Bill Introduced In Pennsylvania To Ban All Portable Gadgets In School
from the seems-a-bit-extreme,-right? dept
We've seen various schools or school teachers/administrators try to ban bringing mobile devices into schools, and the whole concept seems backwards. It's perfectly reasonable to have rules within the classroom where students are told not to use the phones during class time, but a full ban makes little sense. In fact, many parents have protested such rules, as they feel safer when their kids have mobile phones. However, it looks like some politicians in Pennsylvania are going even further. Dan Callahan, a 6th grade teacher in Pennsylvania wrote in to let us know that a state legislator has introduced legislation for a blanket ban on students having portable electronic devices in schools:The possession by students of telephone paging devices, commonly referred to as beepers, cellular telephones and portable electronic devices that record or play audio or video material shall be prohibited on school grounds, at school sponsored activities and on buses or other vehicles provided by the school district.Callahan points out how ridiculous this is, referring to it as the Luddite Bill (though, in fairness, it would just be one of many such bills). He notes that his school does already have a ban on phones (which he's helped enforce), but notes that there should be flexibility -- especially for the school to decide. He also notes that mobile devices may present a great learning opportunity for smart teachers who learn to make use of them:
A few years ago, I wouldn't have thought this a big deal, but to take away the option of teachers allowing cell phone use in their classrooms to me now seems ludicrous. Right now we stand on the brink of a major shift in computing resources available to students in their pockets, with phones as powerful as a computer from only a few years ago.... Honestly, if you think we really want you to take away more teaching options from us, you're sorely mistaken.And this isn't far out thinking either. The NY Times this weekend ran an article about the idea of smart phones as teaching tools, creating the ability to bring impressive computing power into the classroom at a much lower price point. But, apparently, some politicians in Pennsylvania would rather keep such things out of the classroom entirely.
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Filed Under: mobile devices, pennsylvania, schools
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(Raises hand sheepishly...)
Many of these devices actually speak or emit other forms of "audio material".
Way to go.
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Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
I went to high school with a kid who was functionally blind. Is he allowed to have a talking watch?
It seems to me there are too many cases where such devices are necessary to put a blanket ban on them.
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Re: Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
Cell phones, pagers, game systems were already banned and were confiscated when found. Most teachers didn't care about someone having a cell phone as long as it didn't go off. Once it did, the device was confiscated, sent to the principles office and would not be released unless to a parent.
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Re: Re: Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
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Re: Re: Re: Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
Didn't you hear? They are instead banning foreign exchange students!
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Re: Re: Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
In the two years that he's carried it, there have been 3 bomb-threats in our district, not to mention complete communication break-down (twice - no internet to school, no phone service, all schools in the district). The SD is really good about keeping parents notified, and we are very clear with our son that this is NOT a toy and that if he mis-uses the priveledge we will be removing it from him. HOWEVER, the first time there was a bomb threat, I sent him a text (not knowing if he would be able to receive it) and he told me later he went to the bathroom to read it, which made him feel safe.
NOTHING can replace that. Our schools aren't the completely safe havens they were (or were beleived to be) once upon a time. I want my children to know they are empowered to help themselves in a crisis.
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Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
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Re: Re: (Raises hand sheepishly...)
And no, the prescription FROM THE DR isn't enuff. Gotta have a separate note saying "yes, this is medically necessary". *sigh*
And we wonder why our health care is so flippin' expensive...
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Out of touch, with evidence
If that doesn't show how out-of-touch politicians are, nothing does. Seriously, how many people still use pagers? Has this legislator been living in a cave for the last two decades?
This is a typical politician reaction -- if the concept is too hard to grasp, ban it!
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Re:
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iPod for School Breakfast
http://cbs4.com/4yourmoney/Free.School.Breakfast.2.926958.html
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Re:
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Re: Re:
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Cell phones make it harder...
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Goodbye!
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Accesibility
Add to that the one thing that everyone seems to gloss over, what about Freedom of Speech? Just because we are talking about kids here does not mean that the Constitution doesn't apply.
Is there really any realistic reason that a kid should not be able to have a phone on the school bus? I can see an instructor saying that he doesn't want people using their phones to call or take calls (thus being disruptive) during class. But video? No. That should be allowed unless there is some reason that can be given to justify this to parents.
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Goodbye Pulse
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So there won't be any math people from that state...
