新電子產品帶來的影響是好是壞，每個人都有不同意見。但即使認為這些產品壞多於好的人，也是邊罵邊用。
      子女要追上電子產品潮流，每逢有新產品推出便想買，父母當然頭痛。電子產品如智能手機(smartphone)動輒數千元，一年半載就要換一部，普通家庭難以負擔。除了支出，子女整天對智能手機，不是上網便是和朋友傳短訊，連在飯桌上也不停的SMS，跟他們說話心不在焉，怎不令人擔心？

      A losing battle
      這些原因令很多家長今天都對這些digital gadgets滿懷戒心。但當如智能手機等產品越來越普遍，老師都利用它們作教學工具，那這股時刻使用數碼產品的潮流，家長想要攔也攔不住。
      事實上，在西方國家已有學者提出"smartphones make the students smarter"(“智能手機令學生更醒”)的觀點。家長們聽到這樣的論調可能有點頭痛，但同時亦有調查顯示，逾半學生認為智能手機有助學習︰
      Long the bane of teachers, smartphones are being re-imagined by educators as a positive presence in the classroom. What's more, a survey released Thursday shows more than half of Canadians - 56 per cent - agree that the mobile devices are an "invaluable(無價的) tool" for students, while fully two-thirds see smartphones as a way for students to conduct online research any time, anywhere.
      Bane解剋星、禍根。很多老師都覺得smartphones是大患、禍根。但有教育學者卻把smartphones的角色扭轉，變成課堂上的好幫手。加拿大皇后大學媒體學教授Sidneyeve Matrix認為，smartphones的潮流擋也擋不了︰
      "What drives most teachers mad is that they're competing with these phones for attention," says Matrix. "But with 1,400 students in the class, what am I supposed to do? Say, 'Now, put away your phones, kids?' It's a losing battle. So I decided to work with it."
      A losing battle是一場正在節節敗退的戰事。一個相關的用語是fighting an uphill battle，要攻上山自然增加戰事的難度，an uphill battle就是一場艱難的戰爭。
      既然阻不了，不如就順勢利用它作教學工具︰
      Professor Sidneyeve Matrix, whose Queen's University class has its own app(應用程式), says smartphones have become so ubiquitous (無處不在的) that it makes less sense for teachers to fight them than to dial up their potential(潛力) as a modern-day school supply.
      她自行研發的智能手機軟件稱為"Class Caddy"︰
      The app gives her students instant access to lecture notes(授課筆記), classroom slides, videos used in presentations, textbook reading guides, class schedules and webinars.
Webinar是web-based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop的簡寫，即網上進行的研討會或授課、工作坊。

      一心多用礙專注
      但Sidneyeve Matrix的想法不是人人接受。紐約大學的Jonathan Zimmerman教授則認為，使用智能手機等設備需要multi-tasking(一心多用)，這反而會影響學生的專注力。Leslie Perlow的Sleeping With Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work就認為智能手機太煩擾，教你怎樣戒掉無手機不歡的習慣。                               

      文︰子慧