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Article that gives both sides of the argument

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Students who use smartphones and other mobile technology in class may well be driven to distraction. And that can hurt grades, studies show.

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Video - looking at 2 schools in Australia

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Should phones be banned in schools? | A Current Affair

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Should cell phones be allowed in schools? (NBC News video)

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Should cell phones be allowed in schools? (NBC News video)

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BTN11: Should cellphones be allowed in school?

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Research continually shows how distracting cell phones  are - so some schools want to ban them

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Research continually shows how distracting cell phones  are - so some schools want to ban them

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Research continually shows how distracting cell phones are—so some schools want to ban them

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According to Pew Research Center, 95 percent of teens have a smartphone or access have to one and 45 percent are online on a near-constant basis.

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What do five experts think about mobile phones in schools?

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What do five experts think about mobile phones in schools?

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The New South Wales education minister has ordered a review into mobile phone use in schools. Rob Stokes said the review would look at the risks and rewards of social media and would ultimately decide whether to ban them in NSW schools.

A Finnish education expert, Pasi Sahlberg, also recently said he believed mobile phone-related distraction was a main reason for Australia sliding down in Pisa rankings.

Parents and teachers have similar concerns about cyberbullying and safety, as well as technology distracting from schoolwork. But do the benefits of having phones in classrooms - such as contact with parents, access to mental health text lines, and learning opportunities - outweigh the risks?

We asked five experts if schools should ban mobile phones in classrooms.

Danielle Einstein, psychologist: yes

First, mobile phones are too easily used at the expense of face-to-face communication. Teenagers can message, avoiding a more challenging conversation. Second, smartphone apps and messages prompt dopamine release, creating addiction. Third, the mere presence of one's phone consumes attention even when it's not being checked. It's been shown we have reduced working memory capacity and fluid intelligence when our phone is upside down and silent on our desk compared with when it is in another room.

Finally, the introduction of smartphones has led to a decline in people's ability to cope with uncertainty. Research shows being uncomfortable with uncertainty is associated with students feeling distracted and tense during Naplan and other tests. The more uncomfortable young people are with uncertainty, the higher the number of co-occurring psychological problems they report experiencing. Smartphone use is associated with the current epidemic of anxiety and depression.

Matthew Kearney, teacher educator: no

First, regardless of any ban, students will continue to learn with their phones off-campus, later in life in their tertiary education, and in their professional and workplace learning. Second, if students want to investigate, collect data, receive personalised and immediate feedback, record media, create, compose or communicate with peers in and beyond the classroom, using mobile apps is ideal.

Also, if they want to learn at a place, time and pace of their choosing, for example on excursions, or work on projects with friends in more informal spaces like home, on a train or in Facebook groups, mobile devices are needed.

Joanne Orlando, technology and learning: no

We should not ban mobile phones in schools because it's important to educate children to live well in the era in which they are growing up. A good education for students today is knowing how to use technology to learn, communicate and work with ideas. There is significant research ( including my own) that shows selective, quality and empowering uses of technology provides new learning opportunities and the ability for students to develop skills they will need for their careers. The ability to copy work off the blackboard into an exercise book is not a skill today's employers are looking for.

Banning students from using smartphones is a 1950s response to a 2018 state of play. Mobile phone use is a complex social activity and taking phones away will likely lead to underground and hidden use by teens. This will exacerbate issues (such as cyberbullying) this call to ban phones is trying to address.

Damian Maher, ICT educator: no

Mobile phones serve many important functions. Digital literacy is a critical aspect of young people's schooling and research shows mobile phones can play a role in supporting such learning. It's important students learn with these devices so they can effectively participate in the workforce.

The phones provide a link between students and their parents, which has an important role to play in ensuring their safety. Evidence indicates parents want this type of access.

Teachers have an important role to teach students to be safe online.

In relation to health, research shows medical apps are important to support the health of young people, such as managing diabetes, and apps need to be accessed during schools hours. Rather than suggesting bans, we should be discussing ways to support young people to use their phones.

Susan Sawyer, paediatrician: no

Mobile phones are ubiquitous for secondary school students. Beyond the 3Rs, an important aspect of their learning is about safely negotiating online environments. This means all schools need to develop policies around the use of mobile phones during school hours. Given the dynamic nature of the mobile world, regularly engaging students and parents in reviewing and revising these policies is an important part of everyone's learning.

A particular benefit of mobile phones is they can provide access to therapeutic interventions for distressed young people while they are at school. Telephone support lines have long provided crisis support but are more commonly used outside school hours. The emergence of crisis text lines means adolescents can access text messaging support in real time, an approach that many find more accessible than telephone support, let alone face-to-face support, even with trained professionals at schools.

