The Smartphone Use in Indonesian Schools: The High School Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

<p> </p><p>The goal of this research is to investigate schools’ policy of using a mobile phone at schools from the perspective of secondary school students in Indonesia. It happens to be a long debate involving educators in Indonesia on whether or not the use of smartphone can be allowed in schools. So far, all we hear is the perspectives of teachers and schools’ administrators regarding the ban but never from the students, even though the students are the subject of these debates. This research is conducted in order to investigate, as well as to give the opportunity for students’ to voice their opinion, point of views, and perspectives toward the issue of banning smartphone use at schools. The data of this research was collected through online survey aimed at secondary schools’ students in Gorontalo, Indonesia. There are 250 students from 5 high schools have responded to the online surveys. The result shows that even though students mostly believe that the use of smartphone should be integrated into teaching and learning process, an appropriate policy of using it at school should be designed in order to get rid of the negative impact cause by it, and to maximize the use of it as a sophisticated resource to help students learn better at school.</p>