Should Cell Phones be allowed in Classrooms?

How strict should a teacher’s cell phone policy be? Should students be forced to turn off their phones during class? Or should they be allowed, so the student can quickly look something up on the internet? So in case of an emergency their phone is available? Is a student’s cell phone more of a distraction than a helpful tool?

Questions like these, I am sure, have more than just one answer. Personally I think that phones are both distracting and can be helpful in class. Nowadays, most cell phones have the ability to connect to the internet, making it really easy to look something up in class. But it also makes it easier to check Twitter and Instagram. Each teacher has their own opinion and I have been in classes with really strict policies and some without any at all.

Personally, I prefer the teachers who are more relaxed in their policy. I like to keep my phone on my desk, on silent of course, in order to check the time or look something up on the internet really fast. I would be a liar though, if I said I've never texted a friend or checked social media during class. It is a problem that ever teacher and student are going to have to face. Cell phones are a major part of most students’ lives and I don’t think they are going away any time soon. I know they can be a huge distraction to some students, I think that most know when to put them down and pay attention in class. As long as you still learn the material, I don’t see a problem with teachers letting their students have cell phones in the class room.

The time when phones get to be a nuisance, are when they keep going off in class. I understand if it goes off once because you forgot to turn it on silent, but when it goes off more than that, it gets distracting to the whole class. This is where I think the problem lies, it is one thing if one student is distracted by his or her own phone, but when the whole class is distracted it creates a problem.  It is a lot harder to learn when someone is getting a text ever five minutes and their phone keeps making a beeping sound. I think that students should be allowed to have their phones out in class as long as it is not distracting to other students around him or her.

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