1. Damian Maher Senior lecturer in education, use of ICT and social media, University of Technology Sydney

2. Danielle Einstein Clinical psychologist, honorary associate, University of Sydney, and psychology department, Macquarie University

3. Joanne Orlando researcher, technology and learning, Western Sydney University

4. Matthew Kearney Associate Prof, teacher education program, University of Technology Sydney

5. Susan M Sawyer Prof of adolescent health, University of Melbourne, and director, Royal Children's hospital centre for adolescent health, University of Melbourne

This article was originally published on the Conversation. Read the original here https://theconversation.com/we-asked-five-experts-should-mobile-phones-be-banned-in-schools-98708

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What do five experts think about mobile phones in schools?

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New South Wales is looking at possibly banning the technology in classrooms. Experts disagree

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Do Cell Phones Belong in the Classroom (NPR news story)

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Do Cell Phones Belong in the Classroom (NPR news story)

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Now that most middle-school students have cell phones, some teachers are embracing the technology for schoolwork and to communicate with kids. Others say phones detract from learning.

Waiting for the bus outside Mercer Middle School on Beacon Hill, seventh-graders Chris Smith and Liam Pomeroy are talking to each other - not staring at their phones.

Sure, they occasionally check out YouTube or Instagram during their lunch period, the friends say, but their phones mostly come in handy at school for classroom activities, like the app Kahoot! some teachers use.

"It's just like an educational game, kinda - you answer questions," Smith said. "It's a fun way to learn, too. It's not super-boring."

Kids who don't have phones can look over a friend's shoulder to play Kahoot!, or sometimes use a computer. Other times, Pomeroy said, phoneless kids "just sit there."

Right now, Smith said, he uses his phone in several classes.

"You can check answers and stuff," Smith said, adding that it's easier for the teachers when kids have their phones in class "because they don't have to answer all the students' questions when they're raising their hand."

In Seattle Public Schools, some schools leave cell phone rules up to individual teachers. Others make all students stash their phones in their lockers or backpacks - a policy known as "Away for the Day."

Seattle School Board Member Rick Burke is backing a proposal to make "Away for the Day" the norm in elementary and middle schools: no phones out during school hours.

"I hear from educators, and my experience myself as a parent, is that they provide more of a distraction than a benefit," Burke said.

Research shows that even when someone isn't using their phone, but has it in the same room, they perform more poorly on tasks involving memory.

Board Member Eden Mack co-wrote the proposed policy. "There's value in students having a cell phone in case of emergency, reach their parents when they're taking the buses. And I support that," Mack said.

"And I also support parents choice in deciding whether or not to give them a cell phone at all," Mack said.

She's concerned that teachers who ask kids to use phones in or out of class could pressure parents to buy phones and data plans they can't afford or don't want to give their children.

Mack said since not all students have cell phones, it's inequitable for teachers to give schoolwork that involves phones.

"If it is a school lesson that we are teaching, we need to be providing whatever medium it requires, otherwise, we are being, on its face, incredibly unfair to all students and not having equitable access," Mack said.

Tracy Castro-Gill, last year's regional teacher of the year and now head of the district's new ethnic studies program, said she sees students' phones as vital in the classroom.

"I can't imagine going back to a situation without smartphones in modern teaching," Castro-Gill said. "It enriches and deepens the learning on many levels."

At Denny Middle School, where Castro-Gill taught social studies, she said it was impossible to guarantee in-class computer access for her students because school laptops she reserved could get diverted to standardized testing at a moment's notice.

Instead, Castro-Gill said, "we relied heavily on students with smartphones," especially for group research projects.

Although she estimates 95 percent of her students had smartphones, only one student per group needed a phone, "because that one person would be the researcher and share out whatever they found using their phone," Castro-Gill said.

Castro-Gill and her teaching partner embedded QR codes in the readings so students could pull up videos or color images on their phones of things like stone tablets and ancient art - helpful technology in a classroom that lacked a color printer.

Castro-Gill also had her students use their phones for warm-ups on Kahoot!

"Like: 'Is this an opinion or a fact?' Just those skills that you need in social studies that are boring to do on a worksheet," she said.

Even if her classroom had enough computers for every student, Castro-Gill said she would still harness students' smartphones in order to make her curriculum culturally responsive.

"The ideology is to meet students where they are, and bring their cultural knowledge into the classroom. And cell phones are part of pop culture, which defines generation," Castro-Gill said.

"So if we're not using that, we are wasting the knowledge and experience and the skills that students already have."

Parent Annika Carlsten said she wants her kids to have less time on their phones, not more, given the studies she's read and what she's seen at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School, which does not have a school-wide policy barring cell phones.

At a critical time for kids to learn social-emotional skills, Carlsten said, "You're letting kids hide behind their phones, not encouraging the kind of face-to-face communication that fosters a community, that encourages kids to be kind to each other, that helps kids learn how to navigate body language and facial expressions and and learn how to interact with each other socially."

While many Seattle middle schools have a no-cell-phone policy, Carlsten said Robert Eagle Staff left it up to teachers. Some didn't allow phones in class. Other teachers asked kids to use their phones in order to free up classroom computers.

