Richmond - The Editor, Re: "Texting in class fractures focus," Column, Dec. 13.Thank you Anna Toth, Richmond News columnist, for your recent article, "Texting in class fractures focus."As a high school teacher, I believe this is a very timely topic.
Richmond - The Editor, Re: "Texting in class fractures focus," Column, Dec. 13.Thank you Anna Toth, Richmond News columnist, for your recent article, "Texting in class fractures focus."As a high school teacher, I believe this is a very timely topic. Technology has improved faster than consumers can figure out how to use it productively and responsibly.Many of these consumers are school-aged children who ask their parents for smartphones as Christmas presents.Texting and other smartphone-related distractions have become a serious issue for classroom management.Many students lack the self-control and self-awareness to know what is appropriate and what is not when it comes to smartphone etiquette.In the past, students might have smuggled written notes; today, they are texting students in other classes, playing video games, updating Facebook, Tweeting updates, listening to music, watching YouTube videos, and taking hidden pictures/videos.Instead of passing one handwritten note, they now have the ability to pass a hundred virtual notes, and participate in five different, yet simultaneous, conversations within the space of one class.A proper learning environment demands focus, mental discipline and active participation. Students who abuse their smartphones in class are not capable of any of that.As a teacher, it's disheartening to see hands hidden behind desks, slack jaws, blank faces and downcast eyes.This behaviour is tantamount to skipping class. Would a potential boss tolerate texters /Tweeters during a job interview, an employee training session, or a sales meeting? Ramifications are serious. To generate web traffic and revenue from advertising, games, apps and social media are designed to be addictive, not necessarily educational, or even fun.Many students appear to be showing signs of such addiction to technology. Their inability to stop a harmful behaviour, regardless of the consequences, is one indicator.Habitual lying or deception to continue said behaviour is another. When asked to put away their phones, they suffer separation anxiety and sneak them back out.Unlimited access to social media results in a vicious cycle where easily-bored students use smartphones for entertainment and stimulation, but this need for instant gratification deflates their motivation to focus, to participate, to engage, to wonder, to invest of themselves, to inspire and be inspired.The cycle is complete when their lack of motivation or intellectual curiosity turns them into boring people.Yes, learning requires teacher and student involvement. However, this issue with smartphone abuse also needs parental involvement and decision-making; if they are buying their children smartphones and paying for data plans (totaling hundreds of dollars per year per phone), they have the right and the responsibility to monitor usage (with itemized billing) and set boundaries for their children accordingly.Sadly, I have had classes interrupted by parents who text with their children, or even phone them during class over trivial matters.Regardless of teachers' efforts to teach the children of strangers, education usually begins and ends at home.H. CheungRichmond
