Educational institutions should not ban students from using electronic devices in the classroom. However, the American teacher Arnold Glass opposes this statement, forbidding his students to use phones during his class. He claims that this will eventually negatively affect their intellectual development, lead to a deterioration of memory and attention (Glass, 2019). Glass states that “exam performance declined dramatically” among his students when they started using gadgets during classes (Glass, 2019, para. 4). There is a high probability of distracting students from their studies, for example, listening to music in the classroom. In his opinion, using gadgets at school can also lead to problems of relationships with peers (Glass, 2019). This is due to the fact that live communication is being replaced by virtual communication. Taking into account all these negative aspects, Glass considers prohibiting the use of mobile phones at school a necessity.
However, Arnold Glass focuses exclusively on the negative aspects of using mobile phones during classes, ignoring the numerous benefits. The use of gadgets helps to increase the motivation of schoolchildren, which is achieved when the teacher has the opportunity to manage learning more flexibly with the help of high-tech electronic devices. They allow to make school activities more interesting. There is the possibility of using a pocket library if a student has an e-book. It frees the child from carrying stacks of heavy books from the library. In addition, the student gets used to the idea that the Internet is not only for entertainment, but is a source of necessary information. At the present stage, there are countless applications that have a wide range of applications and are installed on tablets and smartphones. Therefore, the use of phones should be allowed due to the presence of useful applications that greatly facilitate learning.
Reference
Glass, A. (2019). In praise for classroom cell phone bans. The Hill. Web.