Carlsten said some of her son's teachers also asked students to download an app to get reminders on their phones after school hours about things like homework assignment due dates.

"I think that overall it is really troublesome, and sends really mixed messages about why the school environment is encouraging the use of something that lots of research says is unhealthy at this age," Carlsten said.

For other families, though, having a cell phone at school does feel like the healthy choice.

One mom, who asked to stay anonymous to protect her family's privacy, said her daughter's undiagnosed dyslexia made her want to stay home a lot in middle school.

"One of the things that got her back there was knowing that she had a phone, and could make it through as much of the day as she felt comfortable with, and then could contact me right away, or just to check in when she needed it," the mom said.

School cell phone policies typically allow for exceptions for students with disabilities or who need phones for mental or physical health reasons. But some parents say they don't want their children's disabilities to be made obvious when they are the only ones with cell phones out in class.

This mother said that she didn't want to have to appeal to the school for an exception.

"I felt that it was very important in terms of her safety to have a parent being the one who made that choice about what she needed, instead of someone else," she said.

She also expressed an opinion many parents share: that letting kids use phones at school allows them to learn how to use technology responsibly.

"Just like we don't teach abstinence in sex education, I don't think we should be teaching abstinence in technology, either, as the solution for something that's a very important part of our modern culture," she said.

If Seattle Public Schools adopts a no-cell phone policy in elementary and middle schools, it will join many other districts in the region that have a similar policy, including Bellevue, Everett, Issaquah, Auburn, Mukilteo and Tukwila.

Most of those districts restrict cell phone use in high schools, as well - either all day or during class periods.

Some Seattle high schools have been experimenting with stricter phone policies, as well.

At Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Principal Kristina Rodgers said for years, students' phone use was "constant."

"Kids walking through the halls with their phones, looking down, communicating through text, sitting there playing games, staring at their screens in the lunchroom, kids using phones in classrooms when they were done with their work just as a way to zone out," Rodgers said.

Staff suspected students' attachment to their devices at school was interfering with their well-being, Rodgers said. They were spending too much time comparing themselves to others on social media and posting or reading snarky or gossipy things about each other.

"We know that there's already so much going on during teen years anyway, that if we can lessen some of that distractability or anxiety-inducing drama, if you will, then let's do it," Rodgers said.

Last school year, Roosevelt started requiring students to put their phones away in class.

"I was very nervous. And it was one of the easiest things we have ever done," Rodgers said.

Students now chat, rather than Snapchat, when they finish their work, she said.

Many teachers even hang canvas pockets at the front of the room for kids to park their phones. In some classes, Rodgers said, every kid has a phone, so teachers can take attendance by seeing which phones are missing.

Rodgers said teachers and parents have thanked her for the change, which they said helped teens realize how hooked they'd gotten on their devices and opened the door to conversations about how to reduce phone use outside of school, as well.

Former middle school teacher Castro-Gill said all the concern about cell phones in school is just history repeating itself.

"I feel like we go through this every time some technology or generation changes the way they do things. 'Radio is going to melt kids' brains,' or 'TV is going to make you go blind," Castro-Gill said.

"But we learned how to use it responsibly, and we're all okay."

Castro-Gill said instead of banning phones at school, she'd like to see schools teach kids how to use their phones appropriately, as she has to do on the job.

"I check my texts, and then I know how to get back to work," she said. "I feel like sometimes we do a disservice to children when we treat them like they're not capable of doing the same things as adults."

The Seattle School Board is expected to take up the proposed cell phone ban in elementary and middle schools later this month.

On paper, the "Away for the Day" rule would not be a change at many schools in the district.

Enforcement, however, varies.

At Mercer Middle School, where student Chris Smith said half his teachers encourage students to use their phones in class, the school already has a cell phone policy: they are supposed to be turned off and put away all day.

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Do phones belong in the classroom? Seattle Public Schools weighs K-8 student cell phone ban

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Now that most middle-school students have cell phones, some teachers are embracing the technology for schoolwork and to communicate with kids. Others say phones detract from learning. Waiting for the bus outside Mercer Middle School on Beacon Hill, seventh-graders Chris Smith and Liam Pomeroy are talking to each other - not staring at their phones.

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Read the Article

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Yet computers, helpful as they are, can be a distraction. So how do you incorporate smartphones into the teaching process without compromising the learning process?

I talked to a number of teachers around the country to see how they're addressing this challenge.

A Powerful Participation Tool

Mettler finds smartphones helpful to encourage participation in class. He observes, "Kids are shy or ashamed to ask questions because no one wants to look like an idiot. So they text me their questions. Eventually they become comfortable with not knowing something and they stick their hands up to ask a question." One place he's found smartphones to be invaluable are his outdoor classes. "I really like to take my class outside when I can. It breaks things up, and it can really bring things to life for my students."

