

Schools that ban mobile phones see better academic results - frostmatthew
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/16/schools-mobile-phones-academic-results

======
stegosaurus
Err.

Schools without academia would see better sporting results.

I know that I performed worse in school due to computing. Longer term that
seemed to work out better for me. (horrendous secondary school results, decent
college and university, because I was lucky enough for the gatekeepers to see
past marks on a sheet.)

We need to stop this idea of grading people. Really. It is not reasonable to
bin people at an early age and assign them to a class based on this.

~~~
ende
Agree completely. A life time of privilege is codified in a series of
classifications that have absolutely zero predictive value of a person's
intellect or capacity for learning.

Cue the refrain: "but we need SOMETHING to differentiate students by"

------
fwn
I think this is not surprising. After all, "academic results" in schools are
measured by your grades, or: how much you participated in the given courses.
Smartphone usage leads you away from that curriculum, grades therefore may
fall. But this doesn't say much about your knowledge gain.

I can only refer to my German experience. In a single "Wikipedia night" (I had
a lot of those) I learned more on let's say geography than in the entire 14
years of school. (With ca. 45 minutes a week in time allocation)

That said my grades were probably much worse than they could've been but
technology enabled me to fight back the outrageous forced inefficiency we call
school.

------
alttab
I doubt this would transfer to an individual parenting level. If your student
is the only one in the class without a cell phone, there is still plenty to
distract them.

School-wide bans would clearly be most effective.

------
tobylane
Schools where the students and parents don't revolt against a phone ban
probably have better motivated students.

------
asadlionpk
I think children in that age shouldn't be given a cellphone. A shared iPad at
home is much better.

~~~
detaro
For young kids I can see the arguments, but for 16 year olds I think the
benefits are worth a lot.

