Technology has grown quickly to be a part of our lives that has been hard to support in some situations. While there are those who state it is great due to the stronger connection between parents and children and new techniques taught through A.I. to help the student better understand when doing homework. Saying that society is going to become lazy and that people won’t feel like they need to learn anything when they can just search for the answer on their phones. In addition, schools have had to deal with this problem recently now that almost every student has a phone on them at all times. Here in New York the governor is planning to implement a ban, the “Bell-to-Bell ban”, against phones in school by saying they just cause distractions during the school day and students are not learning things on their own because of artificial intelligence. 

Times Running Out-

Especially in upper grades, a person can’t go into a school without seeing a cellphone somewhere. Students are going on their phones whenever the opportunity presents itself, and they don’t recognize anything wrong with their actions. Even when the teacher is explaining a topic students are always trying to have their phone on their desk. Aviles-Ramos stated, “when I was a principal and I collected cell phones, so I definitely think instructional time should be sacred, but we want to make sure that schools are given autonomy to design a system that works best for them”. This emphasizes that there have been thoughts on this for years. That each school has started to come up with solutions for their own personal problems. Not every school has the exact same problem, yet there might be similar ones. The same solution might not work for everyone. Also, each school has students who are using their phone and it has shown an effect on learning. “It’s easy for students to get off track if they’re focused on their phones instead of paying attention in class”(Central Rivers). It explains how there are various opportunities where students feel like they don’t need to listen and pay attention. It’s also important to consider how by having a phone with social media a part of every student’s daily life can be even more distracting. When they have a phone buzzing in their bag or on their desk from notifications they feel pulled to look at the phone instead of listening. If a ban was implemented it would help students spend less time on their devices overall. Being better for not only their learning, but the extent to which they take in the information. 

Incorrect Intelligence 

With the increasing use of A.I. schools are facing various difficulties to make it so that students are actually doing their own work. Now it’s not only plagiarism they have to look out for, but they have to scan the document for use of artificial intelligence to see if the students actually wrote the piece. “There is a potential risk of diminishing critical thinking skills if users depend too heavily on AI-generated content without scrutiny”(Virginia Tech Engineer). In context, this is stating that people, not even just kids, rely on A.I. and they never consider challenging the answer it gives. Children and adults use artificial intelligence whenever they have a question, for students if they have a question on a math problem when they can’t figure it out, and they will use AI’s answer. However, artificial intelligence is an innovation and can’t always be trusted to give the correct answers. People need to be able to learn on their own, and not just copy the answers. Maybe it would be valuable for students to not copy, but instead use it to help them figure it out at home. While it shouldn’t be used during school because there is a teacher to help students at home, it could be used correctly. Yes, there is the fact that there are a plethora of students who will automatically take advantage of this technology, which is why it’s a problem that the governor of New York is even talking about. Google even goes as far as warning its users that when they use an AI, the generated answer is experimental. This is talking about how it’s new and still constantly being developed. More importantly, artificial intelligence uses the information on the internet to give a simplified answer; therefore, where the information is coming from is possibly incorrect. Therefore, technology is making it so that students are feeling as though they don’t need to learn. 

All the Bells and Rings-

Despite phones causing distractions and making it so that people have ways to get around doing their work, many believe that there is no real solution to fully get rid of phones, so they use them instead. They might state that, for parents, they feel safer having their kids in school. In ABC news, it shows the view of a student named Jessica, “At any point in time, there could be a shooting or a lockdown or a fire, and we won’t get it back just to contact our parents”. This brings up a worry for a vast majority of parents as this ban becomes more of a possibility. By having a direct way to contact their parents, not only do the parents feel better, but also the students. If they need to talk to their parents immediately, having a phone gives them this chance. However, there is a main office or nurse phone available for students to get in contact with their parents, and if something were to go wrong during the school day, parents would be notified immediately. Then it can also open up a more complex understanding. There are even technologies like Kahoot or Quizlet that create educational games to help students learn in a different way. Using a game as a way to learn makes students more productive. While it can offer up more production, there can also be distractions. This could mean that the students are more focused on the game than the material being covered isn’t being learned by the class. So phones shouldn’t be a significant part of the school day. 

As a Whole-

In conclusion, implementing the “Bell-to-Bell ban” against phones in school by saying they just cause distractions and students are not learning things on their own because of the use of artificial intelligence available on phones. There are times when phones offer parents that their kids are safer at school with a phone to contact them. However, parents would still be contacted if something were to go wrong during the school day, and the school would have already contacted parents directly. It might be said that it would help kids to learn through AI or other educational programs, yet the direct answer or games could make it so that students aren’t focused. Therefore, this ban should be implemented immediately to ensure that students succeed on their own.