My name is Ram Etwaroo. I have a rather checkered story about where I live. I am displaced from Fort McMurray because my house was burnt in the Fort McMurray fire and my family were in Ontario while I continued to work in Alberta and BC. I taught in Fort McMurray, Northern Alberta and BC. After the Fort McMurray fire I lived and taught in First Nations communities. I lived in housing in the communities so that worked out well. I taught high school Math and Science.
The debate about cell phones in the classroom is really important to me. As a teacher I often experience the nightmare of cell phone distraction in the classroom. At the same time, I am also a believer of leveraging cell phone as technology in the classroom, that it is very difficult to control or we cannot control students using cell phones in the classroom, and at the same time it is important to teach students how to self-regulate and to use cell phones appropriately as a learning tool in the classroom. I am also a parent and I let my children have cell phones and I think of how many adults peek at their cell phones in a movie theater or in meetings and presentations.
I have a fairly relaxed policy with students bringing their cell phones to the classroom provided they put them away when I tell them to put it away. They often do not put away their cell phones when I ask them to and I tried to manage that in the classroom but the time when a student was recording me on his cell phone while I was teaching was really bad experience for me. I will end here with that, for me there is no end to the debate.
P.S. I forgot about the first time a boy recorded me in the classroom as I was teaching, (so it happened more than once), I was not even aware of it. Another student in my class mentioned it and that was how I was aware it happened.
Hey Ram,
I agree, the issue of cell phone use in the classroom is one of paramount importance. I have played with many policies and I feel firm but flexible is the best method. I also feel that we need to ready our students for a more mobile world which they will be living and working in. likely, they will be doing so much on their cell phones, they will need to learn how to work and communicate socially at the same time. Heady times indeed! How can we support them for this future endeavor?
Hi Benjamin,
That is a good question. I am hoping to work on the answers in this course. Thanks!
Ram!
Hey Stranger! Do you remember me? We both worked with FMPSD and I was at Timberlea School. We also left after the fire in Fort Mac. Very sorry to hear that you and your family lost your house to the fire. We were fortunate and had little damage with our place. Derek and I ended up selling the house and then spent the following year traveling around the world. So nice to see that you are part of this course and I look forward to connecting with you again.
Meipsy
Hi Meipsy! Wow! Yes, great to connect with you. Yes, I remember you and Derek. Truth be told so much has happened with me these past four years that sometimes I am struggling to remember details these days. I will ask David (our instructor) to send you my email and we can hook up. Cheers, Ram.
Hi Ceci, Thank you. I am looking forward to learning with you in this course. About the cell phone policy, that is interesting. I believe your school policy is similar to many others. The interesting thing about the last school I was at, the school admin said to teachers that if the school policy asks students not to have cell phones in the classroom then teachers are not allowed to have their cell phones in the classroom also. That was when it got interesting. Because I do not use Facebook etc but I need to have my cell phone with me in case if my children were trying to get hold of me. It turns out that my daughter would need to contact me by text messaging a lot. (I do not have my phone out when I am teaching but I glance it between classes changes or during breaks etc) The teachers unanimously were against not being allowed to have their cell phones in the classroom. My policy was my students can have their cell phones with them and whatever. My only rule was when I ask them to put it away they must do so. I simply managed it as I need to; if they refused to comply when I ask them to put it away then I deal with it. My students know that I would ask them to put it away at certain times only so I usually managed quite OK.
I like your cell phone rules, Ram! We deal with cell phone distractions just like the way we deal with other classroom management issues, don’t we? Our school is the same. Teachers are not encouraged to have their phones in academic areas… some of us do feel worried that we might miss some emergency calls. As David mentioned in “Digital Doppelgangers”, our cell phones are becoming extensions of ourselves and we feel naked, adrift or lost without them. We even lose our sense of safety.
Hi Ram,
Sorry to hear about your house. Hope things are going well with you at your new place.
Speaking of cell phone distraction in the classroom, our school has a new cell phone policy this year: students need to park their cell phones in the pocket chart at the door when entering the classroom, or they need to leave their cell phones in their lockers. That means academic areas such as classrooms are cell phone free zones. Students are allowed to use their phones during recess and lunch; however, they need to use their cell phones in certain areas and avoid those classrooms where there are signs saying TECH-FREE. Those classrooms are where face-to-face communication is encouraged. Our school is actually a tech-rich school. We have a really strong IT department and many teachers are tech geeks. Almost all teachers are open to new teaching tools, with some pioneering in experimenting with emergent technologies. Although questions were being asked as to how we can incorporate mobile learning if cell phones are not allowed in general in the classroom (our admins are quite supportive – if there is a good reason to use cell phones teachers can decide to have students bring their phones to the block), the new policy was accepted well by students, teachers and parents.
What do you think about it?
Hello again, Ram. Looking forward to working with you in another course this semester! My hiatus from teaching in secondary came right as the majority of students were starting to come to school with phones, and it was a philosophical battle between teachers and teachers and teachers and administrators to define the school policy – which was never determined or defined. This aspect of mobile learning and using devices in face to face classes is indeed a debate-worthy topic, and I respect schools and districts that have well defined policies, because it’s not fair to teachers or students to be in this constant battle that detracts from instructional and learning time.
Hi Mel, looking forward to working with you also in this course. Interestingly, it was the same situation in the last school I was in. The school also did not have a school policy for cell phones. The reason is that if a school policy was to be discussed the issue of teachers with cell phones in the classroom would have to be discussed. I for one stated clearly that I need to have my cell phone with me in the classroom. So the “school policy” was whatever the classroom teacher decides.