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Cellphone use in schools stops students from developing the academic stamina needed for higher-level learning.

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Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction (NY Times)

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Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction (NY Times)

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Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction (Published 2010)

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The constant stream of stimuli offered by new technology poses a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

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Using cellphones in school decreases students' social interaction with peers.

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Follow the format on this Padlet to make your own.

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Follow the format on this Padlet to make your own.

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Your padlet should include:

Background Info

Thesis

Argument #1

Argument #2

Argument #3

Solutions Overview

Solution #1

Solution #2

Each section should have AT LEAST TWO SOURCES (articles, videos, etc) to support your arguments/solutions, except your thesis, which does not need extra sources.

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Make sure each solution is supported by evidence

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Make sure each solution is supported by evidence

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Evidence can include:

Articles

Videos

Books

Quotes from experts

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Using cellphones in class reduces students' academic achievement, both in terms of grades and test scores.

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How will this help address the problem? Why does this solution make sense?

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Outline the solutions you will propose to address the problem you have identified

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Outline the solutions you will propose to address the problem you have identified

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Example: The most effective solutions to cellphone use in American schools are:

1. to teach students responsible cellphone use from an early age and;

2. to develop cultures of learning that encourage healthier use of cellphones in learning environments.

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Example Article: Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Cellphones in Schools (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

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Example Article: Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Cellphones in Schools (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

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Put a link to an article about your topic that supports your first argument

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Typically, the discussion around cellphones in school - whether they are learning tools or distractions - has revolved around their impact on measures of academic success like test scores or grades. But in his research, Ed School alum Dylan Lukes looks at other outcomes policymakers should be considering.

"I'm hoping to move beyond thinking about test scores and consider the potential importance of other outcomes like discipline and school culture which may factor into student wellbeing," says Lukes, Ph.D.'22.

As schools are gearing up for the fall, with some considering new and amended policies on the use of cellphones in class, Luke gets into his findings - including how the New York City Department of Education's (NYCDOE) recently reversed cellphone ban impacted student suspensions and school culture - and gives his thoughts on what schools and districts should be considering when creating policies around technology moving forward.

Why are cellphones in schools such a contested topic among educators, parents, and students?
The motivation for many of these policies comes from a desire to limit distractions. If you think about it, from a school's perspective, if a cellphone ban can improve student learning, that's a great low-cost intervention with a favorable benefit-cost ratio. However, from a parent's perspective, the calculus is a bit different, and the cost of not being able to get a hold of their kid(s) may outweigh any potential benefit accrued from the ban.

How have cellphone policies evolved over the years?
Over the past several decades, many large urban school districts have intermittently experimented with cellphone bans. However, most cellphone bans have been repealed due to their unpopularity with parents and students and concerns over equity [ as low income students often have mobile-only access to the internet]. In March 2015, the NYCDOE lifted their longstanding districtwide cellphone ban and provided schools with significant discretion in designing and implementing school-level policies governing student cellphone use - and that shift is what I explore in my research.

Most research around cellphone use in schools looks at the impact on test scores, reaction time, and the ability to focus. You look instead at two areas: discipline and a sense of safety.
The existing studies provide evidence that allowing phones in the classroom negatively impacts test scores and long-term learning retention. There are some correlational studies that suggest negative relationships between off-task device use and student achievement. Further, in psychology, research on multitasking generally finds negative effects on learning and task completion and, more generally, research has shown that cellphones distract and negatively impact reaction times, performance, enjoyment of focal tasks, and cognitive capacity.

In my research, my thinking was that as schools consider removal of bans or enforcement, they should also consider often overlooked dimensions of school culture that could play a role in educational productivity and student wellbeing. That is not to say academic achievement is not important - it is - but there are other potentially important inputs that contribute to educational productivity such as school discipline and culture.

Why?
From a disciplinary standpoint, if the school has a cellphone ban and there are students breaking that cellphone ban, it's possible that over time - and I've seen this from survey responses from NYCDOE school principals and parent coordinators - at some point there can be some punitive measures if you're caught breaking that ban. That's one of the reasons I explore the impact on discipline and suspension - you could be using a cellphone which, yes, could be distracting, but even more negatively, have the student removed from school. That kind of impact on learning could be a net-negative, even when you consider that against the positive effects a cellphone ban may have on a student's learning and their peers' learning.

I also think it's important to look at other factors we don't typically think about, like school culture, that might also have a big impact on learning.

And what did you find?
So just as a disclaimer, there might be policies I can't control for that impact these outcomes. For example, in 2014, there was a new chancellor [in New York] who made changes to the discipline code. With that caveat, I do find that the ban removal positively impacted school discipline but had negative impacts on student perception of school culture across the dimensions of respect, student behavior, and school safety. It also had negative impacts on teacher perception of school safety. My findings suggest an improvement in educational productivity due to the NYCDOE's ban removal. But there's a tradeoff - a cost to school culture.

