What is a Smart Phone?

[ericmark]

In news it says they want to stop children from having smart phones, but what makes a phone smart? I would assume artificial intelligence of some sort not simply looks good or tidy, but although my phone can connect me to some thing/body who is smart, the phone its self is not smart.

 

[Jurassicspark]

SMART as in unwanted junk built in to the phone with bloatware.

 

[CBW]

I would think a smart phone has the capability to do what a “standard phone” doesn’t. So hooking up to the internet, the use of apps et al.

 

[ericmark]

I would think a smart phone has the capability to do what a “standard phone” doesn’t. So hooking up to the internet, the use of apps et al.

I can see where you are coming from, but even house phones connect to internet today, with the new fibre optics, so today that is just a standard phone, if the internet has some thing which can be accessed by the phone which can do smart things, that does not make the phone smart.

A person who is smart, can have two meanings, they can look tidy, or they can be intelligent, he may dress smart, but still be thick. I use my phone to communicate with, to take pictures with, and to find my location, so it is three tools in one. It also has a built in calculator. I see no AI in those functions.

By combining the functions it can also tell some one else where I am. Maybe that combination of functions could be considered smart, but to split the functions would mean it looses the ability to work with other smart devices like my central heating which can respond to my location, however I would say it is the central heating being smart not my phone.

However before one can have any debate about smart phones what ever they are, you need to define a smart phone.

Looking on the internet I get:-
5 Rules for setting SMART goals

• S = specific. Your goal should include details of what you want to accomplish.
• M = measurable. You should be able to measure your progress and accurately determine whether you've accomplished your goal.
• A = attainable. Your goals should challenge you. ...
• R = realistic. ...
• T = timely.

How does that relate to a phone? The phone is really a dumb terminal, you may be able to use it to access smart devices and applications, but it is not smart in its self. It would be like calling a car door a car, you can use it to access the car, but in its self it is not a car.

One may point to the door and say look at my car, but we all know one is referring to the whole package. Since so many phones work using VOI to say no internet connection would in real terms mean no phone.

It is like saying children are getting fat so ban eating, one may be able to ban food stuff on which VAT is payable, i.e. luxury food stuff, biscuits etc. But cake would be OK, so kids can gorge themselves on Jaffa cakes.

But there is a clear safety aspect to children carrying phones, OK when I was a lad, we had red boxes on street corners which contained public phones, but to ban mobile phones first the static phones would need to return.

 

[SFK]

Kids are now just like adults and get all their homework schedules, timetables, school letters, and actual homework sent to them by various electronic means (email, apps, Facebook). They also, with the teachers permission, use the internet to look up answers and do online questionnaires with the teaches.

There are kids using phones badly (likely all of them).

But Banning smart phones in schools will stop the honest kids from using a tool they need for school (and will need to learn to use as they will use it as soon as they go into work) and the other kids will ignore the law and bring theirs in anyway.

 

[CBW]

But Banning smart phones in schools will stop the honest kids from using a tool they need for school (and will need to learn to use as they will use it as soon as they go into work) and the other kids will ignore the law and bring theirs in anyway.

I understand what you’re saying and it seems a step in the right direction. However, there are plenty of folk who grew up not using mobile for school, me included, and I turned out ok.

 

[bernardgreen]

But Banning smart phones in schools will stop the honest kids from using a tool they need for school

A school and it's teaching staff should be self contained and not be relient on students being able to "import" information through a mobile "phone".

 

[RandomGrinch]

A school and it's teaching staff should be self contained and not be relient on students being able to "import" information through a mobile "phone".

What a ridiculous comment!

Whether we like it or not, we are now part of an interconnected world, where information travels quickly and changes frequently.
For example, I would hope schools would have an atlas, but does your atlas reflect current geopolitical borders?
My 5 year old has been taught how to use Google Earth, via an iPad - what an amazing resource to have and to use.

We are also regulary sent through videos and photos, of what our children are doing during their school day to a dedicated app - I can't imagine what it was like for my parents, having no idea what I was up to. Sometimes change is good.

They also watch a great deal of YouTube videos in school - if the resources are available via the internet, as long as they are used responsibly, why not use them and take some of the pressure away from hard pressed teachers?

 

[bernardgreen]

What a ridiculous comment!

Is it ?

It is based of the knowledge and experience of the five teachers I know ( two are now retired )

My 5 year old has been taught how to use Google Earth, via an iPad

But can your 5 year old do basic mathmatics using the times tables.

