Why Teachers Want to Ban Cellphone Cameras From Classrooms
A bill that would create a task force to study the impact of cellphone cameras and video-recording devices in Connecticut classrooms has sparked a debate between educators who say the captured content can be harmful to their careers and those who say that restricting what images students can document might lead to battles over free speech.
The state's largest teachers union is leading the push for state lawmakers to intervene. Union leaders say imposing limits on the use of cameras and other recording devices in school might be necessary to prevent damaging videos and pictures from ending up on Facebook and YouTube. The Hartford Courant reports that there are thousands of these videos online. One pokes fun at a Connecticut high school physics teacher who is shown "flailing his arms, short-hopping across the classroom, then pushing against the wall" in an attempt to demonstrate how molecules move. The problem is that the surreptitiously shot video doesn't carry the teacher's explanation of the principles, only the sound of instrumental music. The teacher, who had no knowledge of the video's existence until the newspaper contacted him, has since asked a former student to take it off the Web. Still, the union says that secret recordings of teachers are an "increasing concern" and that they can hurt teachers' reputations and put minors at risk.
Legal experts argue that teachers have a limited expectation of privacy in the classroom. They say that attempts to regulate what students can film or record can provoke free speech challenges. In some cases, students have used recording devices to capture teachers behaving inappropriately. A Connecticut high school math teacher was suspended in 2006 after a cellphone video that appeared on the Internet showed him hurling a homophobic slur at a student.
The state legislature is likely to decide whether to move forward with the bill by April 6.
Do you think that students should not be allowed to bring cellphones and other recording devices to school?
Tags: Connecticut | cellphones | public schools | teachers | education
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Reader Comments
Cell phones cameras should be ban in sch..
There is no need of cell phones and cameras in the classroom, By using these instruments students are not do their study care fully. School or colleges are place where student learn and study. Cell phones, Cameras etc should be ban in school ad colleges.
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cellphones
students should be allowed to have cell phones at school. Now phones such as the iphone and the blackberry smartphone can be used for research snd all that other kind of good stuff. so they should definately consider letting kids have cellphones at school. on the other hand they do disrupt class and are dangerous in many ways, so it could really go either way
cell phone cameras
Most people would agree that today's teenagers are much more difficult to deal with in public settings. Go to a fast food restaurant and the teenage employee acts like they are doing you a favor as they take your order with attitude. Today's teenagers are exposed to much more violent and sexual images and are expected to "grow up" at a quicker rate without the emotional maturity to do so. Today's teenager lives in a world that fosters a very short attention span. Needless to say the task facing America's teachers are more arduous than ever while public scrutiny is at an all time high. Everyone complains that today's teachers do not do enough to teach today's youth life skills that will prepare them for the work force and allow teenagers to be lazy and undisciplined and graduate school with no work ethic, poor attitude and an inability to problem solve. The best solution is to give today's teachers more autonomy to challenge students to problem solve, to work harder, to develop proper social skills instead society is filled with stories of parents trying to fire educators for any time they show enough character to take a stand and discipline a young person or to not pass a person for not doing the required work. We are undercutting the same people we are counting on.
Allowing cell phone use in classrooms have extremely limited benefits:
1. Calling cha-cha to get an answer
Really is this the way we want to teach youngsters how to conduct thorough research? Instead of reading and problem solving ....call cha-cha....that's weak....and yes administrators in many districts are in favor of it. Another example of the lowering of standards for today's youth
The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages:
1. It's a distraction ...Will students text their friends? Yes
2. Students that have blackberry phones could surf the web without restrictions that schools usually set.
3. Images of teachers and other students will end up on the web breaking privacy laws and undoubtably posted without fair and biased coverage.
4. Drug deals and fights can be arranged at a specific time via texting which lead to safety issues in an already tough enviornment.
Bottom line....the job of a teacher is already tougher than it has ever been ...why would anyone try to make it tougher?...that's like pouring gasoline in an attempt to put out a fire!
If I were that teacher I would sue the parents for character defamation.
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