GADGETS IN CLASSES DIVIDE EXPERTS

Researchers and educators agree that cellphones have become fixtures in Canadian classrooms, but opinion remains divided on how best to address their presence.

All agree that the presence of smartphones can be problematic if students are allowed to devote more attention to their screens than their studies.

One research paper suggests the majority of schools are still treating cellphones as a scourge and banning the devices outright both in and out of class.

But that study and a growing number of boards say they’ve had more success once deciding to stop fighting the technological tide and find ways to incorporate cellphones into schools.

Canada’s largest school board reversed a four- year ban on cellphones and now lets teachers dictate what works best for their classrooms, while a board in Quebec has gone so far as to distribute tablets to all students in Grade 5 and up while maintaining a permissive smartphone policy.

Researchers say these approaches work best, but add it’s essential to have guidelines in place around the use of technology.

Thierry Karsenti, Canada Research Chair on Technologies in Education and professor at the University of Montreal, said students will find a way to bring phones into the classroom regardless of the rules.

A survey of more than 4,000 high school students found that 79.3 per cent of respondents owned a cellphone.

Participants indicated that the phones did not figure strongly in their formal education, with 88.4 per cent reporting that the devices were banned either in class or at school altogether.

Karsenti said the majority of schools he’s studied persist in fruitless bans against smartphones, edicts that students will inevitably ignore.

Some organizations, like the Eastern Townships School Board in Quebec, have made technology an integral part of the classroom experience. Spokeswoman Sharon Priest said the board began issuing iPads to students in 2013 with the full expectation that they would be used both at home and at school.

Today, all board students from Grade 5 and up have been issued either an iPad or a Chromebook. Priest said the technology that looms so large in most students’ home lives should be incorporated into the educational experience, adding the devices also help empower teachers.