Qld: Schools to move on mobiles

AAP General News (Australia)
04-28-2004
Qld: Schools to move on mobiles

BRISBANE, April 28 AAP - Queensland state schools will be issued guidelines on how
to manage the use of mobile phones by students.

Education Minister Anna Bligh said although the misuse of mobile phones in schools
was not yet a problem, the government wanted to get on the front foot before they became
a nuisance.

Ms Bligh said the guidelines would ban students from using camera-equipped mobile phones
in change rooms, while students caught using them to bully others or cheat in exams would
be disciplined.

She said the guidelines indicated some clear-cut expectations about the use of mobile
phones at school.

"They're not okay for private use in the classroom and if students use them to bully,
cheat, or take inappropriate images of others, they can expect to be disciplined."

Ms Bligh said the raft of technologies available, including mobile phones, pagers,
portable CD and MP3 players, personal digital assistants and similar devices, could be
incorporated into classroom programs and open exciting new approaches to learning and
doing projects.

"But when these technologies are misused by students they can be very disruptive to
their school mates and to classroom activities," Ms Bligh said.

AAP jfs/jv

KEYWORD: MOBILES

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