Mobile_Phone_in_School

INTRODUCTION Life has changed dramatically in past 20 years, technologies as how it was describe in journals and articles has made the world smaller and more convenient to people of majority places. Malaysia is also blessed with such changes, how we see our country today was never imagined happening by many of our ancestors. In a nut shell, those who are born today are likely to embrace the benefit of modern civilisation (Jegathesan and Gunasekaran 1997). One of the most significant technologies that have change the way we live is the invention of cellular phone. A cellular phone also known as a mobile phone or handphones is defined as a communication tool that functions through wireless connection signals. The main difference between the traditional phone and the mobile phone is its convenient and built features that have made it easier for people to communicate even in a moving condition (Lei, Junqi, and Zizhen 2009). References were dated back only from the year 1973 when Dr Martin Cooper first demonstrated the usage of the first mobile phone in Washington D. C. USA (About.com 1997). Subsequently in 1995, the technology of cellular phone was first introduced in Malaysia by Celcom Axiata Berhad (TM.com.my 2011). In today’s education arena, school compound is facing dramatic challenges rising from the use of handphones among students. As even without handphones, teachers are already handful with their responsibilities of teaching, examinations, curricular activities, meetings and many more. Thus, to grant access to the use of mobile phones among students becomes a great problem as the teachers will become accountable to the well being of their pupil. Today Malaysia is questioned to whether allow school children to bring hand phones as early as primary school. Many have debated on the issues mobile phone usage using social effects, health, and safety as part of their reason to defend and support the importunacy while others are still unconvinced (Phillips 2006). As a result, this has pushed the authorities and also the community to understand in depths the situation as a whole. Reality is there will always be people who are always in fear of new technologies, however many who are convinced with beneficial of the new gadgets are lack of supporting facts as the usage of hand phones technologies in Malaysia are still new and still changing. The ministry of education has proposed the usage of handphones via certain guidelines. The guidelines include the usage time of handphones in school compound which is during recess and the simple built feature which only allows certain contact numbers to be installed in the handphones. It is the minister of education high interest that the students are allow with the previlage of using a mobile phone with restriction access. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS As mentioned previously in the introduction section, the handphone technology is still a new technology that continues to change rapidly. In the past few years, the main reason which causes the rises of debate of mobile phone usage in Malaysian school compound is due to the disagreement among parents, government and teacher group (Utusan 2011). The first problem is the disagreement between the parents and teachers. Majority of parents want their children to be allowed to bring mobile phone to school. However the teachers find it disturbing as to give this privilege to their students would only cause distraction of students of their class room teachings. Secondly is the disagreement between the ministry of education and the teachers with regard to the current issue. The ministry believes that by applying the usage of handphone among students with certain restriction would solve the problem of handphone usage in school compound. However, the teachers believe that such proposal as to grant access to mobile usage to these students will only cause the misusage of this device as the students are still too young to be accompanied with such responsibilities. Though, the idea of great benefits can be achieved with the manipulation of the available features on mobile phone are well describe (Selwyn 2003), the teachers find this proposal as an additional burden of responsibility as they are already overwhelm with the task of educating, daily report, seminars and school curricular activity. As a result, this study is conducted to evaluate whether the mobile usage among school students should be granted or otherwise. However, in conducting this study there are two constrains that affects the current progress of this research. Firstly, is the two months time constrained factor of this project. The time constrain of this project is due on the 14th March 2011. The limited time factor of this project only enables study to be conducted on a small scale group. Hence, the study might prove insignificant as the numbers of samples are small. Besides that, this project is also constrained by financial support. Since this project is just an assignment, financial costs are bare by the writer himself. In a nut shell, with more financial support this study may be conducted in a more meaningful way. In conclusion, it is hope that the current study could light some answers to two important questions which are; 1) Do school children need hand phones during school time' And 2)What affects of hand phones usage have of school students on their academic and personality growth' (Walsh, White, and McD Young 2010). METHODOLOGY In order to tackle the current problem, it is decided that the study should collect data in two ways. First method is the usage of questionnaire and second interview method. A questionnaire is design in order to analyse the current problem. The survey is consisting of six questions related to the study of parents’ opinion on the issue of handphone usage among school students and the parents respond to the proposal of Ministry of Education of the handphone usage among school children. The questionnaire also uses simple English language in hope that it will not mislead the respondent. Some of the questions addresses the main reasons to why some parents wants their children to bring handphones are such as at a scale of one to five , do you want your children to bring handphones to school because of; 1) safety of your children' 2) Security of your children' 3) easy to monitor your kids' or 4) believe that it will help teacher in their teaching' Besides that, parents who disagree on providing mobile access to their children are also analysed in understanding their reasons for choosing to not allow their children of this privilege. The scale reason of one to five is given to be picked by parents to distinguish the main reason of not allowing their children to have mobile access in school district. Those reasons listed on the questionnaire are; 1) safety issues ' 2) classroom disturbance problem' 3) money problem' or 4) privacy problem'. Data collection is conducted within the area of Klang Valley. Respondents are people who are working parents of different economical classes. Besides that, three special interviews were conducted through a selection of people to get better understanding regarding the presented problem. Interview respondents are a teacher with more than 10 years teaching experience, a middle class income parent of five children and an above average income parent of three children. Analysis will be presented in a percentile form. Interestingly, this project will show the difference of opinion of samples of different economical background. This project also intends to get comment from the public regarding the ministry of education’s proposal to allow students to bring handphones with certain restriction. FINDINGS The interview samples are consisting of parents who have children in either primary or secondary school. Samples are then grouped based on their economical background in order to analyse whether economical background does affect their opinion on the problem of allowing handphones for school student in school compound. Figure 1. Percentage (%) of parents based on income group Based on data collected (Figure 1), it is showed that 55 % of parents of middle class disagree to let their children have handphones during school time. Although all parents of above average income agrees to allow their children to bring handphones to school, it is still important to highlight the cause of reason to why 45 % of parents with annual income below RM 40 thousand denies the handphones usage of their children in school. Figure 2. Percentage (%) of reason to why parents who do not want their children to bring handphones to school Figure 2 shows that parents disagree in allowing their children based on two important reason which are; 1) classroom disturbance and 2) privacy problem. In an interview conducted with two parents and teacher, it is noted many times that teachers should be the one to monitor the usage of handphones during school hours. The important question is why do they keep repeating this important statement' In many literature reviews, the usages of handphones among school students are known for its misusage (Mcelligott 2006). If the technology is not monitored regularly, it will be a bane rather than bring benefits. Paper reports on mobile being used violating privacy is no longer a new issue around the world. Users caught with such misuse are age from as young as 15 years old to as old as 60 years old (Express Daily 2005 and Lei, Junqi and Zizhen 2009). In Figure 1, parents with above average income however do not see that there will be any problem if school approves the usage of handphone among school students. In their reasoning collected from interviews and questionnaire, the parents believe that both parents and teachers could monitor the whereabouts of students, be informed if the students need to attend evening curricular activities and be alerted if any emergency cases emerges (Phillips 2006 and Lu 2008). In the interview it is also mentioned by the parents that they believe that handphones could be use to improve learning environment. This can be seen true as in overseas many schools have started to use handphones in enhancing their teaching method (Roberts 2005). Articles on research that added mobile phone during school hours have shown an increase interest and academic performance of students in school. Thus, there is still a need to discover the true potential from the use of handphones. Figure 3. Percentage (%) of reason to why parents who wants their children to bring handphones to school The above figure (Figure 3), have showed what the parents who agree to grant mobile access during school hours. Besides being able to monitor their children, they believe that through the usage of cellular phones, these students are safer and more secure in compare to students without handphones. Montoya  2011 and McNeil 2011have reported that there are some things that are just beyond the control of teachers in school as it is impossible to monitor the students all the time (e.g. bullies, drugs, smoking and many more) . Figure 4. Percentage (%) of Parents based on income groups after reading the Ministry of Education proposal As one of the objectives of this study is to collect feedbacks with regard to the Ministry of Education’s proposal, parents are told about the mentioned proposal. Significantly more than 40 % of the disagreeing parents have changed their mind to the motion of allowing handphones for school students. Only 18 % of parents still insist on not allowing the motion. They argued that by allowing mobile in school