A province-wide ban on the use of phones and other personal devices in classrooms took effect in Ontario this week.
Manitoba doesn't have anything similar in place, but school divisions like the Mountain View School Division have their own policy. "It's certainly not an outright ban, but it does provide schools with guidelines and rules around cellphone use. Essentially, we don't allow cellphone use during the regular school day or in the classroom, unless it's authorized by the school principal", said Dan Ward, Superintendent for MVSD.
If there are situations where a cellphone or personal device could be used for educational purposes, a student could use theirs, with the permission of their teacher or principal.
Ward noted that teaching kids about digital literacy and ethical use of devices is very important to the school division, and an outright ban would make it difficult to accomplish that. "We know that students throughout their lives and their future workplaces are gonna be faced with issues around the use of electronic devices, so we feel we really need to stress the importance of using them ethically ... because there certainly is the potential for the misuse of electronic devices, including bullying".
The policy surrounding the use of phones and other personal devices is MVSD's own policy and is in effect at all 16 school within the division. Keep up to date with MVSD by going to their website, mvsd.ca.
