What is a Smart Phone?

[bernardgreen]

the "Children's encyclopedia" by Arthur Mee

I had the set. One of the very best text books

 

[ericmark]

Which are we going to teach if one is not going to use a computer of some sort, then it is back to the slide rule, or log tables, I don't know where my log tables are, and getting the decimal point in right place with the slide rule was always a problem. OK if an idea what the answer should be, but even then only to 3 significant figures.

One can just see the faces of school children today if given a slide rule.

There are so many things I use the phone for today, including knowing when to put kettle on as wife on way home. It just seems the politicians don't want to be corrected when they get it wrong by some clever clogs with a phone who has looked up what they have just said.

But it is not the phone which is smart, it is the user, who has learnt how to use modern tools.

 

[Lucid]

Which are we going to teach View attachment 344340 if one is not going to use a computer of some sort, then it is back to the slide rule, or log tables, I don't know where my log tables are, and getting the decimal point in right place with the slide rule was always a problem. OK if an idea what the answer should be, but even then only to 3 significant figures.

One can just see the faces of school children today if given a slide rule.

There are so many things I use the phone for today, including knowing when to put kettle on as wife on way home. It just seems the politicians don't want to be corrected when they get it wrong by some clever clogs with a phone who has looked up what they have just said.

But it is not the phone which is smart, it is the user, who has learnt how to use modern tools.

I think you're overreaching in a few areas here. I haven't seen any suggestion that computers are to be removed from classrooms. This applies to calculators, too. The discussion regarding smart phones stems from the announcement by the UK Government in February that new guidance would be issued to schools on prohibiting smart phone use during the school day. LINK to Gov.UK site.

This fixation of yours with the word 'smart' keeps cropping up. These 'phones aren't intelligent in an autonomous sense. However, they do provide a way to tap additional resources available on the world wide web via an internet connection. Compared then to a standard telephone which lacks anything more sophisticated than a simple contacts list, the modern mobile phone is indeed smarter.

I'm slightly puzzled how you've managed to make the leap to politicians not wanting to be corrected. How is that relevant to mobile phone use by students in lessons?

 

[ericmark]

Yes you are correct, a telephone is a device which allows one to use ones voice over a distance, tele for distance and phone for sound. We have also had telefax which allows a facsimile of a page to be sent over distance, and a faxphone combined them both, we also had teletext, and where the fax was not printed we had slow scan TV. Then we started to get other forms like packet, which I suppose with the help of Clive and 7Plus was the for runner of the internet we know today using radio waves.

But we have with the modern mobile phone a multi-tool, it combines the calculator, camera, slow scan TV, telephone, etc into a single device. And I know my sister had a problem finding a model without a camera as cameras where not allowed where she worked, and where I worked they had to be switched off as it was found the radio wave could cause the machines to malfunction.

I know when I studied some exams calculators were not allowed, and they had to be left with the invigilator, and in some the type used was restricted so we had to use the ones provided, this has gone back years, I was taught with knotts log tables and the books were always provided in the exam so we could not write notes in them, and one exam provided with Castles log tables which were a slightly different format.

I see no reason this should not include phones, be them used to write to a mate or use built in excel etc. And see no reason for phones of any type to be banned from schools, this is nothing new. However the proposals went a lot further and they talked about banning children from have 'smart' phones. Not just in schools. This is something completely different.

 

[Lucid]

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!

I hope you both/all got thoroughly drenched. Good activity, and lots of positive memories for little kids.

Regarding the use of tech in classrooms, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss books. You're correct that the language has changed. Living languages do that. The language in Mee's encyclopedias is born from the age of Empire. Now, without getting into the whole 'good empire / bad empire' debate, there's something in this that we've lost during the course of the information age.

Have you noticed how many times declarative statements sound more like questions? A simple phrase such as "I'm going to the shop" becomes "I'm going to the shop?" This is because of the incorrect use of the high rising terminal. It has crept in everywhere, even on the news. It can't be news if the correspondent being interviewed about some political event is using HRTs as they're trying to present facts.

Questions and collaborative conversation have their place, and more so in our contemporary society which emphasises teamwork, but there's a time and place. You also made the point about relevance by citing the cutaway of a King Class. I had to look that one up. When I did, I found references to steam engines. Would that be correct?

Steam trains might well be from a bygone era, but the engineering that built locomotives still applies today. From steam locomotives we link through to triple expansion steam engines, and from there we get to the giant triple expansion engines that power the oceangoing container ships responsible for delivering those iPads and smart phones. Everything contemporary has a history. You can't run before you walk.

Books don't have the razzle-dazzle presentation of an interactive web page, but I don't see the Bodleian and other great British libraries rushing to dispose of their books. The internet makes information accessible in a way that a library can't. At the same time though, a library provides a depth of information that web pages struggle to replicate. Understanding the value of each, and being conversant in using both, is a valuable life skill.

 

[opps]

as recent as the early '90s, The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, sang about 'Television, The Drug Of The Nation'

Brilliant track. I often select it on the jukebox in my local. Ironically, there is more than a passing nod to Gill Scot-Heron's "The revolution will not be televised". Sadly, Scot-Heron blew so much money on drugs that he became the guy that said “You know you've been Tango'd” at the end of the 90's adverts for Tango.

 

[Lucid]

Yes you are correct, a telephone is a device which allows one to use ones voice over a distance, tele for distance and phone for sound. We have also had telefax which allows a facsimile of a page to be sent over distance, and a faxphone combined them both, we also had teletext, and where the fax was not printed we had slow scan TV. Then we started to get other forms like packet, which I suppose with the help of Clive and 7Plus was the for runner of the internet we know today using radio waves.

