STORY IS AT THE BOTTOM

Which quotation from “Smarter Without Smartphones” best supports the author’s claim that students learn some skills through in-class, face-to-face interactions rather than through technology?

A. “Thanks to the Internet and smartphones, we students have access to nearly every piece of information imaginable.” (paragraph 1)

B. “We need critical-thinking skills so that we can analyze, interpret, and apply the information we find.” (paragraph 2)

C. “A teacher’s job becomes much harder when smartphones are added into the mix.” (paragraph 2)

D. “We learn how to interact with one another, how to take turns, and how to explain our thinking.” (paragraph 3)

Selection 2: Smarter Without Smartphones

1 Thirty years ago, students writing research papers used the school library. They would wade through encyclopedias and articles from newspapers and magazines to find information. Students were at the mercy of what was available in their school library. Not anymore. Thanks to the Internet and smartphones, we students have access to nearly every piece of information imaginable. Instantaneously. But as the problem of limited access to information has faded, a new problem has arisen in its place—a lack of attention.
2 We can get any information we want from a smartphone, but how do we learn what to do with that information? We need critical-thinking skills so that we can analyze, interpret, and apply the information we find. Historically, students have learned these skills in a classroom environment. What happens when smartphones invade the classroom? Students get distracted. (While writing this article, I’ve checked my email no fewer than five times!) A major challenge faced by every teacher is holding his or her students’ attention. A teacher’s job becomes much harder when smartphones are added into the mix.
3 The classroom has long been a place where students learn much more than just what is in the curriculum. We learn how to interact with one another, how to take turns, and how to explain our thinking. Unfortunately, for all of the “connecting” smartphones do, they keep us separated. The more time we spend on our phones, the less time we spend communicating with and learning from people around us. We gain so much from those right next to us in a classroom, often more than we do from studying. If we spend our time at school glued to our phones, we will never learn how to relate to other people. Isolated and alone, deprived of social interaction, trapped in our glowing screens, we may well end up without the social skills we need to succeed in life and work. Allowing cell phones into the classroom may look like a small rip in the fabric of society—but in next to no time, this tear can widen, leaving our society in tatters when a generation grows up without needed skills.
4 Fortunately, the answer to this threat is simplicity itself: Ban cell phones at school. The distraction from learning and the loss of social interaction are more than enough reason to justify keeping cell phones out of classrooms. Critics of the ban may point to the inconvenience students may experience if they are not able to use their phones to contact parents, search the Internet for information, and so on. Here, too, the answer is simple. Schools should provide cell phone “lockers.” Students will check their phones in at the start of the day. Should a student need his or her phone during the day, the student can visit the “locker” during a free period or with special permission, check out the phone, use it, then check it back in again. No one will be deprived of the chance to send that crucial text—as long as he or she does it outside the classroom.