In the workplace, we all know colleagues who have both a work phone and a home or personal phone. With the current atmosphere of students not being allowed to have phones in schools, could a two-phone system be the middle-ground solution that keeps everyone satisfied?
We are all familiar with the scenario: a colleague has their rather serious looking work phone on their desk, sensible ringtone, sensible contacts, work email, and all the pdfs that can fit on their cloud drive. Then, suddenly, there is a rather pleasant ringing sound, possibly a Lady Gaga or “Swiftie” song. The co-worker produces a rather decorative, glittery phone from their coat pocket; it’s weighed down with adorable anime key chain figurines. They suddenly stand up, looking rather sheepish, and say, “Sorry, I have to take this,” and scurry quickly into the corridor. This is their personal phone.
The idea of having both a personal phone and a work phone is that the owner can keep separate their work and private lives. They will never answer their work phone inappropriately or send the boss an embarrassing GIF or meme, and at the end of the workday they can simply turn it off. Then there is the personal phone—it has all the social media apps, photos, games, and personal email for sending jokes and ordering K-pop merchandise.
Could this idea be applied to schools? Children could have their personal phone, which they could leave at home. It would have all their social media, pics, TikTok, and Snapchats. This would be their phone for talking with their friends online. It would contain all of their personal stuff, and they could decorate it anyway they wanted. However, they would also have a “school phone.”
The school phone could be given to the students by the school or some generous tech benefactor. This phone would stay in the school. The apps would be strictly educational; for example, calculator, dictionary, maps, translation, health, relaxation, and possibly social media apps set to educational accounts only. The student would carry the phone all day long, and if there were an emergency, they would be able to call their parents. Also, for issues relating to school, the contacts could be preloaded with the principal’s, teacher’s or nurse’s numbers to call if there were a sudden issue.
The phones could also be used for positive mental health. They could be loaded with apps to help students regulate anxiety or cope with stressful situations. Also, there could be advice numbers for help with relationships and bullying. Schools could also limit the online access of the phone so it would be more of an intranet (an internal environment regulated by the school) than the internet.
Of course, it’s not all about the students. The phone may also be used to upload exercises during class. If the school has a private hard drive or cloud, it can post quizzes and assignments to be completed during the day. With access to technology and the ability to communicate easily with each student, teachers could easily access and distribute a quiz at a moment’s notice. This would save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent standing at the photocopier or the faculty room PC, printing out pages and pages. Teachers could then use their breaks for their actual purpose—having a break!
Having two phones not only accommodates control and compliance with school regulations, but it also instills in students the idea of the separation of work and play. This will help them adapt to working life as adults and have a mature approach to professional settings. Then, when the day is over, they can return to their sticker-decorated, sequin-laden, key ring-weighted personal smartphone.
(Note: this is an opinion/personal experience article.)
Dr. John Jennings is an Educational Theorist from Galway, Ireland. He has a PhD in TESOL (Teaching English To Speakers of Other Languages), with research in social media and education. He has researched the perceptions that students have of social media in education and how it affects their interaction with the academic world. He is also an avid virtual runner.
Dr. Jennings, John. Linktree (2024) https://linktr.ee/dr.johnjennings
