Instigator / Con
0
1458
rating
12
debates
37.5%
won
Topic
#1076

Should cell phones be allowed in class?

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
0
0
Better sources
0
0
Better legibility
0
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Better conduct
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After not so many votes...

It's a tie!
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
3
Time for argument
One week
Max argument characters
20,000
Voting period
Two weeks
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Pro
0
1641
rating
63
debates
65.08%
won
Description

Cell phones are becoming more and more of an issue in class as people are violating their school's BYOD (bring your own device) policy. Also, these statements do not apply to teachers and staff, but only to students.

Round 1
Con
#1
Thanks for accepting the debate Speedrace, I really appreciate it.

As most people know, cell phones are a necessity for most people. Children in high school, middle school, and even elementary school are using mobile devices more than ever.  There is no problem with children using cell phones, but the real problem starts when children bring their phones to school. Children are checking social media and playing addictive games (e.g. PUBG and Fortnite) in class. This causes the student to either a) lose their phone, if the teacher finds it, or b) do badly in the class. So, the clear solution is not to let phones to be brought in class. I will present 2 reasons to support this claim.
 
1.     They Serve No Purpose in Helping People in School
2.     They Are Addictive, and Cause Students to Do Poorly in School
 
Reason 1:
Many teenagers say, “When there’s an emergency, I need to call my parents.” But if there is an emergency, most likely, the school with have your parent and emergency contacts. And if there is something, like a school shooting, and you must evacuate, the school will most definitely contact every parent.
Also, if a teen brings their phone to school, they probably will not be using it for educational purposes. According to https://www.latimes.com/local/education/community/la-me-edu-teens-tweens-spend-hours-on-smartphones-20151103-story.html, “Whether on computers, tablets or smartphones, 39% of teens' digital screen time is devoted to watching, listening, or reading, 25% to playing games or browsing the Web, 26% to social media and video-chatting. Very little time, only 3%, was focused on content creation such as writing, coding or making digital art or music, according to the report.”


Reason 2:
Because most teens are on social media so often, this causes a focused state of distraction, “And while that distraction seems like it should be temporary, its effects are actually chillingly long-term. "This type of frequent, focused distraction," she explains, "isn't just capable of creating long-lasting changes in our brains; it is particularly good at doing so." (https://www.health.com/anxiety/cell-phone-addiction)

Also, cell phones cause students to do poorly in school. According to https://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/students-get-better-grades-when-phones-are-banned, “a 2015 study found kids do better in school when mobile devices are banned.” Also, according to the same source, student’s exam scores increased by about 6% when phones were banned. Also, if the student was struggling academically, their scores increased drastically by almost 14%. That can bring a “C” to an “A”.

Since I forgot to create a structure in the description, here it is:

Round 1: Opening
Round 2: Rebuttals
Round 3: Rebuttals and Conclusion

Also, please don't forfeit, I work pretty hard on these.

Now, back to you! Good luck.

Pro
#2
Thanks to my opponent! I will now present my case for why phones should be allowed in classes.

1. Cell phones represent the real world.
2. Cell phones teach responsibility.
3. Cell phones have technological uses in class.
4. Cell phones are good for emergencies.

Premise 1: Cell phones represent the real world.

Currently, many jobs in the real world require the ones doing the work to use their phones. Whether this is for research, contact, or simply as a calculator, phones are very present in the daily lives of adults, and hiding phones gives kids a warped sense of what being a working adult is really like.

Premise 2: Cell phones teach responsibility.

When kids are told to not bring their phones into class, they immediately have the temptation to bring it anyway, and that many times transforms into conflict with teachers. With bringing cell phones, kids learn the responsibility not to use cell phones in inappropriate times, which is an essential skill to being an adult.

Premise 3: Cell phones have technological uses in class.

Cell phones can be used for all sorts of things in class. This ranges from calculators to search engines to in-class games such as Kahoot!. All of these are things that kids can do with phones in class.

Premise 4: Cell phones are good for emergencies.

