When sitting outside or in a mall to people-watch in Beijing, one might notice that many have bent necks and a cell phone close to their face. Five to six years ago, this was not the case. Affordable devices have brought new challenges to Chinese culture, and many expats have adopted this cell phone craze norm. Some readers have confessed to us WeChat is a strong allure. But should schools allow for this cultural norm to occur on campus? Is there a case for teachers using gadgets for better learning or do they cause more distraction in class than they should? Canadian International School, Beijing students answer, “Should schools allow students to use gadgets in the classroom?”

Yes
Louis L., Grade 11
This is my seventh year at CISB and currently I’m the President of Student Council. In the past, we had surveys in our school targeting students in my age group to investigate whether or not the school should allow gadgets such as cell phones during school time. I believe this is a question that relates to many issues, but most importantly revolves around student social life and their own safety. Therefore in my opinion, schools should allow students to use gadgets in class.
First, the most important reason is student safety. I still have the newspaper that my father bought home with one line in particular that caught my attention, “13 students were killed in the US and 1 survived in a school attack due to a cell phone.” This tragedy happened in 1999, the year I was born where two men walked into a school with two machine guns and killed these students in the classroom. However one student, the only survivor that day, was able to dial 911 and call the police while under the table. He was the only one that had a cell phone with him that day. From this case, we can see how a cell phone can be the key to saving a life. Just in case of emergency, students should be allowed by their school to bring a cell phone with them.
Second, we are in a technology era where a large proportion of us do a variety of things based on our gadgets, whether phones, tablets, or laptops. I believe students should have freedom to talk with their friends. I’d like to mention that this is not only about letting students have a normal social life; I’m saying that students shouldn’t become an outsider of society due to education. Take our school (CISB) as example, although we are not often allowed to use cell phones in class, we are still allowed to use them during lunch time for about one hour out of seven hours of school everyday. Due to the fact that we have the opportunity to check our social media, we remain close together despite having different classes and different grade levels.
Allowing students to use their cell phones also maintains a “Global Village” in our school. CISB has less than 1,000 students and teachers, but we all come from more than 60 different countries around the globe. It’s really only cell phones that bring us together as we are often consumed with study while in school, as we should be.

Yes, But…
Nicole T., Grade 9
In the 21st century, our lives are consumed by technology, whether it’s the media or electronic devices. As a student in an international school, technology has become a critical part of my education and daily routine. Laptops and computers are now a must-have to be a part of the global experience an international school provides. However, allowing gadgets such as phones and mp3s in classrooms is still debatable. Personally, I believe CISB should allow students to use gadgets in the classroom but there should be limitation and rules.
Small electronics like phones are classified as gadgets. Phones are an essential part of our daily lives, not just for effective communications but also to wind down. For me, phones are more convenient when it comes to communication compared to a laptop because it’s much easier to pull out wherever I go. A lot of clubs at CISB utilizes WeChat to communicate, in school and out. Sometimes there might be an update in the middle of the day, and without my phone I would not have been able to know. Having a phone in school also comes in handy when we need to inform our parents of certain situations (getting sick, staying at school late, etc). It’s reassuring for parents to know we have our phones with us when we are in school because they know we’ll be able to contact them in any case of emergency. But of course, there is also a negative effect of having gadgets in the classroom.
The undeniable truth is our phones are one of our generation’s greatest distractions. Imagine hearing your phone buzzing in the middle of the class, that urge of picking it up and checking that notification will kick in. Not allowing any gadgets in the classroom is rather extreme because what that means is for us to lose one of our main communication tools. However, it is necessary to establish a few rules regarding how we should conduct ourselves. The rules will help us gain a better understanding as to how we should be using the phone during school time, and the rules can also control the amount of time we spend on our phone.
Though having our phones with us during school is convenient, we also have the responsibility to know appropriate times to use them to ensure a positive learning environment for all students. Communication between friends, schoolmates, and parents is very important but it should not be at the expense of learning.

This article originally appeared on pages 32-33 of the October 2016 Issue of beijingkids magazine. Click here for your free online copy. To find out how you can obtain a hard copy, contact distribution@truerun.com.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CISB

In anticipation of my departure from Beijing this summer, I’ve been slowly getting rid of things through expat forums, clothing swaps, and donation drives. Clothes, bikes, household appliances, books, and craft supplies have all found willing recipients, but I’ve been stumped about what to do with old devices.

A Baidu search turned up Aihuishou (“love recycling”), a Shanghai-based customer-to-business platform for selling old mobile phones and other personal devices. Founded by two Fudan University graduates, the site has been profiled on chinadialogue and received C series funding from the US.