 

[RandomGrinch]

But can your 5 year old do basic mathmatics using the times tables.

Yes

 

[bernardgreen]

But can your 5 year old do basic mathmatics using the times tables.

Yes

One of a minority,

 

[opps]

The generally "accepted" definition of a smartphone is one that is able to access the internet. The earliest examples would be those able to access the GPRS networks (2.5G) which became widespread in 2000.

 

[Lucid]

But Banning smart phones in schools will stop the honest kids from using a tool they need for school (and will need to learn to use as they will use it as soon as they go into work) and the other kids will ignore the law and bring theirs in anyway.

I think it's really easy for kids to look up information and come away with poorly referenced or just plain inaccurate data. Some parts of education in the past used to be about learning facts. Now it's more about learning how to find good information.

Using the school's computers - where there's less distraction from the constant 'bing bing bing' of social media - might provide a way to help teachers direct the lesson in a time-efficient manner. This is a more structured activity, and so aids learning.

A second point is that many of the kids in school today are in for a rude awakening when they enter the workplace. They won't be sat in a comfy office with their smart phone beside them. In fact, there are a lot of jobs where smart phones are banned too. When an employer is paying someone to work, then not unreasonably, they expect the work to get done. This comes as a big shock for 17~19 year-olds who have spent much of their time in education being pandered to.

[edited to improve readability]

 

[Lucid]

What a ridiculous comment!

Whether we like it or not, we are now part of an interconnected world, where information travels quickly and changes frequently.
For example, I would hope schools would have an atlas, but does your atlas reflect current geopolitical borders?
My 5 year old has been taught how to use Google Earth, via an iPad - what an amazing resource to have and to use.

We are also regulary sent through videos and photos, of what our children are doing during their school day to a dedicated app - I can't imagine what it was like for my parents, having no idea what I was up to. Sometimes change is good.

They also watch a great deal of YouTube videos in school - if the resources are available via the internet, as long as they are used responsibly, why not use them and take some of the pressure away from hard pressed teachers?

Opinions change quickly, certainly. Facts, not so much, unless of course your name is Donald Trump

I doubt anyone is proposing a Luddite approach. Information technology is a valuable resource and should be used in schools. I spent most of the 2000s enabling exactly that as UK classrooms evolved from chalk & talk to electronic whiteboards. What needs careful management is the distraction that smart phones offer during the school day.

I've had young lads working for me where several times an hour I'd hear the bings, dings, or bongs of some or other social media site, and then the lads getting out their phones to check. I've asked if these were important messages. They said it was mostly carp; emojis and LOLs. Stuff that would be banter in a face-to-face situation. I didn't want to say 'leave you phone in the van', but I can't have the job interrupted for this level of trivia. It looks bad as well from the customer's point of view if they're seeing my assistants on their phone every 10 minutes.

The compromise was regular smoking/vaping/phone breaks. Smart phones are an addiction, just like nicotine. The conditioning starts young, and left unchecked, it can get out of hand. This isn't a new phenomenon.

When I was a kid in the '70s, adults worried about TV, and as recent as the early '90s, The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, sang about 'Television, The Drug Of The Nation' The Greeks didn't have TV 2,700 years ago, but the idea of idle distraction was as much a concern then as it should be now. Homer wrote down the stories of the Odyssey and included the lotus eaters.

 

[RandomGrinch]

I doubt anyone is proposing a Luddite approach. Information technology is a valuable resource and should be used in schools.

I agree with you and I may have been too harsh on Bernard, but I read his comment as excluding all "external" sources of information from the classroom and excluding the use of devices like iPads and 'Phones' - as has been said, times change; sensible and considered use of this technology needs to be taught.
And again, it also provides some amazing resources, that are already being taught to my little one.

When I was growing up, I cherished my father's set of the "Children's encyclopedia" by Arthur Mee and that was my introduction to so many technical concepts (i.e. cut away diagram of a King Class!) - but it's language and relevance today is hugely outdated.
Facts may not change, but how they are represented does, and sometimes within a surprisingly short period of time.

Personally, I put off getting a smartphone for as long as I could. Now I literally can't be without it - I use it for CGM.
All my posts on here are also written from my phone!
And it does cause me wonder, when I see 6 or 7 year olds coming out of school and the first thing they do is get on their phone.

But now, I must put my phone down, to start a water pistol fight!