Belvedere Times

There's A Reason for the ''Smart'' in the Name

Michael Stone, Editor-in-Chief

It was only during the Noughties that phones became part of classroom life. Albeit as a hindrance, a reason for a lesson to broken by the threat, “I'll have to confiscate that if you don't put it away now!” And it seemed that that was the only approach possible.  Phones were a distraction, a sign that students were texting their friends, on the internet or something else that showed a lack of focus.

That was the Noughties.  2010 marked the era of the Smartphone. Mobile phones are dying, Smartphones are the way forward. Phones from the likes of Apple, Samsung, HTC and RIM are always improving, with internet access, translators, news, maps and calculations. Why shun the Smartphone? Why let him lie wasting away in the grey, lint-lined pockets of pupils? The question I really mean to ask is, why not integrate Smartphones into the classroom? Applications such as iTranslate Pro could easily replace the two or three bulky dictionaries in the schoolbag. 'Classes' eliminates the need to take out your journal every time you need to check your timetable. 'Dictionary' is the difference between understanding Shakespeare and not getting him at all. And although older phones are equipped with it, one must not forget the humble calculator which, on Smartphones is bigger and better, with its mates Sine, Cosine and Tan joining it as a scientific calculator.

Really, Smartphones are the way forward.  It is such a waste of technology not to utilise them in any way possible -  the classroom is one of these ways. There's a good reason they are called Smart phones.