Smart-phones = smart kids, it just takes a teacher.

Are you reading this on your phone or tablet? Then, you already know the benefits of a smartphone. Having almost the entirety of human knowledge at your fingertips is incredible!

Nurses and doctors use smartphone apps to check the use of medicines, diagnoses, and other medically pertinent information.

Engineers, electricians, plumbers, welders, and all other tradespeople use apps on their smartphones for an increasing number of things, from looking up codes, calculators, measurements, job site note capture, camera and video, bidding, ordering, and more.

Apps are created daily to help professionals with different parts of their day. Smartphones are for more than calling, texting, playing games, and other distractions.

As we prepare students for the world in which they live and will live when they graduate, the most intelligent kids will be digital citizens, members of a digital world who operate within the social etiquette of this world with their smart devices. They will know when to and when not to use their devices, but more than that, they will know how to use their smartphones to increase their knowledge, look up information, increase their productivity, and benefit themselves.

Many schools already have online grading systems where students and parents can check their student's grades in real-time.

In Elementary school, we see systems like Class Dojo that allow parents to monitor their student's progress in the classroom. Students can play interactive games that increase their foundational skills in reading, math, spelling, and phonetic pronunciation.

In middle school, students start using the Internet for research. Classes that teach students how to evaluate online content for credibility are essential. As there are specialized teachers in middle school, the students can also conduct real-time surveys about their feelings in class and provide the teacher with feedback while the lessons are still fresh in their minds.

High school students will start to develop more core skills with computers, focusing on Microsoft applications, Adobe applications, Python coding, Google Drive, and using artificial intelligence (AI) to supplement their writing.

While teaching these skills, teachers can actively teach students the proper etiquette of using smartphones in society. Playing non-school-assigned games during class time is not allowed and should come with repercussions, as it would in the job environment. Teaching students healthy activities aligned with social media and having lessons about online bullying, sexting, and the permanence of activities caught in video and uploaded to the Internet.

I hear negative comments about smartphones in classrooms. You will not know what students are doing; they may be on Instagram instead of the approved study unit. Some students do not have smartphones, furthering the divide between the haves and have-nots in your class. There are proven negative aspects to the mental health of students when students are constantly fed instant gratification and immediate connectivity with smartphones. Children are not allowed to be bored and create the mental ability for deep thinking that comes from the mental contemplation resultant from times spent without instant cognitive response and neuroreceptor feeding from external sources.

Each of these are valid concerns. I don’t see how we address these concerns through abstinence training instead of teaching out kids the proper way to work with smartphones and a constantly present internet. Only through modeling proper behavior with our smartphones and directing education to use academically appropriate sites can we teach our students the right relationship to have with their smartphone and educate our kids for the 21st Century.

?