Smartphones Should be Allowed in Schools!

Smartphones are one of the modern communications tools that offer various advantages to all people. Not only for a business man or politicians, but it also gives positive impacts to scientists, doctors, teachers, or even students. Besides use to communicate, smartphones nowadays also can be used to take photos, record videos, and search information. Those abilities make smartphone must be owned by all people, especially for students. In addition, smartphones could give crucial impacts to students if they are allowed to bring smartphone into the school. For one reason, it can be used in emergencies situation when helped is really needed. Secondly, it can be used to communicate especially with parents. Lastly, it can be used to find information related to their study which will improve their academic performance. That is why I strongly believe that smartphones should be allowed in the schools.

First of all, smartphones are an effective tool to be used in emergency situations when students really need a help. Emergency situations always come without signs and might be happened every time and everywhere. In this case, schools should allow students to bring a smartphone to help them survive if some unexpected accidents happen. The Pew study noted that 48 percent of parents use GPS on the phone to monitor their child's location in order to give a faster response if their children need any helps. Not only The Pew study, Sharon Housley, the Vice President of Marketing for NotePage Incorporation, stated that smartphones help people to find a proper short-time shelter. Some applications like American Red Cross, Shelter View, and Network of Care Shelter Finder ensure if all users are in a safe area by providing information about severe weather or a natural disaster around them. It then allows people to find a shelter that fits their needs very ease. Those capabilities will make smartphones really useful to people (in this case students) in considering where should they go if there is any earthquake, storm, or even volcanic eruption near to them.

Secondly, students can use smartphones to maintain a good communication with both of their father and mother. According to Linda Matchan in her article, “Schools seek balance for smartphones in classes”, many parents disagree when schools plan to apply “no phone” policy. Most of the parents claim that phones make them easier to coordinate pickups and after-school activities with their children. Some of them also want to be able to reach their children in case of emergency. With those facts, it is very clear how do smartphones effectively help parents to control and take care their children even from long distance. Moreover, if the case is about a class disturbance, it does not mean that school needs to completely ban the smartphones. Class disturbance by smartphones can be avoided by making a new school policy, for instance, during the class; the teachers may take all the phone and return it back after the class is finished. That policy will make students have no chance to play with their phone so there will be no one disturbs the class. In a point, the problem here is not about the phone, but the problem is on how students use the phone wisely with school’s role to control them.

Lastly, smartphones can be used to find much information that will improve students’ academic performance. People should admit that smartphones could strongly give significant impacts to students’ academic performance which can be seen from its service to provide hundreds of math applications, dictionaries, grammar books, even study guidelines. That statement is proved when a study conducted by Wakefield Research and CourseSmart at 2014 that found 53% students finish their reading assignment in time when the text can be opened in their smartphone, which means their smartphone provides Document Viewer or PDF Viewer application. Those two applications have just shown that smartphone able to improve students’ academic performance by increasing their reading willingness since it provides lots of study application. Moreover, if the schools allow students to bring their smartphone into the school and give the text material that available in smartphone mode, they will more focus to read the text in the class rather than read the text in the book form. Barnes & Noble College at 2014 also found that students turn their idle time in the school into study time when they are allowed to bring smartphones. They conclude that about 20% of respondents use their smartphones to study while commuting and 13% while eating. That just very strong facts how do smartphones actually can give so many positive impacts to students in the school.

In conclusion, smartphones should be allowed in the schools because it makes students easy to find a help in emergency situations, can be used to communicate with parents and find any information which can improve students’ academic performance. If the schools do not allow smartphones for their students, it will make students unhappy in the study, will increase students’ parent's worries, and will decrease schools’ achievement by not maximizing smartphones’ advantages. Start from today, schools should consider which policy that can make them better and find out which policy that only causes bigger problems. By doing that way, every school will become the best educational institutions ever and reach their visions-missions as an ideal school.