Sometimes, kids have emergencies that require them to get into contact with their parents or another figure in authority. This is only possible if they have a phone available to them. If a school gets shot up, which happened 97 times in 2018 [1], a kid without a phone is in much greater danger because he/she cannot contact anyone for help or to let them know that they are safe.

Conclusion

All of the above are reasons why cell phones should be allowed into class.

Sources

Round 2
Con
#3
I would first like to thank my opponent for responding.
R STANDS FOR REBUTTAL
 
R1
Currently, many jobs in the real world require the ones doing the work to use their phones. Whether this is for research, contact, or simply as a calculator, phones are very present in the daily lives of adults, and hiding phones gives kids a warped sense of what being a working adult is really like.


I agree with your statement saying the adults use phones in the real world. But children do not use their phones for doing educational stuff. As I said in my first point in round 1, kids use their phones for surfing the web, social media, and watching videos online. The point is, phones could be useful, but they have gotten way to out of control for adults to handle.
 
R2
When kids are told to not bring their phones into class, they immediately have the temptation to bring it anyway, and that many times transforms into conflict with teachers. With bringing cell phones, kids learn the responsibility not to use cell phones in inappropriate times, which is an essential skill to being an adult.

Cell phones do not teach kids responsibility. If a child in class gets caught on their phone, that just proves they aren’t responsible in the first place. If they lose their phone, their parents will probably get called to get the phone back. And then, the kid will lose the phone. This doesn’t teach the kid responsibility, because he never gets the phone back. Also, if he does, he will probably use it again in class. Also, the kid has probably missed out on some valuable information, while he was 1v1ing someone in Roblox. The only way to stop this is to not have the kid on his phone in the first place.
 
R3
Cell phones can be used for all sorts of things in class. This ranges from calculators to search engines to in-class games such as Kahoot!. All of these are things that kids can do with phones in class.

What about the kids who don’t use cell phones? If a school provides games such as “Kahoot!”, and only limit them to kids who have phones, wouldn’t that be unfair? So, this leads me to think that if a school should provide electronic online educational games, they would have extra laptops or mobile devices that would allow other kids to play too. Also, why would you need to use your phone for a calculator, if the school already has them? Cell phones are useless in a school environment.
 
R4
Sometimes, kids have emergencies that require them to get into contact with their parents or another figure in authority. This is only possible if they have a phone available to them. If a school gets shot up, which happened 97 times in 2018 [1], a kid without a phone is in much greater danger because he/she cannot contact anyone for help or to let them know that they are safe.

 97 times may seem like a lot, but there were 98,817 (https://www.infoplease.com/askeds/number-us-public-schools) public schools in the US 10 years ago. Imagine how many schools there are now. 97 is not even 0.1% of the schools that exist in the USA. Look at the forest, not the trees.
 

Conclusion
Cell phones are, mostly, useless. So, they should be banned from school.


Pro
#4
I will now rebut my opponent's points.

Many teenagers say, “When there’s an emergency, I need to call my parents.” But if there is an emergency, most likely, the school with have your parent and emergency contacts. And if there is something, like a school shooting, and you must evacuate, the school will most definitely contact every parent.
That's incorrect. They can't call parents if they're being held at gunpoint. That's exactly why the kids need cellphones in order to call for help. 

Also, if a teen brings their phone to school, they probably will not be using it for educational purposes. According to https://www.latimes.com/local/education/community/la-me-edu-teens-tweens-spend-hours-on-smartphones-20151103-story.html, “Whether on computers, tablets or smartphones, 39% of teens' digital screen time is devoted to watching, listening, or reading, 25% to playing games or browsing the Web, 26% to social media and video-chatting. Very little time, only 3%, was focused on content creation such as writing, coding or making digital art or music, according to the report.”
This is a study done on cellphone us in general. It doesn't say about in school. Guidelines for cellphone use will be put in place.

