Do smartphones belong in classrooms?

Absolutely not. Think about it: the kids aren't missing anything if their friends are also forced to be offline during class.

I used to allow students in my university and high school classes to use cell phones. I no longer teach at university but work full-time at a private high school. (I have a teacher's license. I have my own classes, not ALT work.) I stopped allowing students to use cell phones with the current third-year students. I'd say that it was good that I did so. However, starting this year, the school requires all entering students to buy an iPad, so I have to return to using electronic devices. Being an Android guy, I am having a hard time adjusting to the new format. It's been a learning experience for me. I often have to ask my students how to do something. But that's OK. I have two mottos. "Let's learn together." "Teaching is learning a second time." So hopefully as I catch up with them on the iPad, they can catch up with me on the English.

On average it doesn’t play much a role. Good students learn always very well , be it with newest technology or only with a simple blank sheet of paper and a pencil. And not willing or incapable students won’t learn anything, whether you give them only a sheet of paper and a pen or if you even would give them instead the best tablet, supercomputers or AI support or anything else.

Stupidphones are a distraction in the classroom; in the workplace; and in the hands of those operating a motor vehicle.

A smartphone is also a computer.

No.

Why would any student require a smart phone or mobile phone in a classroom? They would always be a distraction, and the child is there to learn, not play around with a phone.

Smartphones can replace carrying heavy books.