The premise seems simple enough. Users o to the website, type their device brand and model into the search bar, answer some questions about the state of the device, and make an appointment to either drop it off in person at one of Aihuishou’s service points or have an employee come over and assess it in person.

The obvious drawback is that the website is only in Chinese, but the interface looks very easy to use and Aihuishou reportedly offers higher buyback prices than competing services and street vendors. Even if you have limited language skills, it should be simple enough to get through with the help of someone who can read Chinese.

Let’s say you want to resell an iPhone 5. On the front page, click on the Apple logo or click on the dropdown menu labeled 旧机回收 (“old device recycling” jiuji huishou):

“Mobile phone” (手机回收 shouji huishou) is the second option in the dropdown list.

You can also type the device brand and model straight into the search bar:

Once you find the right device, you’ll get a series of diagnostic questions to assess the resale value of the phone:

The questions are different for each device. In this case, they include where the iPhone 5 was bought, storage capacity, serial number group, and warranty status.

The next page assesses for any damages or malfunctions: whether the phone turns on and off normally, whether the battery works normally, whether the Wi-Fi has any issues, etc.

The last page continues along the same vein and asks about the phone’s casing, screen, and repair history.

The first thing you’ll see on the next page is the estimated resale value of the phone – in this case RMB 530 – followed by a list of service options.

There are three options: go to one of Aihuishou’s service points (there will be a map of Beijing with a list of locations), have a service agent come to your house, or send the devices through kuaidi.

Once the devices have been assessed and, if applicable, the estimate price readjusted, Aihuishou will give you the money through WeChat Wallet, bank transfer, or in cash.

Note that you get an extra RMB 30 if you show up in person at a service point and an extra RMB 5 if you choose to get paid through WeChat Wallet.

Both in-person resales and house calls require an appointment. The transaction can only go through if the total resale value of the device(s) amounts to at least RMB 50, so this is the perfect time to get rid of your whole family’s e-waste in one fell swoop.

Sijia Chen is a contributing editor at beijingkids and a freelance writer specializing in parenting, education, travel, environment, and culture. Her work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, The Independent, Midnight Poutine, Rover Arts, and more. Follow her on Twitter at @sijiawrites or email her at sijiachen@beijing-kids.com.

Visuals: Screenshots by Sijia Chen, main photo by Zak Mensah (Flickr)

Unless you live in a “villa” here in Beijing, chances are your apartment kitchen was an afterthought for the “interior designer” and probably the “architect” too. Kitchens in apartments tend to be small, cramped, dark work spaces where the ayi will be working anyway, so why bother making them look nice, or functional, or even install enough lighting so a person can see what they are doing? But I digress.

After we moved into our flat, a friend and I did some modifications and managed to make our kitchen cleaner, brighter, and more functional, but unfortunately more cramped than it already was. Still, for one person it is a comfortable food preparation area. For two, you need to dance a bit to stay out of each other’s way, and if a third enters, you need to kick somebody out. I really wish to get one of the best quality kitchen renovations one day, a kitchen where there;s room for everybody, but that’ll have to wait until we find our own home. 

It is this lack of space that makes things challenging for the expat gourmet chef in the family. Hand our ayi a pot, a frying pan, and a wok, and she is good to go. Okay, the microwave and the hot water kettle are appreciated too. Not so for our nameless master chef.

Although our mystery cook has long given up on the idea of a full-sized oven and having a stove with more than two burners, she does appreciate having a variety of different pots and pans and a few extra appliances. I’ll admit that the toaster and the air pop popcorn popper were my ideas, and I can see the benefit of the food processor, but lately some less common devices have found their way into our burgeoning kitchen.

Several times a year, my wife is given a short list of things to choose from as a kind of office perk. Unfortunately, cash is never one of the options. Inevitably she settles on the kitchen-related gifts since they are always things we probably wouldn’t buy otherwise, but might actually use. The set of kitchen knives seemed sensible and we put the food storage containers to good use, but the appliances are trying my ability to stow things out of the way.

When the pressure cooker came, I just left it on the floor for months. It didn’t fit under any of the counters, not that there was room there anyway. Two weeks ago, an air fryer was delivered to our door and then I had two things in the way. I finally tossed out some anemic houseplants to make way for the devices that remain boxed for stackability.

Still, I cannot complain, as occasionally I am the recipient of the gastronomical creations that come out of these devices. That said, I did draw the line on the electric sandwich grill. If I cannot benefit from the thing since I’m “enjoying” a gluten-free lifestyle, no one else can. I’m content to just grill everything the old fashioned way. I just need to extricate the ayi from the kitchen so I can reach a frying pan. Thursday is grilled-cheese night. You are welcome to join us. Please, just stay out of the kitchen.

Photo: LizMarie_AK (flickr)