Mobile Phones as Offensive Weapons

So Chris Keates, general secretary of teaching union NASUWT wants mobile phones banned from school premises because they're being used as 'offensive weapons'.

Now I understand that mobile phones can be used by students in the classroom for all the wrong reasons - for student and teacher bullying, for covert recordings of teacher performance (which can subsequently be shared on sites like bebo or youtube), for distraction, for cheating, or just for entertaining students bored out of their skulls.

And I do understand that today's hugely pressured teachers can do without the potential for harrassment, ridicule or attack that mobile phones can present. But to classify mobiles as 'offensive weapons' that should be banned from the classroom is just plain wrong.

When I was at school, pupils used pen and paper or chalk and a blackboard to effectively humiliate, bully or ridicule both staff and pupils. Nobody suggested banning these 'offensive weapons'.

Instead of demonising the mobile technologies that are changing the way today's pupils interact with the world they will have to work in, we should be exploring how mobile phones offer teachers and educationalists a fantastic way to connect with pupils. To deliver, create and receive content. To engage and challenge pupils.

Mobile phones are not potential weapons of mass destruction. Used wisely and used creatively, they are potential tools of mass education.