Because most teens are on social media so often, this causes a focused state of distraction, “And while that distraction seems like it should be temporary, its effects are actually chillingly long-term. "This type of frequent, focused distraction," she explains, "isn't just capable of creating long-lasting changes in our brains; it is particularly good at doing so." (https://www.health.com/anxiety/cell-phone-addiction)
This is a non-unique argument. If there are no phones, the children will simply be distracted by each other!

Also, cell phones cause students to do poorly in school. According to https://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/students-get-better-grades-when-phones-are-banned, “a 2015 study found kids do better in school when mobile devices are banned.” Also, according to the same source, student’s exam scores increased by about 6% when phones were banned. Also, if the student was struggling academically, their scores increased drastically by almost 14%. That can bring a “C” to an “A”. 
In that study, the grades rose by no more than 0.5. That's hardly an increase and it's not a benefit.
Round 3
Con
#5
That's incorrect. They can't call parents if they're being held at gunpoint. That's exactly why the kids need cellphones in order to call for help. 
If the kids are being held at gunpoint, how can they call there parents? But, then again, either ways (with or without cell phones) the kids being held at gunpoint will probably die.
This is a study done on cellphone us in general. It doesn't say about in school. Guidelines for cellphone use will be put in place.
There are already guidelines for cellphones, very strict guidelines. That still doesn't stop kids from using there phones in class, the only way to stop cellphone usage is to completely ban them.
This is a non-unique argument. If there are no phones, the children will simply be distracted by each other!
But, if there were cellphones, there would be more distraction! Children would play on their phone in class and try to hide it from their teacher. Talking when you're not supposed to is obvious, and the teacher can call the misbehaver out easily. That is not the case with cellphones.
In that study, the grades rose by no more than 0.5. That's hardly an increase and it's not a benefit.
The grades rose by several times more than 0.5, they rose on average 6.41 percent, and in one case 14%. That can bring a failing grade to a passing grade. That can make a huge difference in one's future.

Conclusion: Cell phones should not be used in class.

Pro
#6
I agree with your statement saying the adults use phones in the real world. But children do not use their phones for doing educational stuff. As I said in my first point in round 1, kids use their phones for surfing the web, social media, and watching videos online. The point is, phones could be useful, but they have gotten way to out of control for adults to handle.
That was not the point. The point was to show kids what life is like in real life and to allow them to make rational decisions by themself.


Cell phones do not teach kids responsibility. If a child in class gets caught on their phone, that just proves they aren’t responsible in the first place. If they lose their phone, their parents will probably get called to get the phone back. And then, the kid will lose the phone. This doesn’t teach the kid responsibility, because he never gets the phone back. Also, if he does, he will probably use it again in class. Also, the kid has probably missed out on some valuable information, while he was 1v1ing someone in Roblox. The only way to stop this is to not have the kid on his phone in the first place.
If you are learning Spanish and say "Aloha," instead of "Hola," once, does that prove you aren't learning anything? Of course not! It just proves you have to practice. Likewise, in a situation like this, you have to allow the kids to have room to practice and actually grow in their responsibilities.

What about the kids who don’t use cell phones? If a school provides games such as “Kahoot!”, and only limit them to kids who have phones, wouldn’t that be unfair? So, this leads me to think that if a school should provide electronic online educational games, they would have extra laptops or mobile devices that would allow other kids to play too. Also, why would you need to use your phone for a calculator, if the school already has them? Cell phones are useless in a school environment.
Firstly, many schools do not have calculators because they cannot afford them and/or because students have been stealing them all year. Secondly, should you stop a whole game just because one kid can't play? No! You figure out a way for him/her to participate.

 97 times may seem like a lot, but there were 98,817 (https://www.infoplease.com/askeds/number-us-public-schoolspublic schools in the US 10 years ago. Imagine how many schools there are now. 97 is not even 0.1% of the schools that exist in the USA. Look at the forest, not the trees.
An ENTIRE department of the government (Homeland Security) was made from a series of plane crashes in 2001 that happened ONCE. That is all why things like airport security were ramped up to PROTECT PEOPLE. We should do the same thing here.