This semester nearly every one of my professors has a cell phone policy that amounts to “if I see it or hear it, you’re getting marked down.” And that’s a huge waste of potential learning energy and a huge hit to a college student’s confidence in their professor and the course. Not because they’ll have withdrawals without their cellphone, or suffer from whatever horrible curse our parents and professors think our cellphones cast on us, but because that’s our professor, a learned adult speaking to other less learned but respectable adults, saying, “I don’t trust you to make your own decisions.” Not a single one of my professors, including the professor for the honors mathematics course I’m taking, thinks a college student can be trusted with autonomy over their desire and ability to learn. If a student doesn’t want to learn, wants to text all class and listen to music, why not let them? It’s their education and their decision. Professors exist to teach, not to babysit, and I’m surprised they don’t value themselves more honestly. I can’t use an online English to French dictionary during class because my professor doesn’t trust us to not get off track and not get distracted.
Something that professors don’t take into account: most of us have been living with technology, including cell phones and laptops, for our entire lives at this point. There are some exceptions of course (I didn’t get a cellphone until my sophomore year of high school), but the point stands; we know how to use technology to its maximum efficiency, which includes using its capabilities to learn. If I could take a second to look up a French word instead of floundering around trying to think of a synonym or waiting to ask the professor, I could be much more comfortable in class and more willing to share what I’ve written or thought. And the bigger thing that this leads into is there is no other time where I would be without my cellphone. I always have it on me. Everyone I know always has their cellphone on them. Sure, sometimes we may not have wifi or data all the time, but the likelihood of that occurring gets smaller by the year. Cellphone towers are reaching more and more places; more and more businesses are offering free wifi, etc. I’m sure even if I was in Quebec or Paris or wherever, I’d be able to figure something out.
I’ll admit, a study published in 2014 in Psychological Science confirms that taking notes with paper and pen is more effective for learning than taking notes with a laptop. I’ll admit that, for now. Humans are adaptive creatures. I’ve been typing since I was six. There’s been a computer in my house since I was in first grade. But for some reason no one ever sat me down and said, “Look at this amazing learning machine and all it can do. You should learn to use it to the best of your abilities.” No, it was mostly a machine for Zoo Tycoon on which my big brother occasionally typed papers. For some reason, until about high school for most people (I was fortunate in that my middle school gave us laptops as well), the computer isn’t used as an educational machine much at all. All research was still done in books, and all essays were still handwritten. I made all my technological discoveries on my own or with the help of my older brother. I started using Google Docs the year it came out, when I was 11, and from then I was all digital. The only records I have of my having handwritten a story are from before 2007. I’m not saying I grew up on the computer; I’m saying I grew up learning with the computer. If there was the option to get the ebook instead, I did it. If I could type instead of write, I did. I taught myself to touch-type after my school failed to for twelve years. I was raised to learn with the computer, so I can. I think so much faster than I can write, but at exactly the speed I can type. And there are more and more people like me coming up through the school system. My nephew is maybe three and he can navigate his dad’s phone better than he can go to the bathroom on his own. This isn’t bad; it’s just different. People don’t seem to differentiate between those words very well.
A lot of professors make the argument that everyone should put away their cellphones/devices as not to “distract others.” Well, if we’re learning with our phones out, learning well and contributing to class, why are other people who don’t have their phones out not learning? Why are cellphones distracting? We see them, use them everyday of our lives. They’re a part of existing in twenty-first century America. If someone is getting distracted by seeing something they see literally everyday, sometimes every minute of everyday, shouldn’t they be the one developing coping techniques to allow them to focus, or getting a doctor’s opinion on if they have ADHD, or medicating? Why take away from everyone when one person just needs a little extra attention, which is totally fine and they should be able to get extra help if they’re struggling anyway? The only time I notice someone has their phone out is if I want to compliment their case.
