Should technology be banned?

Students will be returning to the classroom soon, leaving behind their facebooks and social networks to take up research and mathematics.

Personally, I don't believe social networks, cell phones and other modern communication devices should be banned from schools. I know I am in the minority as an educator. I agree they are distractions and may temporally attract student attention in the wrong direction but this is true of almost anything.

A pretty girl or a cute guy walking down the street will distract. A nice car will capture plenty of attention. In the 1960's Edmonton Public (and many other cities) built schools with no windows in an attempt to reduce these distractions. So children sat for hours in classrooms with no natural light, not able to see a tree or a snowflake. In the winter in Canada often it's dark when students go to school and dark when they get out. With out windows, children barely saw sunlight. The idea was soon discarded as silly and we went back to building schools with windows.

We are making a similar mistake today by assuming that if we ban communication devices and other technological distractions, students will pay attention to their lessons and learn better. So teachers, TA's and principals rome the halls looking for children texting their friend or calling their parents. Their phones are confiscated because this is a "no phone" zone. Although teachers are adults and should be completely capable of having a phone and using it properly, they too are banned from having phones. Both teachers and students continue to sneak phones into schools, hiding around corners to communicate with the outside world.

Perhaps it would be better to accept technology and teach kids how to use them properly and respectfully. If a student is abusing cell phone privileges, it will annoy the other students in the class as much as the instructor. Peer pressure is a powerful behavior moderator. If not, then the teacher should address the inappropriate behavior not the communication device.

Technology is a wonderful educator, I believe both teachers and the education system is doing a good job of using technology in education. However fear of distractions, holds back the entire system from making full use of technology.