So what will it be? Know what you can calculate in your head, or at least on your fingers, or learn to do high level calc on a friday night on the corner with your buddies. You decide!
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Horny teachers?
"Is that a Calculator in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"
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Would this prohibit student clubs from showing video? What happens to AV club?
Would student journalists for the school newspaper be allowed to use cameras?
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Early Adopter here
The only responce that teachers like to give is, "you might not have it." Or "What if all computers stoped working". To be totly honest, the amount of computing power in my pocket is skyrocketing.
So my question to schools is, how will you adapt to all kids having google in there pocket? Banning google is really not a good way to teach students about the real world.
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Please RTFA
"The prohibition against beepers and cellular telephones contained in subsection (a) shall not apply in the following cases, provided that the school authorities approve of the presence of the beeper or cellular telephone in each case:
(1) A student who is a member of a volunteer fire company, ambulance or rescue squad.
(2) A student who has a need for a beeper or cellular telephone due to the medical condition of an immediate family member."
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2 009&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=0363&pn=0410
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Re: Please RTFA
It doesn't include all portable gadgets, but it's more than just beepers and cellphones.
"portable electronic devices that record or play audio or video material" are prohibited.
That could include cell phones, cameras, ebook readers, laptops, ipods, etc.
There's even code to make TI calculators play music or video - are they also prohibited?
Other commenters mentioned that they've used medical devices which play songs/sounds as notifications, which is arguably playing 'audio material'.
The medical exemption only applies to phones/pagers due to a family member's medical condition, so medical devices used by the student would not be exempted by (2).
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WTF????
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They Forgot Something
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Bass-ackwards state
Recently, someone I know (from PA) found he couldn't buy certain wines from out of state, because the winery can't ship wine to PA, due to their archaic "blue laws".
You'd never guess that the midwest starts so far East...
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off on a tangent, but...
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Problems
If technology ever fails to a point where these such devices will not function or global communication is reduced back to land lines without internet, when we look around us we will see a bunch of fumbling idiots with their thumbs in there A@*$%
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Yeah, like if we don't teach kids hi-tech stuff, they'll never learn it...
Typical knee-jerk responses all round here, but there is a fundamental failing here and more hi-tech stuff has not proved to be the answer so far.
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My son has a cell phone that he takes to school with him - that has to stay in the locker or it gets confiscated. All of the students know not to bring anything to the classroom and things work very nicely.
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Re: Close, but not enought
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Sir, As a student, that is the most ass backwords thing I ever heard, Just because I dont know how to smith a hammer dosent mean I cant use the hammer. This applys to most every subject with building blocks. If the worst thing possable happen (say someone drops EMPs all over the world, or a super solar flare) then we are in a far more world of hurt then if a highschool student (or an entire highschool) dosent know what Pi is.
If anything responcable use needs to be taught, we already know total Ban of gadgets does not work why not actully teach kids the correct use, and the thory behind how each thing works.
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Its all about the lawyers
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Re: Its all about the lawyers
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Are Children Convicts?
Locking kids up in rooms with a droning instructor who doesn't engage the class, who's forced to repeat the same material from the beginning of the book that everyone's already received before because there's no national structured curriculum or development plan is silly. The students who are smart will do other work or read ahead in the book to the more interesting stuff. Those who don't want to be there at all and haven't understood the point about history repeating it's self if it's not learned will try to amuse themselves in other ways.
So don't ban the devices or punish the students, fix the curriculum to engage the students.
What I would have loved were projects. Mix it all together. Integrate history, math, science, everything in to a unified structure. Teach the students about what it used to be like before history was written, before there was writing.
Abolish grades entirely, they no longer matter. Instead have conceptual levels. A series of puzzles or a problem that must be solved in order to graduate to the next era for that type of knowledge.
Obviously the program should focus on the parts that were more or less accurate and mention others. Ideally there should be contrast between rational and provable methods and the ideas that were not correct for some reason. In that way the students would be learning why the other ideas don't work.
This type of program would be drastically different than the traditional disconnected, disjointed rote memorization schools use. I believe that any child that wanted to learn, any child that was interested in having fun, would embrace this system. The system would also promote them dynamically, based on what they know and how well they perform.
In higher levels, as we neared more modern times, the problems would get more difficult. They might not even have solutions. In this area the students would be working as part of crowd-sourcing the problem. College would be even harder yet as it would involve official public domain RnD as well as problem research and backing for government research, and advice on directions the country should take.
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why?
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