We Should Allow Students to Use Cellular Phones in Class

張貼日期：Jul 09, 2013 10:30:50 AM

Kuo Yi-yo

The classroom is a place where peace and authority reigns. As a college student, I think the authority has been taken away from the teachers, as more and more students are violating the basic classroom rules. However, cellular phones should be allowed to be used in class because they serve quite a number of functional purposes, such as the Internet access, the dictionary checking, and research material searching. Nowadays, the cellular phones that people use are called smart phones. The smart phones differ from the ordinary mobile phones in that the former has far more functions. The common tool used in a smart phone is the Internet. It is fast and convenient, especially when the teacher is introducing something not familiar to the students. Students can instantly look up the key words on the Internet with their smart phones without bringing the work home. It may seem disrespectable to teachers and lead to extreme laziness in students, but his does not make them bad students. There are some students who use their smart phones to get access to the Internet but still take part in class. Additionally, students studying a foreign language all need to consult a dictionary frequently. There used to be many utilities to look up words: a pocket dictionary, an at-home dictionary or an electronic dictionary. Now, there is only one thing a student needs--a smart phone. There is no more hassling in bringing so many things in one little rack and there is no need to be exasperated by continuously turning the pages of a dictionary and no matter how small, big, or digitalized the dictionary is, the smart phone saves all the trouble. When there is a need to look up a word in the dictionary, or even to translate a sentence, students do not have to take out a heavy dictionary from their bags, but only turn to their smart light-weight phones for help. Furthermore, college students have a lot of papers or assignments that require considerable research. Being a student with a part-time job, I barely have enough time to do my assignments at home. As a result, I do them during my classes and I am sure many others do the same as well, with their smart phones; students can do whatever they can on their computers. The computing technology in the smart phones reduces the work load by more than half of what it was. Teachers should not take this advantage away from the students because what students are doing is just fulfilling their responsibilities. Also, teachers should keep in mind the hard work student have put into their work instead of the results. When students begin to use their phones in class, teachers may think of them as being condescending and lagging behind in their lessons. However, college students should be allowed to use their phones because they should be given more freedom or options. They should be able to judge between right and wrong and deal with the consequences they bring onto themselves. In high school, teachers would confiscate students’ cellular phones, but that is because they have not reached an age mature enough to fully accept their responsibilities. Teachers should allow students to use their phones in class because they bring conveniences and autonomy into the life of students.