Example

In a recent unit on cultural diffusion and physical geography, students spent the morning visiting the mountains (aluminum bleachers in the football field) and the desert (baseball diamonds). Everyone used their smartphone for note taking, either typing or using a voice recording app to dictate. Mettler's motivation for incorporating their phones is simple: "I want my kids to enjoy my classes. If they're stressed, they're not learning. This way, they get to use their phone, which they love. And I have a roomful of eager, engaged kids. Plus I don't have to deal with loose or blowing paper or forgotten pens."
Photo credit: Jeremy Mettler
Mettler also encourages his kids to use their phone for taking pictures of class assignments or lecture images. He notes, "I want them to have different options to access information. This is just another tool in their tool belt."

Enhanced Literary Units

Meredith Tabscott teaches high school English at Granite City (Illinois) High School. She uses smartphones with literary units. "I choose a particular piece of literature, The Grapes of Wrath or Lord of the Flies, for instance, and create a Google+ community for my class. The students use smartphones to access and participate in that community."

Example

During their unit on The Grapes of Wrath, the students need to understand the difference between Hoovervilles and Government Camps. Tabscott asks her class to read excerpts from the novel demonstrating differences, using their smartphones for research. Then they post pictures of Hoovervilles and Government Camps in Google+ for discussion.

Cooperative Learning Through Apps

Jessyca Matthews, another high school English teacher, employs apps in her classroom, incorporating phones into weekly lessons. "My students work in groups. It's easier to manage from a logistics perspective, and students who don't own smartphones aren't singled out," she explains.

Example

In a recent study of the novel The Great Gatsby, groups of students became movie producers for a week, using apps such as iMovie and Videolicious. They created a movie, movie trailer, or some other visual representation of the novel, demonstrating their understanding of the narrative and key themes. The project concluded with the "JMatty Awards," modeled after the Academy Awards -- students voted for Best Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress, Musical Score, and Picture. One project that combined technology, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking to deliver it ended up spanning far beyond the in-class lesson.

Keeping the Focus

Keeping students focused on the task at hand can be challenging. When she notices students doing something else on their phone, Tabscott often says, "I see you typing, and I look forward to seeing what you have to say about. . ." And she will, because she sees who posts in Google+ and responds to surveys in her forums.

Mettler also builds breaks into his class because, as he says, "If they know a break is coming up, they're less likely to use the phone for personal stuff during class time. Plus the breaks are good for the brain." Matthews spends a lot of time walking around during smartphone units, because, as she notes, "Once you give ownership and responsibility to someone, they tend to want to please you in doing the job correctly. If a person isn't using the smart phone for the right reason, the other team members will usually say something."

Tips for Getting Started

Tabscott, Mettler, and Matthews suggest that you follow these steps to begin incorporating smartphones into classroom activities.

1. Get Comfortable With Your Smartphone

We all know that smartphones can be used for more than making calls and texting. Spend some time learning how, from basic browser usage to downloading apps, from note-taking functionality to editing photos and videos. Your comfort level will set the tone for your students.

2. Start With a Conversation

Meet with school administrators and parents to discuss your plans and address concerns. Solicit input from students -- how would they use smartphones in class?

3. Rules of Engagement

Develop, with the help of your students, an agreement or contract governing the rules for smartphone usage in class. Clearly outline consequences if the agreement is broken.

4. Set Expectations

Accept that there are going to be times when students are off task, just like when they talk in class.

5. Periodic Check-Ins

This is uncharted territory for everyone. Monitor the progress of your students and revise the agreement as necessary.

Technology is changing. Our knowledge of how the brain learns is growing, and information is freely accessible. Let's meet our students where they are, and together, let's use all of the tools we have to understand the information and employ it to meet our collective needs.

How do you use smartphones in your classroom? Please share in the comments below.

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Yet computers, helpful as they are, can be a distraction. So how do you incorporate smartphones into the teaching process without compromising the learning process? I talked to a number of teachers around the country to see how they're addressing this challenge. Mettler finds smartphones helpful to encourage participation in class.

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Ensuring it stays academic

Many teachers have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to phones out during class, since they assume-most of the time correctly-that their students are using them to text friends or update their various social media sites. But there's a simple way to ensure that students use devices for educational purposes: change the classroom dynamic from lecturing at the front of the room to having no traditional front of the classroom at all. During class, Halla roams around the room helping students with their work, all the while overseeing everything to make sure that they're staying on task.

"It's harder to do the negative behaviors when the phones are out and the teacher is walking around," he says.

Use smartphones to stay organized and assess learning

A great app for keeping students on top of their work is Remind101, where students voluntarily sign up to receive a text reminder when they have an upcoming assignment due. Not only does it help students better organize their assignments, but it's also engaging parents. Halla says many parents sign up for the app to keep track of their children's homework.

"I was stunned by how many more kids started doing the homework," he says. "I just thought they didn't want to do the work, but it was more that they were unorganized and had forgotten to do it."

