Technology has become an important part of every classroom—and that’s not a bad thing. When you enter an elementary school classroom in 2022, you’ll likely see kids typing up reports on school laptops, teachers using a projector to show videos, and students studying their textbooks on an iPad.
So what about phones?
According to NPR, 53% of kids Nova88 own a cell phone by age 11, with over 84% entering the mobile world by the time they’re a teen. With these statistics, it’s inevitable that many students take phones to school. And while phones can be distracting, they are a valuable educational tool when used correctly. After all, cell phones have a bundle of benefits that help make learning easier, accessible, and entertaining.
So why should phones be allowed in school? Well, if the easy access to information and utility as a classroom resource don’t convince you, one of these twenty reasons should:
- Educational apps and games make learning fun! Education is exciting. Learning new things should be an enjoyable endeavor for people of all ages, but some kids look at learning as a boring waste of time. Thankfully, there are a plethora of fun apps and games that make learning fun again—and many of these apps are available on Troomi phones! Click here to learn a little more about Troomi’s fun and educational KidSmart® apps, and then click here to see what amazing plans are available.
- Students can access digital learning material on their phones. Resources like news stories, blog posts, and magazine articles are valuable learning materials in the classroom. This is especially the case in history and writing courses, where studying a variety of sources aids in a student’s understanding.
- Students can access educational videos. Imagine how much stronger learning about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech would be by hearing the words from the man himself. With a phone, it’s easier than ever to watch educational videos like historic speeches, lectures, and even exciting science experiments.
- Cell phone e-readers make textbooks more accessible than ever. Textbooks are a necessary part of many classes, but their high cost and heavy weight often gets in the way of educational accessibility. With a phone’s e-reader capability, however, most textbooks are available at the tap of a finger, giving students the information they need to excel in any course they take.
- Making cell phones a classroom resource introduces necessary tech skills early. In today’s world, technological know-how is an absolute must. By introducing cell phones to the classroom, teachers have the ability to help their students learn how to use technology responsibly and appropriately. Start by teaching them some basic tech lingo!
- Educational exposure to phones teaches kids the basics of digital citizenship. Knowing how to work a phone is one thing, but using it appropriately is another. Being a digital citizen means knowing how to engage with technology in a positive and beneficial way. Digital citizenship skills are absolutely vital in today’s world, and there’s no better place to learn them than in the classroom.
- Quiz games like Kahoot! make phones a participation tool. A ton of my high school and university teachers used online quiz games like Kahoot! to get students interested and engaged in a lesson. Students connect to a teacher’s quiz with their phones, then use their device as a controller to answer questions and test their knowledge.
- Phones help kids get quick answers to important questions. Oftentimes in a classroom, the teacher doesn’t get the opportunity to answer every student’s question. In this case, a phone can be a great resource!
- Online encyclopedias satisfy a student’s curiosity. Kids are naturally curious people, and a phone provides easy answers to their questions. Do they want to know who fought in the Battle of Waterloo? Or perhaps they’re interested in knowing who first discovered America (hint: it wasn’t Columbus). Gone are the days of digging through 1,000 page encyclopedias to find the answers. Now all it takes is a few clicks through online resources like Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Cell phones can be used as calculators. Remember when you weren’t allowed to use a calculator in math class, because the teacher said you wouldn’t have one with you in your everyday life? Well the times have changed; now, we carry a calculator with us all the time! Teaching students to use the calculator on their phones is a valuable skill that will only deepen their grasp of mathematical concepts.