article thumbnail

Smartphones in Education: Redirecting Distraction with Mobile Learning

ViewSonic Education

With so many captivating apps and games, it is easy to see how students would have a hard time putting their smartphones and other mobile devices away. Smartphones have always been associated with leisure and entertainment more than education and learning, and teachers are inclined toward blanket bans in the classroom.

article thumbnail

How Are School Smartphone Bans Going?

Edsurge

Angela Fleck says this was the typical scene last year in the sixth grade social studies classes she teaches at Glover Middle School in Spokane, Washington: Nearly every student had a smartphone, and many of them would regularly sneak glances at the devices, which they kept tucked behind a book or just under their desks.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

What If Banning Smartphones in Schools Is Just the Beginning?

Edsurge

The movement to keep smartphones out of schools is gaining momentum. Just last week, the nation’s second-largest public school system, Los Angeles Unified School District, voted to ban smartphones starting in January, citing adverse health risks of social media for kids. And the U.S. We don't let kids smoke in school,” he points out.

article thumbnail

K–12 Schools Implement Connectivity Solutions to Narrow the Homework Gap

EdTech Magazine

It was several weeks into school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic when Dave Peterson looked out his office window at Washington’s Sunnyside School District and saw something unusual: A young man was sitting outside his house, trying to connect to Zoom over a smartphone hotspot so he could sign in to class.

article thumbnail

As Student Smartphone Use Increases, So Does Our Need for Consistent School Policies

Edsurge

This year, the Pew Research Center reported that 9 in 10 American adults own a smartphone. While most of us can recall what life was like before our national smartphone addiction, most of today’s adolescents are too young to remember such a time; however, smartphone ownership among 13 to 17-year-olds almost mirrors adults.

article thumbnail

Smartphones Have Changed Student Attention, Even When Students Aren’t Using Them

Edsurge

And that’s true even when instructors force students to put away their smartphones. EdSurge: I was struck by your point in your book that we are never away from our smartphones even when we try to put them away. When teachers think their students aren’t paying attention in class, they’re probably right. What do you mean by that?

article thumbnail

New Global Survey Offers Snapshot of Technology in the Classroom in 2019

EdTech Magazine

Forty-two percent use smartphones, 33 percent use interactive whiteboards and 20 percent use tablets. Smartphones Are Not Universal in K–12. One particular area of technology the survey highlighted as growing is smartphones. Smartphones, laptops and desktops will clearly be part of that mix — alongside pen and paper.

Survey 372