Aside from the education-friendly apps now available, Halla has found online resources that can help support classroom productivity and be easily accessed via smartphone.

Halla recommends polleverywhere.com to test students' knowledge of their subject material before an upcoming test. Teachers can set up a question or questions based on what the students are currently learning in class, and then provide them with a text number. Students see the question with several potential answers-usually an A, B, C, D, or E template-and then they'll text in the answer. As the students' answers are compiled, the site creates a graph showing their responses. Polleverywhere.com also costs nothing to use for a survey of 40 or fewer participants.

"It's a good way to see how the students are comprehending the material," Halla says. "For example, if a lot of students are picking option C and B is really the answer, then I can go back and review the material again."

Apps for the social sciences

Halla recommends a number of apps that are perfect for teaching social science courses. There's World Wiki, an app that provides demographic information for almost 250 countries around the world; iAmerica, an app with information about each U.S. President and the history of the White House; U.S. Constitution, so students can have easy access to one of the most important American documents; and many others that are designed to provide students with further classroom support.

Halla has created a list of some of the most useful apps he's found for the classroom, which is available on his blog. While not all apps are available on Android devices, the large majority of them can be accessed on iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Also, before implementing smartphones or iPads into your own classroom, find out which apps are approved for classroom use in your district; and, if you find one you like that isn't on the approved list, consult with your school and district administrators before proceeding

Let fun foster productivity

As a final tip, Halla suggests being open to letting students have some fun with their devices. He was surprised to discover that his students are quieter and more focused on their assignments when they are allowed to listen to their music during individual classwork-provided they use headphones and the music is not too loud to distract their classmates.

"It's amazing," he says. "The noise level in the classroom goes down, and the work amount goes up when you let them listen to their music."

Halla asks students to only use sites that streams music. That way, they can stay focused on their work without the distracting need to find a new song every few minutes.

And when it comes time to get back to classroom instruction, Halla simply has the students remove their earbuds, put down their phones, and focus on what he's teaching. After all, not all learning can be done digitally-but Halla says that teachers have to adapt to the changing times and find a way to successfully incorporate these devices into their own classrooms.

"I've always been that type of person who likes to adapt and change as time goes on," says Halla. "Otherwise, I wouldn't still be teaching this many years down the road."

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Using Smartphones in the Classroom | NEA

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Many teachers have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to phones out during class, since they assume-most of the time correctly-that their students are using them to text friends or update their various social media sites.

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Should Students Have Cell Phones in School?  Educators are Divided

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Should Students Have Cell Phones in School?  Educators are Divided

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Listen to the audio of the news story (red play arrow left of the title)

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Play

Are cellphones educational tools, or a scourge on learning? School districts and educators are divided on whether cellphones should be allowed in the country's classrooms.

Some cellphone bans have recently been reversed - most notably in New York City. Other districts have instituted new bans. Here & Now's Robin Young checks in with Washington Heights, New York, middle school teacher Jose Luis Vilson (@TheJLV) and Lewiston, Maine, middle school principal Jana Mates, who fall on opposite sides of the debate.
Interview Highlights On arguments against banning cellphones in schools
Jose Luis Vilson: "I'd say no ban for the specific reason that, you know, this debate reminds me a lot of sex ed where, if you think about the ways that people keep saying, 'Oh we have to be abstinent, abstinent, abstinent,' and all the while, kids feel that pressure to not have to do it. But then once they feel the pressure, they also feel the pressure to rebel. So instead of trying to push it out of our schools, why don't we make it an integral part of our schools and have kids be more responsible with it? And why not make those tools that they have in their pockets into tools for learning? And oftentimes I find that when we teach children not to do something, when they become adults, they have a harder time actually using it in a responsible way."
On whether educators are asking for trouble in trying to teach kids to use cellphones responsibly
JLV: "I would say no, for the specific reason that, there's a whole ton of arguments to be made for saying that we should ban every single thing. There has to be a point where we as a country take some responsibility for the cultural norms that we establish. And if we're introducing cellphones, that we're basically saying, 'OK, this is something that you may be addicted to at some point, but we're gonna teach you how to use it responsibly so you can pull back a bit.' It's a lot like healthy eating, it's a lot like the other things that we have out there that perhaps are perilous if we don't set some sort of standard, or at least have a sense of saying, 'Let's have a conversation around this,' instead of trying to say, 'It doesn't exist.'"

"Oftentimes I find that when we teach children not to do something, when they become adults, they have a harder time actually using it in a responsible way."
Jose Luis Vilson

On how cellphones can be useful in the classroom
JLV: "Here's what I'd say: I mean, in my own classroom, I teach my kids to be responsible, and this is the way I do it. First, I pull out my cellphone. I say, 'Look, this is a device that I have. And if you ever hear it go off, you're gonna see me pull it out, and then turn it off and then put it back in my pocket, and I advise everybody to be responsible in that way.' And so far it's worked pretty well: For 99 percent of the kids, I haven't had to take a cellphone away in the last four or five years.

