This past Monday, our class was getting ready to discuss the implications of social media influences, phone privileges, and more, when we were asked to place our phones in a cell phone jail. Honestly, it took me completely off guard at first. I placed my phone in the jail, and headed back to my seat.

I thought the class would be a little more reluctant in handing over their phones – which we have on us 24/7, but we weren’t. No one questioned. However, you could feel the huge shift of power in the classroom. As this situation continued, I identified three major issues of a ‘cell phone jail’. Over this blog, I will cover these issues and the impacts they have on students and teachers.

Power Control

Many teachers believe that their students are not just students, but people they care for, believe in, and want to encourage. It isn’t a friendship, but more of a community. The classroom, which includes teachers, students, janitors, admin, and more, is a community of learners. By this standard, the power of the classroom should be less of a hierarchy and more of a functioning team (the teacher, however, still has authority). By withholding student’s property, this places too much power into the hands of the teacher and causes the students to witness this power shift. This can impact students in many ways. First off, they could lose a huge amount of trust they have with their teacher. Second off, this can create an unbalanced learning environment which in turn creates less learning and support.

Responsibility

There are two sub-reasons I thought of when thinking about cell phone jail and responsibility. First, responsibility of the teacher. If a teacher confiscates 30 cell phones, each purchased by a student or their guardian. If a teacher loses or damages a student’s phone, it could have intense consequences for the school. This is not a fair responsibility to throw onto already hard-working teachers. Secondly, it doesn’t allow students to show or learn responsibility for their own phones. A student may not even touch their phone during class time, so they should have the opportunity to demonstrate this to their teacher.

Overall, I don’t think the idea of a cell phone jail is fair to either teachers, or their students. I believe there are many other ways to manage the use of cell phones within the walls of a classroom that don’t involve damaging relationships and responsibility.