Why are learners not allowed to use valuable educational resources that are at the end of their fingertips? Cellphones are banned in most schools because they distract learners when they should be working. However I believe that cellphones are a valuable resource and should be welcomed into most classrooms.

There is a problem in our country. We do not have enough books and dictionaries for learners. However most learners have access to cellphones, or own a cellphone. Even if there were just 10 cellphones available in a class of 50, learners could use them as dictionaries to look up words, or look up information on the internet. This would be very useful.

There are also many educational applications available on cellphones that could be used in classrooms. There are apps that help with maths, that give you grammar lessons, or even just apps that allow you to read books or newspapers. These could be integrated as part of our lessons.

The problem is that teachers do not know what is available and so are not aware of the potential of cellphones. Often learners understand better than their teachers how to work cellphones. Learners can teach their teachers new things, and the teacher can encourage the learners to explain clearly, and be helpful in their demonstrations of how to use the cellphone, and this can improve the relationship between them.

How to use cellphones is also a very important skill and is something that all learners should be able to do when they work. If they are able to use them in school then they will learn the various different ways that cellphones work, and develop their technological understanding.

I believe that with careful planning cellphones can be an asset to a classroom rather than something that needs to be banned.