"Then, there was a other part where, OK we may have iPads, we may have laptops - and we're able to get that because of the school that I'm in, and I'm blessed for that. But, there are times when the Wi-Fi won't work or the internet won't work, and so of course we have these cellphones. It's like, 'OK, well why don't you look up this and tell me what you think?' And once you use that cellphone by saying, 'Look it up, you can go ahead and do that.' That creates a sense of student agency that they normally wouldn't have."
On why Lewiston Middle School banned cellphones
Jana Mates: "Mostly in response to the overwhelming amount of negative use, social media, a lot of the office referrals, a lot of the talk in the community, all revolved around conversations that we're having on social media - and some of them during the school day - and I just feel like it's too much pressure for a kid. They're here to learn, they're here for structure, they're here to focus on being a kid, and that wasn't happening."
On how the ban is going
JM: "We were pretty transparent about the change in this policy, and why we were doing it, right from the beginning. We put it right in our Lewiston Middle School policy handbook, we put it on the website. And then the first two days of school we pulled kids down into the auditorium and we just told them why. I think if kids understand where you're coming from - and that it's not to be mean, or to put more rules in place, but because we genuinely care about them - it's actually been a really positive outcome. I think kids are actually getting it, and the pressure of not having to worry about what's happening on social media during the day is almost like a weight off their shoulders that they didn't anticipate was going to happen."

"They're here to learn, they're here for structure, they're here to focus on being a kid, and that wasn't happening."
Jana Mates, on why Lewiston Middle School banned cellphones

On difficulty for teachers in getting students to give up their phones
JM: "Here, not using cellphones has always been a suggested practice. But what was happening is kids were going to the bathroom 10 times more than they should so that they could go use [their phone], or they were late to class because they were in the hall texting or on social media. And those pieces have been taken away. And so there's been a handful of times where we've had to, you know, our policy is the first time it's a warning, second time the phone gets taken away until the end of the day. Third time a parent has to pick it up, and we've yet to get to the point where a parent has to come pick up the phone."
On the argument that having phones in the classroom presents an opportunity for students to learn
JM: "I think there are age limits on lots of things in life for a reason. We have computers here for students, anything that they need to go on educationally, they're able to via MacBooks. And I don't know, I think in our society, is it really our job to teach kids how to use Facebook? When 50 percent of our school isn't reading on grade level?"

This article is more than 5 years old.

This article was originally published on September 27, 2017.

This segment aired on September 27, 2017.

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Should Students Have Cellphones In School? Educators Are Divided

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Play Are cellphones educational tools, or a scourge on learning? School districts and educators are divided on whether cellphones should be allowed in the country's classrooms. Some cellphone bans have recently been reversed - most notably in New York City. Other districts have instituted new bans.

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Cellphones in classrooms contribute to failing grades, study finds.

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Cellphones in classrooms contribute to failing grades, study finds.

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Read the text only. The Video is a different topic.

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A study takes a close look at the effect of electronics in the classroom.

Cellphones and laptops can be distracting for students in classrooms, and new research also shows that using electronic devices can even lower students' grades.

Scientists who studied the effects of divided attention in people know that when attention is divided between two tasks, fewer items regarding those tasks may be recalled later -- a concept called "retention" in psychology.

Additional research on electronic devices shows that smart phones can reduce the ability to think to a person's full potential, and additional research from Stanford University reveals that intense multitasking decreases the efficiency of completing a given task.

While previous studies demonstrated that divided attention may induce poor performance on exams, two researchers from Rutgers University sought to dive deeper.

Dr. Arnold Glass, the lead researcher for the study and a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, told ABC News that he's long been intrigued by the notion of technology-enhanced classrooms.

"I was always interested in using technology in the classroom before it existed, but when it became apparent that it was affecting the classroom, it raised the question [of] what effect this was having," he said.

In a study published in the journal Educational Psychology, the two researchers divided 118 upper-level college students into two groups -- each enrolled in the same course, taught the same material by the same instructor, in the same classroom at roughly the same time of day.

Students in class using a tablet.

The difference? One group was allowed to have laptops and cell phones open for non-classroom purposes, and the other group wasn't.

The group using devices scored about a half a letter grade lower on exams -- the difference between passing or failing for some students. Of note, students who didn't use a device but were in the same classroom with those who did also scored lower. This was likely due to distraction from surrounding devices.

The researchers noted that this study shows the minimum reduction in exam performance, because this particular course used in-class questions to help students remember course material instead of just passive listening.

Girls using laptops in the classroom.

So it's possible that students could do even worse in other courses, depending on how the class is taught and whether they're using electronic devices for non-classroom purposes.

Is this research applicable to high school, middle school or even meetings?

"No doubt," Glass told ABC News. "Absolutely for sure."

