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A recent headline at Fortune Magazine reads „Why France Is Banning Smartphones at School Just as the U.S. Is Letting More Students Use Them“ and how on earth could I resist that one?

Smartphones and related technologies continue to change our lives and societies in what is basically one big social experiment, but beyond that they are also shaping our minds. In the classroom, I see the effects all the time and it’s a brave new world alright…

There’s this idea that now students can interact in more participatory ways, instantly feed back to the teacher or become researchers in the classroom merely by having access to what is essentially a tiny screen with internet connectivity. Now put down the phone for a second and think – literally, because that’s what it takes to evaluate, store and retrieve information.

Add to that the reality of a typical classroom with any student population from teenagers onwards. Unless you have total control over what’s on those screens or a student population that’s hugely engaged, social media and games will intrude almost inevitably on those screens. It would take an intensely focused and tightly sequenced lesson to avoid the temptation of these distractions. And then you’re still facing the problem of how our brains are wired for effective learning and cognition to take place.

Been there, done that and so far found limited use for smartphones in the classroom. If forced to choose between two extremes, I’d opt for a total ban of smartphones in a heartbeat, and in all other situations I’d go for very limited and targeted use; after which the phones should go where they really should be for most of our lives – out of sight and out of mind.

It’s a discussion that has long been overdue, and particularly in Asia, where so called native English speaking teachers are still riding the gravy train at the expense of qualified local teachers whose only handicap may well be color of skin, ethnicity, and/or nationality. It goes somewhere along the lines of „I’m white, male, have a random BA and some TEFL Cert and therefore I’m entitled“.

Now, in the case of private language schools who am I to piss in the wind? Business is what it is. The paying customers want or expect someone with a certain profile which includes nationality and/or ethnicity. Justifying this kind of discrimination in  the public sector, however, is another story altogether. And that’s assuming a similar work ethic and commitment to a community.

My personal experience with this borders the surreal. Some of the so called native English speakers I have encountered barely show up for work (aside from contact hours in the classroom). Qualifications? Hit and miss. So we get local staff and teachers who are required to work a proper work week (often including clocking in and out and hours upon hours of grading & lesson prep), and the foreign teachers, many of whom seem to be on permanent paid holidays. Imagine a publicly funded tertiary institution treating it’s own citizens as if they were second class members of the very society it serves. Really?

And that’s without even exploring the seedy depths of the stereotypical white male teacher in Asia. The stories I could, and some day might just tell. Not that it’s just the guys, though!

So, quo vadis? One, it starts with awareness, closely followed by openness. Shine a light into a dark corner and watch the rats scurry. Follow that by taking it up a notch to expose the enablers – the colleagues and line managers who look the other way, often under the pretext of „looking out for good people“. Yea right.

Finish the process with transparency, best practices and the implementation of standards and procedures. And no folks, just because you’re held accountable and the things you do (or don’t do, for that matter) happen in a rules based, structured  framework doesn’t mean your style or creativity will suffer. It just means you can’t hide behind your face or passport any longer…