The rate at which students are returning to school is the same rate at which they are bringing new cell phones. This is better as it will help to integrate technology into the classroom. Although, some teachers embrace the use of mobile devices, many others are afraid because it may cause distractions in the class. There are different ways of managing cell phones in the classroom can be done and below are some of the tips you can follow.
Treat Cell Phones as Learning Tools – Your students’ perception towards their devices will change once you started treating the cell phones as learning tools. This will make them begin to realize the value of their phones for exploration and research purposes. Their phones will change from a source of distractions to an engagement tool.
Link Students with Educational Apps – You can create apps that your students can use all the time. Encourage your students with cell phones to download different apps for their use both in and out of the classroom. This will help students develop technology fluency. Students will understand how to make use of different apps for learning. They will also be able to select the best tech tool to evaluate a situation.
Give Tech Break to Your Students – Give your students about 20 to 30 minutes break to check their mobile phones. Since there are claims from so many students that that do experience anxiety when do not check their phone notifications, you can give them a couple of minutes to check their notifications, reply messages and check their social media status. This will help them get out some anxiety and focusing on learning. If you find it hard to control them to stop checking their phone notifications, you can make use of cell phone jammers to disconnect their networks from the internet.
Take the Time to Check the Students – You may find it hard to know whether your students are doing the work or not when you don’t see the screen. Walk around the class and check what they are all doing. Rearrange their desks and increase the time allocated for the class to see them all. If you are checking on them all, they are likely to stay on task. If you sense that they are getting distracted due to notifications from the internet or messages, you can install mobile phone jammer to disconnect them from the internet.
Don’t Be Scared to Take Them Away – Once it is important for your students to use mobile phones, it is also important to take it away from them when the need arises. Students are always using their phones every day, at home and at school. The best way to make your students focus in class is by taking their cell phones away from them or installing jamming devices on their phones. This will help remove all temptation and reduce their checking of phones when in class to increase their focus on the task you give them.