"These findings," he added, "should alert the many dedicated students and instructors that dividing attention is having an insidious effect that is impairing their exam performance and final grade."

Given the effects electronics have on students who were in the classroom but not using the devices themselves, Glass said in a press release that teacher need to "... explain to students the damaging effect of distractions on retention -- not only for themselves, but for the whole class."
Dr. Kevin Riutzel is a family medicine resident physician based out of Irvine, California and a resident in the ABC News Medical Unit.

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Cellphones in classrooms contribute to failing grades: Study

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A study takes a close look at the effect of electronics in the classroom.

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Phones in the classroom hurt everyone's grades

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Phones in the classroom hurt everyone's grades

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Read the article

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Are you ever tempted to check your phone in class? It seems harmless enough to take a quick peek. But a new study finds that college students don't retain information as well when devices are allowed in class. That was true even among students who did not use the devices themselves.

And college students are likely not to be the only ones affected, say Arnold Glass and Mengxue Kang. Both of the study's authors are psychologists who work at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. Glass says he's sure he would find the same results if he had studied middle- or high-school students. Why? The effects he and Kang saw are likely due to basic human tendencies - ones that don't change with age.

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These researchers had noticed their students were using laptops and phones during class. And they suspected there could be a problem with that. The human brain simply isn't wired to do several things at once.

People like to think they can multitask. But the brain actually can focus attention on just one thing at a time. When people switch between tasks, their brains can't keep up with everything. So there will be a delay as their attention moves from one task to another. Someone who is listening to one person talk, for instance, can't also listen to another. They can't even listen and read at the same time.

So what happens when students try to listen to a lecture while they check their email? Or participate in a classroom discussion while liking a friend's photos? Glass and Kang thought this kind of multitasking might make it harder for students to learn. Their new data now confirm that it does.

Will this be on the test?

Glass and Kang worked with two groups of Rutgers students. Both groups were taking the same psychology course, just at different times. Both groups had the same teacher and covered the same material. The only difference between them was the time of day that they met (one right after the other).

The researchers then added one more difference between the two groups. One class was allowed to use digital devices on odd days but not on even days. The other class had the same rules, but on opposite days. This let the researchers compare how students with and without devices absorbed each day's lessons.

On non-device days, an observer made sure students didn't touch their phones or computers during class. At the end of the class period, students could use their devices to complete a quiz about what had been discussed that day in class.

At the end of the semester, Glass and Kang examined the results. They compared students' quiz results on device days and non-device days. They also looked at results from three unit exams and the final exam at the end of the semester.

For in-class quizzes, there researchers found no difference between the scores of students with and without devices. But their exams told a different story.

Students did five percent better on sections of the test that covered material from non-device days. The difference was even bigger for the class' final exam. Here, students did 13 percent better on test sections that covered non-device days. That's the difference between an A and a B, or a B and a C.

Glass and Kang then looked at whether it was only the students using their phones or laptops who took a hit on their grades. Did students who chose not to use devices, even when they could have, perform better on the tests than their device-using classmates? Surprisingly, no. All students got worse grades for material taught when devices were permitted - even those who did not use their phones or computers.

More than half of all students used electronic devices when they were allowed, Glass reports. "So everyone who didn't use a device was probably sitting next to someone who was." He speculates that this made it harder to retain information in two ways. Students asked fewer questions, leading to less conversation between the class and the instructor. Those conversations are important because students tend to remember them, Glass notes. "And instructors, of course, respond with what they think is important - what will be on the test."

Using a cell phone is also distracting to people nearby, Glass points out. Even if a person doesn't want to look at the screen, they just can't seem to help it. He asks, "Have you ever been in a movie theater where a stranger sitting near you was using a cell phone?" If your attention was pulled away from the movie, he says, you probably had a hard time remembering the plot afterward. The same holds true in the classroom.

Glass and Kang described their findings online July 26 in Educational Psychology.

Distracting temptations

Larry Rosen is a psychologist at California State University Dominguez Hills, in Carson. He would like to see Kang and Glass dig deeper into why tech use in class affects performance. Rosen has done some research into this subject himself. Those studies show that students have a "fear of missing out" that drives their desire to check their phones - even at inconvenient times. Such as in class. And that has a negative impact on their ability to learn, he says.

The constant distraction of electronic devices may make students struggle more with complex materials, adds Jean Twenge. She's a psychologist at San Diego State University in California. Her new research finds that teens spend more than six hours a day on electronic devices. These kids rarely read books or magazines. This makes them unprepared for college-level work, she suspects.

None of this means we should eliminate technology," Twenge says. Technology can help students learn. For example, ebooks can be easier to buy and keep with you than traditional textbooks. And students with disabilities may require certain technologies to function in the classroom. "It's just that electronic devices have so many more temptations," she says, which "can be distracting."