What do you mean by safety?
When it comes to emergencies, students likely feel safer having access to a phone. But the day-in and day-out component of school safety is how students use phones within school. This might include things like bullying, harassment, videotaping, and posting to social media. Those are reasons why having phones within schools could potentially be accelerators of negative student behavior. These safety measures which look at how safe students feel in classrooms, hallways, locker rooms, cafeterias, show a pretty negative jump after the ban has been lifted, which suggest to me that having a phone is at least interrupting a student's ability to safely navigate those spaces.

So what should policymakers think about moving forward?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. It would be interesting to look at how cellphones further contribute to school culture using more robust measures across time. And to be clear, I don't think there's anything inherently bad about cellphones but I do think it's key to engage in a discussion around the tradeoffs of having them in schools and classrooms. There might be some interesting ways to balance the tradeoffs of their distractions and their benefits - something like having magnetized pouches and allowing students to take out cellphones under special circumstances (e.g., class activity, lunch). Some schools are already experimenting with these alternatives and there are some prime opportunities in this space to evaluate impacts of these polices on educational outcomes, including school discipline and school culture.

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Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Cellphones in Schools

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Typically, the discussion around cellphones in school - whether they are learning tools or distractions - has revolved around their impact on measures of academic success like test scores or grades. But in his research, Ed School alum Dylan Lukes looks at other outcomes policymakers should be considering.

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Problem:
Using cellphones in class negatively impacts students by:

1. reducing their academic achievement;

2. decreasing their social interaction with peers and;

3. stopping them from developing the academic stamina needed for higher-level learning.

Solutions:
The most effective solutions to cellphone use in American schools are:

1. to teach students responsible cellphone use from an early age and;

2. to develop cultures of learning that encourage healthier use of cellphones in learning environments.

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Add any background information your audience needs to know about your topic to understand your argument

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Add any background information your audience needs to know about your topic to understand your argument

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Most of your early research will go here.
Remember to include LINKS to any sources you use for research.

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Articles/videos that address your argument

Graphs & Maps about your topic

Real world examples of the problem you are researching

Impacts/examples in New Haven

Experts on your topic and quotes from them that relate to your guiding question

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Cell phone usage and academic performance: An experiment (Science Direct)

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Cell phone usage and academic performance: An experiment (Science Direct)

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Highlights

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Evidence that excessive cellphone usage might be harming student's performance.

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Cellphone usage was directly measured, instead of relying on self-reported data.

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A high correlation between cellphone usage and academic performance is found.

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Usage during class time has a higher impact.

Abstract

This paper makes use of an experiment to test the relationship between the actual average time students spend using their smartphones per day and academic performance. Differently from previous studies that rely on self-reporting mobile phone usage data, which tends to significantly underestimate the time spent by students at their phones, we employed Apps (namely 'Moment' and 'App Usage Tracker') to effectively measure actual usage. Collecting data from 43 students at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), a business school from São Paulo, Brazil, our analysis yielded a significant negative relationship between total time spent using smartphones and academic performance, after controlling for known predictors of performance such as self-efficacy and past academic results. Each 100 min spent using the device on average per day corresponded to a reduction in a student's position at the school's ranking of 6.3 points, in a range from 0 to nearly 100. Moreover, if we consider usage during class time only (as opposed to during free time and weekends), the effect was almost twice as high. The magnitude of the effect found is alarming. Thus, this study brings new evidence of the potential harm of excessive smartphone use and should be useful for educators and other academic stakeholders interested in the subject of the impact of technology on students' performance.

View full text

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Cell phone usage and academic performance: An experiment

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Evidence that excessive cellphone usage might be harming student's performance. * Cellphone usage was directly measured, instead of relying on self-reported data. * A high correlation between cellphone usage and academic performance is found. * Usage during class time has a higher impact.

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What evidence do you have to support this solution?

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What evidence do you have to support this solution?

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Add articles, videos, etc

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SMARTPHONES, SOCIAL MEDIA AND TEENS: BENEFITS, RISKS AND RADIATION? (Digital Citizen Academy)

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SMARTPHONES, SOCIAL MEDIA AND TEENS: BENEFITS, RISKS AND RADIATION? (Digital Citizen Academy)

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"Teen anxiety and depression treatment centers have risen up in large numbers. Longer hours on social media have been found to increase a teen's risk of cyberbullying, lower self-esteem and may cause loss of valuable friend, family, and personal time."

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Add your small questions AND answers here

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Add your small questions AND answers here

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Example questions:

How do we measure ____(topic here)____?
How has __________ changed over time?

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Articles/videos that address your argument

Graphs & Maps about your topic

Real world examples of the problem you are researching

Impacts/examples in New Haven

Experts on your topic and quotes from them that relate to your guiding question

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Copy the format of the first argument for this one!

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Copy the format of the first argument for this one!