As of this week (the start of a new term) mobile phones can’t be used during the school day by students in NSW.
This applies to high schools (primary schools already had this in place).
This applies to public schools (ie not private schools).
From the government announcement:
“The ban is one of a number of measures the Government is putting in place to improve the classroom environment and student outcomes…”
…“It will help to provide more productive classrooms for students and teachers, reducing opportunities for distraction and cyberbullying.”
NSW Government
I don’t have any opinion on whether this is a good or bad idea (because I don’t know anything about the process that was involved), but I would love to know how they are going to measure whether it’s a success or not.
How do you measure success in a rapidly changing education environment – how do you compare apples with apples for where we’ll be in 12 months time?
Also, how sad that a key reason for the ban was to reduce cyberbullying. How sad that it happens of course, but how sad that we can’t find other ways to reduce it.
