Mobile phones encourage bullying

I remember those days when I couldn’t even reach the kitchen counter but still felt invisible. This feeling gradually fades away especially when you encounter the biggest and most intimidating children at school, you just know to avoid. It is tough growing up but I can’t imagine how it must be for children these days. Now, a quick easy destructive sms could lead to an extremely distressed child. Not only are children faced with bullying in the form of physical abuse or verbal abuse but they are subjected to cyberbullying.

When I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago, regarding mobile phones in an educational setting, I came across the shocking reality of cyberbullying. Technology allows for children to connect, socialise and communicate with one another. But some children are abusing technologies such as mobile phones, which has become the new high-tech version of the school bully. Bullies are now turning to social networks, sms, mms and e-mails to bully children. An online safety survey carried out by NetAlert and nineMSN in February 2007 found that 14% were bullied through their mobile phone.

Cyberbullying is so easy to do with the accessibility of the internet and mobile phones. It can literally happen overnight. Mobile phones have become the new weapon for bullies. A mobile phone gives bullies the perfect ammunition as most children have their own phones.

Mobile phones educate

A wide range of apps on the iphone that could enhance children's learning experience. For example, the downloadable dictionary app. 

I can remember many instances where I have had to furiously scribble words down from lecture slides and leave the lecture theatre with a damaged right hand. However, on one occasion, while I looked up to take a breath, I noticed a fellow student with his phone up in the air. My eyes squinted to see what he was doing. He was taking photographs with his mobile phone of the lecturer slides.

After this incident I started to think about whether mobile phones have a place in an educational setting. The debate around this issue largely circled around Secondary and Primary education rather than Tertiary education. There is large contestation around whether children should be able to have mobile phones at school.

Many believe that mobile phones can enhance children’s learning experience. Firstly, with the use of a mobile phone it is now easy to use mobile phones to access the internet in order to receive endless information. The internet at school can be used for research purposes or reading current affairs and also provides access to online dictionaries.