Argumentative Essay on Should Cellphones Be Allowed in School

Should cellphones be allowed in schools? This is the one question being asked by all parents, students and teachers everywhere across the nation! In Ontario specifically, the government has banned the use of cell phones all across the province during school hours and during “instruction time.” This means students aren’t allowed to use their cell phones during these hours no matter what. Many people applaud the government for this decision, while some others argue that cell phones actually help students in school.

Although cell phones have recently been banned in schools due to the distractions they may cause, students should be allowed to use cellphones in school. Cell phones can be used to support student learning. They are cost effective for schools and they provide peace of mind in case of emergencies.

One reason why students should be allowed to use cellphones in school is that they can be used to support student learning. According to an article named “Cell phones as educational tools save cost, time and energy,” It stated that “Cell phones can be an effective educational tool. Teaching and learning can be made easier if they are used wisely. For example, a student can download educational applications to their phones. The apps can help teachers devise creative ways to teach and make lessons more interesting. Teachers and students can answer questions via the phones, students’ progress feedback can be gathered through the phones and there are applications to document lab and group projects and teachers’ notes. Everything is at their fingertips.” Therefore, with personal cell phones, students can search anything they are unclear about at any time, they can email the teacher about a question if they aren’t confident to ask in front of the class and are too shy, students can use an online calculator if they don’t have access to one in real life or don’t have one on them, they can access all of their online assignments by their phone and apps like using Google Classroom right away. Phones also help teachers post any last minute posts on Google Classroom, they can share notes with students right away online rather than printing them out or making them copy them in class, and teachers can check on students progress on work and assignments anytime. A survey called “The Student Pulse Survey” by TopHat, conducted by Survata, an independent research firm polled 520 college students about learning with cell phones. 75% of students have found that using personal devices in the class has improved their ability to learn and absorb information. 58% of students use their phones to take pictures of lecture slides and 39% use their phones to access online textbooks. So this also proves that many students use their cell phones for school purposes and to help them not fall behind and to help support their learning. For an example, some students might be fast writers, while others aren’t and if they aren’t fast writers, they might not be able to keep up with everyone else while taking notes. With cell phones they can take pictures of the notes and finish them at home without having to worry if they got all the notes or not.

Another reason why cell phones should be in school is that they are cost effective for schools. Liz Kolb, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Education from the article “As Schools Lift Bans on Cell Phones, Educators Weigh Pros and Cons,” says that, “They’re really seeing them as a learning tool, not just a toy for entertainment, and they’re seeing that they can be cost effective for the schools instead of having to purchase technology for students.” This means that's if cell phones are allowed in schools and students can use them, schools wouldn’t have to waste money to buy devices for each student to have if they have their own phones, because buying devices isn’t cheap and they can be really expensive, especially for getting one for each student in EACH CLASS. Schools can instead save this money or use the money to buy or invest in something else like getting more motivational speakers or authors to come talk to the children, the money can go towards recreational activities like Play Days, or to raise awareness for mental health in schools, which will also benefit many children. According to another article called “Schools should embrace cell phones as learning tools instead of banning them,” It stated that “Most high schools in the United States do not have enough computers for all students to use at once. By allowing cell phone usage, the ability to access the Internet will become much easier and will help schools save money.” This suggests that not all schools can afford to buy devices for all their students, and in order to get these funds schools might have to cut off funding for stuff like clubs, extracurricular activities and cooking classes, and all these activities are loved by students. Cutting funds from activities like this can cause students to feel less motivated about going to school and instead of this happening, if students were allowed to bring cell phones to school, none of this would be necessary.

The final reason why students should be allowed to bring cell phones to schools is because  they provide peace of mind in case of emergencies. According to an article called, “10 Advantages to Allowing Kids to Have Cellphones in Schools,” it stated that,“The amount of time it takes to reach a parent during an emergency can be significantly reduced if the child has a cell phone. Finding “Mom” or “Dad” listed on their contact list and making the call from the site of the emergency would be much quicker than having to notify the teacher or office and having them look the information up in their system.” This means that with cell phones students would be able to call their parents MUCH quicker, than having to go all the way to the office and telling them the situation if the teacher hasn't already called and informed them, telling them your phone number and waiting for your parents to pick up and sometimes not all parents pick their phones up if they see an unknown number calling them and they might just ignore it, while if they saw their child calling during school hours, they would know it might be something really important for them to be calling. One other article named “Pros of cellphones in school,” said that sometimes you need to get into touch with your children at school right away, even while they are in class. This could be because of a recent death that occurred in the family, an accident or any other emergency that could require their attention and stated that “Phones are also particularly useful during recess and lunch hours when students aren't in class and may be difficult to find.” So if students have their cell phones on them, parents can also call them immediately in case of an emergency, instead of having to call the office and explain everything to them and wait for them to reach the child, and this can be extremely difficult during recess because when there are a lot of kids outside, you can’t really find who your looking for. By wasting all that time trying to find the child, something could have happened just because you couldn’t get in touch with your child right away, but if they had a cell phone on them you could have immediately got in touch.

These three reasons are why although cell phones have recently been banned in schools due to the distractions they may cause, students should be allowed to use cellphones in school. Cell phones can be helpful to students in so many ways, from helping them learn to quickly getting in contact with their families and don’t we all want the students across Ontario to succeed and become successful? Then if cell phones help with their learning shouldn’t they be permitted?