Hitting the headlines a few weeks ago was the news that many schools and various education officials (including Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw) are calling for mobile phones to be banned from the classroom. Indeed, many schools have already taken this step, going as far as completely banning the use of mobile phones at school.

The primary reason for banning smartphones is understandable – they cause disruption to lessons by distracting pupils. No surprises there then. Let’s be honest, if you’re like the average adult who owns a smart phone, since buying your first you’ve probably spent around 40% of your waking life gazing at the small screen in your hand with absolutely no care (or knowledge) for how much time has passed since you first entered your pin code.

If the average adult spends a long time on their phone (and they have important things to do like work) then think how long the average child is transfixed by their phone, when their cares peak at trying to have the most friends on Facebook in their year group. Add to this the nature of distraction that a mobile phone can be and it doesn’t take long to realise why schools are starting to clamp down.

The mobile phone, different to other classroom distractions like passing notes, general chit-chat or winding the up the teacher until they lose their rag and go red in the face, is potentially much more damaging to a pupil’s education. Mobile phones are silent, addictive, and utterly engrossing. They distract pupils for potentially long periods of the lesson without necessarily disturbing the teacher.

Despite this potential to cause distractions, banning phones from the classroom may be a knee-jerk reaction. Whilst there is evidence (you can read the full report here) that suggests removing phones from the classroom benefits children, there is huge potential in keeping smart phones (and similar devices such as tablets) in the classroom that could benefit everyone.

Despite the evidence supporting a ban on smart phones, there are plenty of polls produced in recent years that will show you that mobile technology (of which smartphones are the largest portion) is one of the biggest growth sectors. And unlike other growth sectors in technology, mobile is a sector that affects huge numbers of people from a huge range of backgrounds closely on a day-to-day basis because of how many people use smart phones.

What’s more is the diversity of this growth, whether it’s shown by general stats like increased average daily use, or more specific examples like more use in the workplace, the march of mobile tech and how widespread it is becoming in every day life is unerring.

It therefore stands to reason that the use of mobile tech will continue to increase as time goes on. The children of today, distracted by smartphones in classrooms, will be the adults of tomorrow, working with mobile tech in the future. Removing phones from schools altogether may leave children under skilled and unfamiliar with the conventions of tomorrow’s workplace. Even if mobile tech does not takeover working life in the future, the potential of mobile tech is so vast that to prevent children from using it will almost certainly stifle potential talent.

Rather than taking a backwards step and banning smartphones altogether, schools would be much wiser forming plans on how they could incorporate smartphones, and other mobile devices, into the classroom. Children should be taught that mobile devices can, and are used for much more than just social networking or YouTube.

Smartphones are now so powerful (and accessible) that they are often quicker than the average classroom PC. And with the Internet quite literally at your fingertips the potential to find information relevant to any subject taught in today’s classrooms is enormous. This brings us on to the next point in favour of using smart phones.

Another common headline in education is the growth of class sizes across the UK (primary and secondary education), and the increasing strain this puts on teachers (as well as the rest of the education system). With less and less teacher to go around pupils (that aren’t just playing around on Facebook) may suffer in the long run anyway. This is an area where mobile devices could provide a very positive contribution to lessons, by helping to take pressure off teachers and supplement pupils’ learning.

Apps that serve this purpose are already available, such as Edmodo, which allows teachers to post tasks, quizzes and details of relevant learning resources. Those three examples are all things that teachers do now to help students apply the knowledge that they acquire during lessons. The key difference is that they are done using a smartphone. Instead of picking up their mobile phone out of boredom, pupils could be using their smart phone to download their homework, or access information that will help them complete it.

The growing use of mobile devices in every day life means that banning them now would mean swimming against the tide. Fast forward just 10 years, when the 13 year olds of today are completing their PGCEs and starting to teach classes of their own. What is a tide today will become an entire ocean, with teachers just as engrossed by mobile devices as the pupils that they teach. In some cases, you could even say that about some of today’s younger teachers.

Schools and teachers should grab the bull by the horns and try and make mobile devices work for them, not against them. In the long run the rise of mobile technology makes a ban on devices in the classroom seem short lived, but that aside mobile devices are an incredibly powerful learning tool that can be used to enhance the learning experience for pupils of all ages.