Could Smartphone Bans Help Students Achieve More?

高齊云

A study from the London School of Economics found that banning smartphones in classrooms can support learning. Are kids plugging1 in too early？

倫敦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，禁止在教室里使用智能手機(jī)有助于學(xué)習(xí)。孩子們接觸手機(jī)太早了嗎？

Todays students the world over are losing an hour a week of productivity2 due to their smartphone activity.

如今，全世界的學(xué)生因使用智能手機(jī)，每周損失一個(gè)小時(shí)的學(xué)習(xí)效率。

That is what two researchers from the London School of Economics are arguing with their new study that examined 130，000 students in 91 British schools that employed various smartphone-use policies. Then， they looked at how the students performed on the national exams.

這正是倫敦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院的兩位研究人員所討論的對(duì)象，他們的新研究對(duì)英國(guó)91所學(xué)校的13萬(wàn)名學(xué)生進(jìn)行了調(diào)查，這些學(xué)校采用了各種不同的智能手機(jī)使用政策。隨后，他們研究了這些學(xué)生在全國(guó)考試中的表現(xiàn)。

In what may not come as a surprise to some， researchers Richard Murphy and Louis-Philippe Beland found that as schools phone policies3 evolved since 2001， with some opting4 to completely ban smartphones， school test scores improved by an average of 6.4 percent. The increase in scores from underachieving students were even more stark as they saw their scores increase by an average of 14 percent.

這對(duì)有些人來(lái)說(shuō)并不奇怪，研究人員理查德·墨菲和路易斯·菲利普·貝蘭德發(fā)現(xiàn)，隨著2001年以來(lái)學(xué)校電話政策的發(fā)展，有些學(xué)校選擇完全禁止使用智能手機(jī)，學(xué)校的考試成績(jī)平均提高了6.4%。成績(jī)差的學(xué)生分?jǐn)?shù)增長(zhǎng)更為明顯，他們的分?jǐn)?shù)平均增長(zhǎng)了14%。

Professors Murphy and Beland said their study does not mean that smartphones and other technology have no place in helping learning.

墨菲和貝蘭德教授說(shuō)，他們的研究并不意味著智能手機(jī)和其他技術(shù)在幫助學(xué)習(xí)方面沒(méi)有立足之地。

“There are， however， disadvantages to new technologies，” they said， mentioning the temptation5 to text， play games or chat on social media.

“然而，新技術(shù)也有缺點(diǎn)，”他們說(shuō)，并提到發(fā)短信、玩游戲或在社交媒體上聊天的誘惑。

Therefore， cell phones will not be completely out of classrooms anytime soon. Cell phone ownership among young people and children has skyrocketed6 in the past few years. By 2013， 78 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 owned a cell phone， 47 percent of which were smartphones.

因此，手機(jī)不會(huì)很快完全離開(kāi)教室。在過(guò)去的幾年里，年輕人和兒童的手機(jī)持有量猛增。截至2013年， 12至17歲的青少年中78%的人擁有手機(jī)，其中47%是智能手機(jī)。

2012， the Atlantic reported that 20 percent of American third graders owned a cell phone and that number jumped to 80 percent by middle school. The benefits7 are easy to see—parents can be in direct contact with their children in the event of an emergency8， but the overuse of mobile phones can also have bad effects on the development of teenagers.

2012年，《大西洋月刊》報(bào)道說(shuō)，20%的美國(guó)三年級(jí)學(xué)生擁有一部手機(jī)，而到了中學(xué)，這個(gè)數(shù)字上升到了80%。好處是顯而易見(jiàn)的——在緊急情況下，父母可以直接與孩子聯(lián)系，但過(guò)度使用手機(jī)對(duì)青少年的發(fā)展也會(huì)有不良影響。

Notes

1. plug [? ? ? ] v. 接入電源;將……與……接通

2. productivity [? ? ??] n. 生產(chǎn)力;生產(chǎn)率;生產(chǎn)能力

3. policy [? ? ??] n. 政策，方針

4. opt [? ? ??] vi. 選擇

5. temptation [? ? ??] n. 引誘;誘惑物

6. skyrocket [? ? ??] v. （價(jià)格）飛漲，猛漲;（使）……猛然上漲

7. benefit [? ? ??] n. 利益，好處

8. emergency [? ? ??] n. 緊急情況;突發(fā)事件;非常時(shí)刻

▲Questions：

[1]What do you usually do when you use a smartphone？ 通常你會(huì)用智能手機(jī)做些什么呢？

[2]Do you think it is good for students to use smartphones in class？ Why？ 你認(rèn)為在課堂上使用手機(jī)對(duì)學(xué)生有好處嗎？為什么？

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