OPINION
6
The borah Senator
April 22, 2010
Senator Cell phone technology Staff Why student phones should not be considered enemies of Opinion the classroom, but welcomed as viable educational tools Opinion is taken from an anonymous survey of Senator staff members. Apple’s latest gadget, the iPad, goes on sale. Boise School District libraries budget falls to $0 for the 2010-2011 school year. Volcanic ash from Iceland disrupts global air travel. Newly painted fire lanes along Borah’s parking lot mean no more parallel parking along the field. Supreme Court Justice Stevens announces plans to retire from the court. Duke beat out Butler for the basketball NCAA national title.
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Staff Editorial
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nder the current electronics policy in place at Borah, cell phones, and essentially all other personal electronic devices have been banned from use in the building during class, break, and at lunch, and are subject to confiscation. The prohibited status of these devices is nothing new, but the policy begs the question of how much sense it makes to bar personal electronics from the school environment when the world around us is more plugged in than ever. If school is supposed to be about preparing its students to be contributing members of society, which is increasingly technology-dominated, the traditional role of personal electronic devices, particularly cell phones, needs to be revised. If the way we communicate, store and access information has changed, then the way we use personal technology in school should not be left to stagnate. We need to adapt our concept of tech use, especially where cell phones are concerned, not only because more tendrils of technology will inevitably wind their way into the school setting, but because embracing the new ways technology can be used will keep us current and adaptable, and frankly, more like the world that exists beyond the school building. Technology is not going away any time soon, and to some degree Bo-
rah has already embraced that. We use online databases just as often as we visit the reference section of the library. We check our grades online, and turn in essays via Internet. Smartboards are in use right next to white boards. When technology lets us be more efficient and effective, we need to take that opportunity.
ables distraction. But we also know, that despite the current electronics policy that every student signed, and thereby stated that they were aware of, cell phone use is still in full swing. We still text under desks and behind our backpacks. We still take out our phones in the hallway, and we certainly carry them on our person. Our teachers still have to take time to chide cell phone users and to confiscate cell phones. We still stop class and gawk when our peers are apprehended using their cell phones. It would be more effective to assimilate cell phone use into a workable relationship with the classroom than to ban them outright, especially when cell phone users flaunt said ban. Cell phones do not have to be the irreconcilable enemies of the classroom, the teacher, or of education. Traditional concepts of cell phones no Illustration by Chris Lawson longer apply, and neither The next step is to recognize cell should the methods of dealing with phones as technological resources. them. Cell phones are more than just devicThis being said, if we want to use es we talk with. We use them in ways our cell phones in class, we have to outside the conventional purpose of stop being part of the problem, and talking and texting—we use them to we must be willing to compromise. We organize, to remind ourselves of due have to treat them as tools for learndates, to send weblinks, to check spell- ing- not just a way to chat with friends ing. These are our versions of daily during time when we are supposed to planners, sticky notes, and calendars. be working. For cell phones to be a We understand that allowing cell viable technological resource and tool, phones in class may blur the line be- we have to exercise some self restraint, tween what’s acceptable etiquette and and lay off the texting. It’s one thing what’s not. We recognize that a more to ask teachers to allow us to enter due open electronics policy would make dates into our calendars, but it’s anit tricky to distinguish what entails other to expect them to put up with us responsible use, and what merely en- texting during their lessons.