Editor:
The Aug. 31 article, “Mobile phones and their place in the classroom,” is basically an ad aimed at getting any “naysayers” who object to classroom presence and use of mobile phones. As an admitted Luddite and former teacher, I am appalled at the paper’s use of this ad to promote the idea that teachers can “guide students to stay on task, while on mobile phones, when the teacher roams the classroom to keep an eye on phone activity.”
I see that this “educational” story was generated by Metro Creative, whose primary focus and raison d’etre is expressed in their logo, “Create. Sell. Profit.” Whatever happened to the idea that the aim of education is to teach students to think, and do research independent of commercially produced “educational” materials – and not for teachers to “monitor diligently” when students are openly using their cell phones in the classroom?
While there are, perhaps, some educational sites where facts and history can be found, these do little to equip a student to do independent research, using libraries and books; to look at alternate sources, and the “bigger picture” than that presented online. While use of traditional information sources admittedly takes more time, it also trains students to question the authority of the sources of that information, and note that alternate sources can be very misleading and contradictory.
Using electronic “apps” to obtain information (Google it!) has become ubiquitous; dependence on such “services” or devices encourages “quick and easy” answers or solutions that fail to challenge the student to consider opposing information, or to pursue alternate sources – one of the more crucial aims of education.
I won’t even touch on the hazards of endless use of electronic devices in everyday life, which can be found in books such as LIFE: the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality by Neal Gabler, or Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges. Then there’s Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone, with his “magisterial account” of the decline of civic engagement. He found that “time in front of the TV screen is the most powerful, single characteristic for long-term decline in time devoted to civic activities … and that more TV watching equals lower levels of social trust and higher levels of political corruption.”
Is this what we send our children to school to learn? Think about the level of distraction that constant use of cell phones provides!
Anna Banana, Roberts Creek