Communication Studio Assignment 2022

Running head: COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Communication Studies
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

COMMUNICATION STUDIES1
Should usage of cell phones in school hours be allowed? It is a question that a lot of
researchers are debating about and a lot of parents and students have asked themselves.
Invention of smart phones have started debate for majority of the schools worldwide. There
are already certain schools that have accepted the usage of smart phones but they experience
significant level of frustration over them (Hysing et al., 2015). However, it is to note that
there are several different reasons for and against the usage of smart phones in high schools
during the school hours and this paper shall elaborate on discussing about whether high
schools should ban smartphone usage during the school hours or not.
Today, teachers and parents have similar concerns regarding safety and cyberbullying
along with the issue of technology distracting the students from schoolwork. According to (),
smart phones are very easily used at an expense of face to face communication. Today,
teenagers message and avoid the challenging conversation due to the usage of smartphones.
With the same, the apps and messages present in smart phones often prompt the release of
“dopamine”, which further results in the creation of addiction. Kafyulilo (2014) too in this
context have claimed that the presence of phone surrounding a person consumes the total
attention even when t is not checked. As per the study of Cowan (2015), it has been found
that “human beings have reduced working memory capacity and fluid intelligence when their
phone is upside down and silent on their desk as compared to when it is in any other room”.
Notwithstanding this fact, Haug et al. (2015) in this context have argued in for the
usage of smart phones. As per him, there are certain benefits too that have the possibilities of
overweighing the risks of safety and cyberbullying and technology distracting the students
from schoolwork. Some of these benefits include staying in contact with the parents,
accessing to the mental health text lines as well as exploring out more learning opportunities.
He have further opined that regardless of any kind of ban, students would continuously learn
with their phones in the off-campus, during their tertiary education as well as in their

COMMUNICATION STUDIES2
workplace or professional learning. With the same, if students desire to investigate, research,
collect data and information, receive feedbacks, communicate and record media with their
peers in and beyond their classroom, usage of smart phone applications are ideal.
Furthermore, Tossell (2015) have claimed that smart phones should not be banned in the
schools as of the fact that it is very important for educating the children to live well in the
modern era where they are growing up. In contemporary world, having the ability of copying
works off the blackboard into exercise copy is not the skill that the modern employers are
searching or looking for. Instead, today, getting good education is all about knowing to make
use of technology for learning, communicating and working with ideas. There are several
other researches that demonstrates that quality, empowering and selective usage of
technology supports new opportunities of learning as well as the potential of students for
developing their skills that they would need for their careers.
Teachers have always been the most vocal regarding the usage of smart phones in
classrooms. As per them “students with cell phones are disinterested and also disturb other
students in the classroom” (Dietz & Henrich, 2014). Video games, social networking sites,
music players etc. are the things that the students tend to be more interested in. With the
same, Stowell (2015) in this context, in against of using cell phones during school hours,
have claimed that smartphones encourages students to cheat in their examinations. Smart
phones already come with internet facilities in them and this means that the students could
easily get the answers to the questions in their examinations, quizzes etc. Also, smartphones
come with inbuilt cameras on them and these cameras could be used for taking embarrassing
photos of other students in the locker room or washrooms and then, could be easily circulated
among the others that would further lead to bullying and black mailings.
On the other hand, Lee et al. (2017) have claimed that in the case of emergency,
parents could get in touch with their children immediately and this is where the smart phones