But we have with the modern mobile phone a multi-tool, it combines the calculator, camera, slow scan TV, telephone, etc into a single device. And I know my sister had a problem finding a model without a camera as cameras where not allowed where she worked, and where I worked they had to be switched off as it was found the radio wave could cause the machines to malfunction.

I know when I studied some exams calculators were not allowed, and they had to be left with the invigilator, and in some the type used was restricted so we had to use the ones provided, this has gone back years, I was taught with knotts log tables and the books were always provided in the exam so we could not write notes in them, and one exam provided with Castles log tables which were a slightly different format.

I see no reason this should not include phones, be them used to write to a mate or use built in excel etc. And see no reason for phones of any type to be banned from schools, this is nothing new. However the proposals went a lot further and they talked about banning children from have 'smart' phones. Not just in schools. This is something completely different.

BIB: Then you haven't got a good understanding of the issues they create in schools.

Regarding the question of an outright ban for children owning smart phones, at this stage it's one of a number of suggestions. That's all it is. Personally, I think it's an unworkable idea.

 

[opps]

I know when I studied some exams calculators were not allowed, and they had to be left with the invigilator

When I did my o'level maths, we were allowed to use calculators. Fortunately, for me, I had access to an early casio calculator that could display the parabolic curves generated by quadratic equations. It gave me a time advantage in my exam... I guess that once they became more common, they banned them.

 

[Lucid]

Brilliant track. I often select it on the jukebox in my local. Ironically, there is more than a passing nod to Gill Scot-Heron's "The revolution will not be televised". Sadly, Scot-Heron blew so much money on drugs that he became the guy that said “You know you've been Tango'd” at the end of the 90's adverts for Tango.

That's another outstanding track. As soon as I read "the revolution will not be televised" I heard the song playing in my head. I didn't know about the Tango thing though. His voice got a lot deeper over the decades.

Compare and contrast the lyrics of that song to most that have come after. They're a pale imitation. A call to anger, not action. Scot-Heron was a genius, and his observations are just as valid today, if not more so in our soundbite media-driven society.

 

[opps]

That's another outstanding track. As soon as I read "the revolution will not be televised" I heard the song playing in my head. I didn't know about the Tango thing though. His voice got a lot deeper over the decades.

Compare and contrast the lyrics of that song to most that have come after. They're a pale imitation. A call to anger, not action. Scot-Heron was a genius, and his observations are just as valid today, if not more so in our soundbite media-driven society.

Yup, I will go with off all of the above.

Here is the play list that I just put on the jukebox



Wolftones- I am in an Irish pub and would never have played that kind of music... until a different nation started justified killing innocent people...

Lulu- IMO Bowie's version is the best- but he guested on the Lulu version- the Nirvana version- great but... no Bowie.

Taylor Swift- chffin' gorgeous. Bubblegum pop. But , she is gorgeous, and when it comes down to it, I am as shallow as a puddle.

Ice T- I know very little about his back story but kudos, to him, for complaining about the fact that some people in the USA are not treated as equals.

Sorry, end of rant. I can see injustices. Am going to slowly back out of this post post because...

 

[opps]

That's another outstanding track. As soon as I read "the revolution will not be televised" I heard the song playing in my head. I didn't know about the Tango thing though. His voice got a lot deeper over the decades.

Compare and contrast the lyrics of that song to most that have come after. They're a pale imitation. A call to anger, not action. Scot-Heron was a genius, and his observations are just as valid today, if not more so in our soundbite media-driven society.

He was at the forefront of the movement to enable black people to be treated as, well, normal people. In that respect, regretfully, I think he wasted his efforts. Tracks such as Whitey put a man on the Moon- genius- You don't care about impoverished people but you will spend a shed load of money, not to lift people out of poverty, but to have someone on the moon before the soviets.

 

[Diver Fred]

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.

When I was preparing for a change of job in the 2nd half of the 1990's one of the discussions I had to prepare a discussion (an argument) for the use of IT and the storage of documentation; the argument was entitled "The Technological Dark ages". Up to the first half of the 1990's for legacy systems the company prepared documentation by pen & paper with the final version being typed out; that had one type face and no fancy layouts, Images were added by means of separate sheets. The retention of those documents was in a central library with a revision date with older versions retained on Microfiche. We could still refer to documents from the library up to 20 years old or more. The more modern systems documentation was all IT based but the early documentation was either lost or became unrecoverable, usually the latter.
With the transfer to an IT based system the central library was wound down, in many cases the old paper documents either microfiched or more commonly, scanned. The newer documents written in MS word (the company originally used 'Star Office") with lots of formatting (prettying up) but it was found that as IT systems evolved the older documents became unreadable.
My conclusions was that the use of IT systems were useful and could and did save time and with the integration of various systems prevented copying errors but heavily formatted documents had short lifespans.
My conclusions were that documentation intended for a 'permanent' record was such documents should be saved in a simple (computer) format - i.e. as plain Text - a *.txt file.

Interestingly my document/argument was taken up the management layers along with other peoples ideas saying essentially the same thing.

I don't know if it was ever implemented as I changed roles and work locations where an even more archaic system was in place - boxes & boxes of paper records stored in odd locations, usually the basement.

Used correctly IT systems are indeed a valuable resource but used without sensible thought and implementation have a very short lifespan.

My words above has moved away from the original posting. Are 'smart' phones a hinderance or benefit in schools? I'd say both; the ownership of such really needs discipline I the use of SP's. Probably means clear, unambiguous rules to the use in schools. As with so many changes the 'genie is out of the bottle' and so is hard to go back.

 

[ericmark]

I am such a lodite I thought an IT system was an electrical supply without an earth. Insulated from terrestrial.