Cell Phones Can Be A Distraction In The Learning Environment

Monserrat: Cell phones can be a distraction in the learning environment and make other students lose interest in the classroom. Most recent studies show that at least 68% of students in grades 6-12 take their phone to school. When a child is in school, their purpose there is to learn. Distractions can come in the form of text messages, phone calls, the internet, etc. Phones make alerts for a variety of things besides from calls. A cell phone going off in class can be disruptive during class and to those around the student, either interrupting a lecture or distracting other students from the subject.. It can also hinder a teacher’s ability to teach a class if too many students are using their phones all at once. Texting is one of the main distractions
due to it being another way of passing notes and more likely to cheat. If a student becomes bored with the class material, it wouldn’t take much to take out their phone to entertain themselves. Especially since they have easy access to their cell phone and could make them miss important information in class. Since students are distracted from what’s happening in the classroom, they’re less likely to write down less information, recall information, and do worse in tests and exams than the students who were paying attention. One study shows that researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Louisiana State University measured student performance in 91 schools in four cities in England before and after cellphone bans were implemented.Their findings showed that average test scores improved after the ban, with students scoring 6.41 percentage points higher than before, which made them 2 percent more likely to pass their end of the year exams. Another issue facing this problem is that students use their phones whenever they do work or multitask. Phones distract them from doing things like studying, doing classwork, or finishing homework. And due to phones having many apps that can distract them for hours, it just hinders their learning process and sets them back from everyone else who is actually paying attention. . A study released in January 2010 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that total media exposure per day for young people ages 13 to 18 increased from 7 hours and 29 minutes in 1999 to 10 hours and 45 minutes in 2009. It increased since most of the time students were multitasking in the process of finishing their work. There are more disadvantages than advantages to having a phones available in the classroom.