The cell phone in the classroom: the guest in face-to-face classes

Today, students don’t rush too much if they don’t have a pen or pencil. They write with their fingers and have several versions of the information they are looking for available, each in a browser tab. Or at least that would be the big picture if educational institutions weren’t creating new ways of relating to technology in the classroom, to avoid inappropriate uses and performance problems.

In the Espol halls, the use of cell phones is allowed as long as there is a planned academic activity that requires the participation of students in digital platforms, reveals Dalton Noboa, dean of degrees of this entity. “All subject to class planning provided by the teacher.” But during the evaluations, the telephone or any other mobile telecommunication equipment is prohibited.

The university has prepared itself for the change. In this first ordinary academic period of the Espol, Approximately 70% of enrolled students will develop some face-to-face academic activity on campus: attendance to classes, laboratory practices or field trips. But there is a remaining percentage that will continue their career virtually. For the first group, the classrooms in which methodologies such as Peer Project Learning (learning among peers) and active learning are developed have been equipped with Access Points (devices to establish a wireless connection between teams). For the second group, the classrooms are prepared to develop classes in a hybrid mode, with simultaneous face-to-face and virtual audience.

Noboa explains the new vision. “Currently, the teaching-learning process is focused on the student, and a more leading and active role is required of them during classes; therefore, the use of educational platforms, computer applications and other technological resources are necessary. Connect to a digital whiteboard, participate in an online forum, take a quick control test, participate in a survey, watch a video, working collaboratively in an online group session, among other activities, are actions that can be performed from a mobile device”.

The cell phone at school: how to set limits

“A student who does not have a cell phone is a miracle,” says Claudia Pérez Cañote, academic coordinator of higher basic education and Natural Sciences teacher at the Pan-American High School. “We are facing a digital generation. We must work based on that reality”, he says, recalling that in 2020 they worked virtually, to switch to the hybrid mode in 2021.

“The electronic device was an indispensable tool in the classroom, be it a cell phone or tablets. When part of the students took advantage of the voluntary return, it became almost impossible to work without the computer, because they were used to it”. In just two years they went from the shock of rushing to get a laptop to study from home to taking it as an indispensable piece of equipment. From going to the traditional library to do research, they changed to believe that without the cell phone they cannot work.

“It is this small gap that causes us a bit of conflict, but it is a matter of working on it, taking into account first the ministerial provisions and then the code of coexistence that each institution has. We (in secondary) consider that the use of cell phones is not essential; however, if the teacher plans his class and in the resources section he sees that the device is necessary, he can use it, without it being mandatory”.

For group work, one cell phone per team is enough, and if there isn’t one, there’s always the library. “Currently we work with the student as the raison d’être of our classes. He has to discover, investigate concepts and definitions before starting the class. I ask a triggering question and based on it we form small groups that can look for answers”.

In front of the cell phones, Pérez sees the teachers as guides. “On the Internet, anyone can upload any type of information, but the teacher has to shape the information that the students have found, teach to discriminate, to obtain information from various sources, which one is wrong, which one has gone deeper. That is why it is the moment of the class in which we share the results of their investigations”. Any inappropriate use of the cell phone motivates an observation, in the first instance, and if it is repeated, a personal appointment with the representative.

Age is an important factor, says the educator. “There are 6-7-year-old children who have a smart watch or a cell phone, at a stage in which they are developing fine motor skills, and generally, the electronic device atrophies them; we cannot achieve the literacy process with a cell phone.” In these ages, the mobile is not even optional, but it often happens that elementary school children have one anyway, due to the need for parents to constantly communicate with them. “Is not correct. It is an issue in which we have to educate the entire educational community, parents, students and teachers”.

The cell phone as an object of addictions, who is vulnerable?

“Technology was created to serve the person, its use in the classroom opens many windows and doors; allows us to simulate cases that can be interesting for learning, when the child is taught to use technology for his own good, so that we do not end up in the situation where it controls our behavior”, says Dr. Teresa Sánchez, psychologist and expert in intervention in technological addictions and drug addiction from the International University of La Rioja.

How to get students to reach that self-control? The most important are prevention measures, says Sánchez, from the educational field and the family; teach to limit the time of use of technology and the type of activities that are carried out with it“without losing contact with reality, connecting with others, going out, seeing family”.

There are no clear references as to what age you can start using electronic devices properly. But Sánchez thinks that at the ages when boys and girls are in primary school they should not have their own telephone, because they don’t know the negative consequences of misusing it.

It is only in adolescence, when the boys demand privacy, that it is possible to begin to negotiate with a limited time for the use of a tablets either a telephone, “but that there may be supervision, which is not the same as control. It is to show them the positive things that there are, but also to inform them of the negative”. Here there are no specific ages as references either. “There will be less mature boys and girls who need more time and more supervision.”

The internal regulations in educational centers are valid, but they must be accompanied by a justification. “You have to make both adolescents and children understand the reason for the regulations, that just as there are positive effects or consequences, there are also negative ones and what they are, As when we talk about the first intervention and prevention programs for the consumption of addictive substances, the same thing happens with technology.”.

Between the good and bad use of technology there is a line that not all people cross. Doctor Sánchez indicates that several personality characteristics vulnerable to developing an addiction. While the devices do not create central nervous system modifications, their misuse does lead to certain problem behaviors with long-term effects, such as poor academic performance and exposure to sexual cybercrimes such as grooming.

What to observe in young people? The tendency to a compulsive or introverted character, problems of low self-esteem and high social desirability: The person, to give value to himself, depends on what others think of him, on his approval and acceptance. “All these issues together increase the risk of misuse or addiction to technology.”

Dr. Sánchez suggests:

• In the classroom, use the telephone only for a specific activity, guided by the teacher.
• At home, the phone should be kept out of the room where you study. “The student, upon arriving home, must leave the equipment in the custody of the parents; and in adolescence establish use agreements for a limited time”. (YO)