district, students are open to the possibility misusages of handphones and that they are too young to make the right decision when it comes to the usage of handphones. Some are even worried the additional financial burden it could cost to the parents of below middle class who have more than four schooling children. Findings have answered the two important question mentioned previously in statement of problem section. The answer to question 1) Do school children need handphones during school time' Yes, in certain cases, school children do need to have handphones when it comes to emergency cases. Though, teachers are always available to monitor the students, it would not hurt to have an extra pair of eyes to monitor the whereabouts of the students. Question 2).What affects of handphones usage have of school students on their academic and personality growth' As we have mentioned previously, the affects of mobile usage depends entirely on how the usage is monitored and regulated. If it is done correctly, student’s personality and academic growth will improve tremendously. SUGGESTIONS In my opinion, I think that we should not judge a tool’s weaknesses until we have honestly tried to use it. In this case the tool is the mobile usage in school compound. By banning the usage of mobile phone in school, it would only cause the violation of this regulation. As I have presented on the findings section that in many cases, students bring handphones to school because of many valid reasons (e.g. in case of emergencies, safety and many more). Thus, the teachers and parents should give the proposal a try. The proposal presented by the Ministry of Education on the new move towards allowing handphones in school have been praised and supported by many parents. The only issue to that problem is the cost of the mobile phone which can be seen expensive to family who could not afford such technology. Perhaps, the teachers or the ministry of education could make a funding for poor students to have similar benefits of the handphones usage without causing burden to the parents. Besides that, the school and the Ministry of Education should also try to look for possibilities of fully utilising the technology of handphones in school. In many places in the world, handphones are already used to enhance better interactions between teachers and students in their learning environment (Roberts 2005 and Selwyn 2003). Students are not afraid to ask questions related to the subjects that they find difficult understanding as they no longer feel pressured of asking in front of the whole class. CONCLUSION This study has presented the importunacy of handphones usage among students in school district. The benefit of such usage could be seen to improve the safety, the security and the learning experience of the students in school. However this study has also presented analysis of reasoning of parents who do not agree the usage of this technology in school property. Their reasoning is associated with problem which could lead to safety issues, classroom distractions and privacy issues. Though the number who insist on disagreeing are small, it is still important to note such concern as it could prevent the issues for occurring. In conclusion, I suggest that the usage of handphones in school should be allowed. Besides that the utilisation of the technology should be continued and further improvement as it has strong possibility of benefiting all parties. REFERENCES About.com (1997) Martin Cooper - History of Cell Phone [online]. http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/martin_cooper.htm. [ 2011 , February 24 ]. Daily Express (2005) Handphone move a violation of people's privacy  http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm'NewsID=36851 [ 2011 , March 1 ]. Don't give mobile phones to under-8s. (2005). Education (14637073), (164), 3. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Jegathesan, J. J., & Gunasekaran, A. A. (1997). Technology development and transfer: Experiences from Malaysia. International Journal of Technology Management, 13(2), 196. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Walsh, S. P., White, K., & McD Young, R. (2010). Needing to connect: The effect of self and others on young people's involvement with their mobile phones. Australian Journal of Psychology, 62(4), 194-203. Lei, T., Junqi, S., & Zizhen, Y. (2009). Why Does Half the World's Population Have a Mobile Phone' An Examination of Consumers' Attitudes toward Mobile Phones. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(5), 513-516. Lu, M. M. (2008). Effectiveness of vocabulary learning via mobile phone. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24(6), 515-525. Mcelligott, T. (2006). Mobile phones: safety device or distraction' (Cover story). Telephony, 247(17), 18-19. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. McNeil T., ( 2011) Guest Editorial: A Progressive Case for Neighborhood Schools http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Guest_Editorial_A_Progressive_Case_for_Neighborhood_Schools_ 8973.html [ 2011 , March 7 ]. Montoya K., (2011) 7-year-old choked by bullies at Portland elementary school http://www.koinlocal6.com/mostpopular/story/7-year-old-choked-by-bullies-at-Portland/UhYWpnpNoUusFXOl4KeZEA.cspx [ 2011 , March 7 ]. Pfaff, J. (2010). A mobile phone: mobility, materiality and everyday Swahili trading practices. Cultural Geographies, 17(3), 341-357. Phillips, S. (2006). Parents revolt over mobiles ban. Times Educational Supplement, (4687), 20. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Roberts, C. (2005). Mobile phones. Times Educational Supplement, (4651), 13-17. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Selwyn, N. (2003). Schooling the Mobile Generation: the future for schools in the mobile-networked society. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 24(2), 131-144. TM.com.my (2011) Background & Strength: Milestones  http://www.tm.com.my/ap/about/background/Pages/1900.aspx [ 2011 , March 7 ]. APPENDIX Interview transcript Teacher How long have you been teaching' -I have been teaching for 10 years Do you think by allowing access for student to bring handphones in school a good thing' Well, it depends entirely on what school implementing it. Every school has different students of different economic background. In the city, to allow student to bring handphones might not be a big deal since almost every parent could afford to buy for their children the technology of handphones. However in a rural area, It might cause problem as most parents could not afford to get hnphones for their children. Besides the fact of cost is there any other reason to why handphones should or should not be allowed in school district' In the city students are always exposed to dangerous and bad influence, and by having handphones the duty of monitoring these students is no longer just a teacher’s responsibility, instead this task could also be assit by their parents on knowing the whereabouts of their children during or after school hours. What about during school hours in school compound' I think it should not be a problem if the parents understands the possible risk of giving the privilege of handphones. Risk such as violation of privacy or theft should be known and teachers chould not be the one being pointed if it were to happen. What borders teacher is the fact that there is a possibility of being blamed if any bad thing to come out of this handphones privilege. This is true as if any bad thing were to happen to students, it is always the teachers who get the blame. Plus if implementation were to be grant, teachers must have the authority to confiscate the handphones if misusage is conducted by the students. It is hope that with this understanding teachers and parent could get along in mutual understanding. What about monitoring during school hours' Does it not burden the teachers' It does worry us if students were to violate the privelage given, for instance, these days you could see evident of handphones misusage in almost any part of the world. What about the proposal (explained the ministry of education proposal)' It is not a bad idea, however I still feel that dissatisfaction among teacher may be due to their already swamp workload. Teachers would have to prepare daily report, attend workshop and seminars, and then prepare study plan, curricular activity, and many more. If the proposal were to be implement make sure that parents knows that teacher are doing the best they can in doing the monitoring job. Parent A How many children do you have' -I have four children in school and one in kindergarten. Do you think by allowing access for student to bring handphones in school a good thing' In my opinion, it should not be a problem if students were allowed to bring handphone in school. The parents are the one who should decide whether they do need such tech for their children. If it were to be me, I would not let them have handphones unless they save their money and buy it for themselves. What about during school hours in school compound' During school hours teachers should monitor these students and I think it is their responsibility to do so. I think if the teachers could manipulate the handphones like to attract these children to certain topics of a subject, we can see benefits of the usage of these technology. What about monitoring during school hours' Does it not burden the teachers' Well, I think it does burden the techers. However if they were to look it in a different point of view they might also see that handphones could also help them to monitor the students. What about the proposal (explained the ministry of education proposal)' I think it sounds perfect. Allowing the same type of mobile and limited contact access would definitely not cause problem. But then again, it is still the teachers responsibility to make sure the students abide by those rules. Parent B How many children do you have' -I have two primary children Do you think by allowing access for student to bring handphones in school a good thing' No I disagree. I think students should just study and get good grades. Our time we do not have such technology and we still turn out to be successful. What about during school hours in school compound' I think public phones should be enough if in case emergency emerges during school hours. Besides the teachers will be there. What about monitoring during school hours' Does it not burden the teachers' That is also the reason I disagree with the plan to allow handphones, besides my wife is also a teacher and I think it is a burden to see her doing extra work. What about the proposal (explained the ministry of education proposal)' Well, I think the proposal sounds good. But I still would not allow handphone usage to my children until they graduated from school or after SPM. Questionnaire Please tick the question below. 1. Do you have kids' Yes /no 2. How many kids' ____ one ____ two ____three _____ more than three 3. Your family average income' Below RM 40k annually ____ above RM40 k annually _____ 4. Do you think school should allow students to bring handphone' Yes ____ No ____ 5. Why' Why' (at a scale of one to five from the lowest score to the highest) ____ safety of your children' ____ safety issues' ____ security of your children ' ____ classroom disturbance problem ____ easy to monitor your kids' ____ money problem' ____ help teacher in teaching' ____ privacy problem' 6. Please read proposal of the ministry of education. See if you still agree or disagree. Yes/no . I have read the proposal I agree / I disagree with the proposal.