just UK politicians' posturing.

A new UN report raised concerns on Wednesday about the excessive use of smartphones in schools worldwide. According to the UN's education, science and culture agency UNESCO, the over-use of mobile phones impacts learning.

Slide rules (and even calculators) helped in learning. When I was at school, we didn't use slide rules, but did use log tables. My first use of calculators was at work, and certainly made my job much easier and quicker.

Mobile phones, by their very nature, interfere with learning - IMHO, of course.

[peak4]

14 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Slide rules (and even calculators) helped in learning. When I was at school, we didn't use slide rules, but did use log tables. My first use of calculators was at work, and certainly made my job much easier and quicker.

Mobile phones, by their very nature, interfere with learning - IMHO, of course.

My concerns about calculators being used in schools too early, is that I think students should learn a "feeling" for the size of numbers before their introduction.
Just plugging digits into a calculator leads one to immediately believe the results, even if there are misplaced decimal points for instance.

I recall taking in a stores delivery for a colleague at work, including a particular item, which needed to be 4" of some tubing in two different colours.
I've no idea what happened at the planning stage, but metric conversions were involved somewhere, so 4" became approx 100mm, which became 100m then 100 units, which became boxes etc.
I ended up with two full pallets of tubing, costing many thousands of pounds each. rather than two 4 inch lengths; this occurred over several different jobs, so rather than a jiffy bag in the post, a lorry arrived at the stores.

[Prettytom]

42 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Slide rules (and even calculators) helped in learning. When I was at school, we didn't use slide rules, but did use log tables. My first use of calculators was at work, and certainly made my job much easier and quicker.

Mobile phones, by their very nature, interfere with learning - IMHO, of course.

Not necessarily.

 

For example, you could have used a mobile phone to access the mobile phone guidance that has been published for schools. 
 

You could have indulged in some independent learning, then you wouldn’t have needed to ask someone else to do it for you.