Jeanki

Is cell phone use a major distraction for the
student in the classroom and the school policies?

By

Jean Carlos Concepción Ortiz

Li-Co Communication Research Course

To the English in Humanities Program elective course

For the learning and comprehension of journal articles

University of Puerto Rico

Río Piedras Campus

2009

Appendix I

Definitions: Methodology andProcesses

Abstract

In this research students of 10th grade of the José Santos Alegría School located in Dorado were put to and experiment by the researcher who acted as one fellow classmate of their classroom. They did of course at first notice the “intrusion” to their usual and visual knowledge of what they are tend to have in class. The focus was to observe and evaluate the policies andcriteria that the school have for the banning of cell phones in the classroom and the school itself. And how it has impact the stability and academic behavior of the students in a classroom and outside the classroom. The analysis of the data revealed that many students tend have different ways of seeing things with the use of cell phones. But many of them agree that the cell phone is a valuable toolin a classroom.

Cell phones as a bad or good resource

The cell phone ban is apparently frustrating to students who continue to sneak cell phones into the classroom and text each other during class, as well as to teachers who waste valuable class time acting as cell phone police. The cell phone use at lunch idea is meant to appease both sides: students can still stay in touch duringthe day with friends and family, and teachers don’t have to worry about cell phones being a distraction in the classroom since students will respectfully save their texting for lunch. In theory.
In practice, my prediction is that students who have perfected the art of sneaky-texting in class will continue to sneaky-text until they get their cell phones confiscated, and those who formerlyobeyed the ban will now be encouraged to turn their cell phones on during lunch, and might even be tempted to keep them on for the remainder of the day.
At the risk of sounding strict only and old-fashioned, I don’t see why students need to use cell phones during the school day at all. Why tempt them to start sliding down a slippery slope? I know that many students have long days withafter-school activities, sports team practices, theater rehearsals, and part time jobs. I know because I was a high school student not too long ago, had the same hectic schedule, and yet managed to do just fine without a cell phone. And if I did need to call home and tell my mom about a change in plans, I called her after school from a nearby pay phone, not during.
One could argue that if highschools students, especially seniors, are old enough to drive, why shouldn’t they be old enough to have the freedom to use cell phones in school—especially at lunch? Many will be heading off to college in a matter of months where they will be expected to live independently and responsibly—why impose so many restrictions on their freedom in high school?
Maybe it’s just me, but I noticed thatsomething magical happens in the transition between high school and college. Maybe it’s the change in environment, the fact that college is a choice while high school is mandatory, or just the transition from being the oldest and most experienced kids in high school to the youngest freshmen just learning the ropes in college, but the same that kids wouldn’t think twice about doing in front of teachers inhigh school disappear several months later in college classrooms with professors at the helm. Students seem to age years over the summer between high school and college—at least as far as classroom behavior goes. So I’m all for limiting unnecessary gadgets and distractions on high school grounds during the school day, even in the lunchroom. If the school allows students to leave campus during...