Power Words
More About Power Words

constant Continuous or uninterrupted.

digital (in computer science and engineering) An adjective indicating that something has been developed numerically on a computer or on some other electronic device, based on a binary system (where all numbers are displayed using a series of only zeros and ones).

distraction Any event or situation that draws someone's attention away from whatever had been his or her main focus. Distractions can be external events, such as sounds or sights; or they can be internal events, such as thoughts or emotions.

multitask To perform more than one task at a time. Computers often do this. People can too, such as when they listen during a meeting and take notes at the same time. Research has shown, h owever, that few people can truly multitask well; usually, doing two or more tasks at once will mean that the quality of at least one of those tasks will suffer.

psychology (adj. psychological ) The study of the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behavior. To do this, some perform research using animals. Scientists and mental-health professionals who work in this field are known as psychologists.

Alison Pearce Stevens is a former biologist and forever science geek who writes about science and nature for kids. She lives with her husband, their two kids and a small menagerie of cuddly (and not-so cuddly) critters.

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Phones in the classroom hurt everyone's grades

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Are you ever tempted to check your phone in class? It seems harmless enough to take a quick peek. But a new study finds that college students don't retain information as well when devices are allowed in class. That was true even among students who did not use the devices themselves.

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There's a cellphone in your student's head.

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There's a cellphone in your student's head.

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Watch the Video AND read the article below it. Check out the links.

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There’s a Cell Phone in Your Student’s Head

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A 2017 study found that cell phones that were turned off and stashed away silently reasserted themselves—distracting working students anyway.

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Video

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France Says: No Cellphones in Classrooms

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France Says: No Cellphones in Classrooms

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Read the text for most info. Watch the video to see and hear about the French school ban.

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Can you imagine not being allowed to use your phone during the school day?

Well, in July of 2018, France issued a law banning the use of mobile phones at school for children under the age of 15.

Any students caught with their phones out will have them be confiscated by teachers and picked up by their parents at the end of the day. In doing so, French authorities hope to create a learning environment with no distractions for children.

The ban went into effect on August 5.
What Studies Say
According to Lancet Child and Adolescent Health's research, more than two hours a day spent looking at a screen causes a worsened attention span, slower processing abilities, and lessened speaking skills. To prevent this from happening, the French government is trying to limit the hours that children spend staring their smartphone, as they notice students' addiction to phones.

A study conducted by Psychology Today states that the blue light emanating from an individual's cell phone releases levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with addiction. Dopamine is released in the body after one feels pleasure, leading them to yearn for that satisfaction. For example, when you crave your favorite food, your body wants to feel the satisfaction (dopamine) of eating that certain food; the same process is linked to substance abuse.

Similarly, the instant gratification people feel after seeing a "like" or message notification from Instagram pop up on their phone causes a rise in dopamine levels. Officials issuing the law in France hope that the ban will allow students to distance themselves from their cell phones, instead of falling into an unhealthy addiction.

In addition to trying to decrease the addiction to phones, the French government wants to see an improvement in school performance. The London School of Economics saw that there was a 6.4% increase in test scores among 16-year-olds with phones prohibited in the classroom, as opposed to 16-year-olds who are allowed to use their phones.
What Do People Feel
Teachers and parents are frustrated with the new ban. Many say teachers will not have the capability to constantly monitor their students, as students are smart enough to hide their phone from the administrators. Parents worry that they will not be able to contact their children should there be an emergency because their kids' phones will be turned off.

As an alternative, teachers and adults are requesting schools to regulate phone usage, and teach students how to use their phone in a healthy and productive way. Since the world is moving forward in a technology savvy direction, they want to encourage phone usage as a tool for learning. With the ban on smartphones, they believe the French government is neglecting technology.

We will have to wait and see what the results yield. Meanwhile, tell us what you think. Should mobile phones be allowed or banned in schools and why?

Sources: NYTimes, Telegraph, thelocal.fr, Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today

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Can you imagine not being allowed to use your phone during the school day? Well, in July of 2018, France issued a law banning the use of mobile phones at school for children under the age of 15.

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Cell Phones in the Classroom: Expected and Unexpected Results (Credible Blog)

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Cell Phones in the Classroom: Expected and Unexpected Results (Credible Blog)

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Quick! Where's your cell phone?

Now that I've got your attention: what effect does the location of your cell phone have on your attention?

Researchers have recently found some predictable answers to that question-as well as some rather surprising ones. And, their answers may help us think about cell phones in classrooms.
The Study
Adrian Ward and Co. wanted to learn more about the " mere presence " of students' cellphones.

That is: they weren't asking if talking on the phone distracts drivers (it does), or if a ringing phone distracts that phone's owner (it does), or even if a text-message buzz distracts the textee (it does).

Instead, they were asking if your phone lying silently on the desk in front of you distracts you-even if its not ringing or buzzing.

Even if you're NOT CONSCIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT IT.

So they gathered several hundred college students and had them complete tests that measure various cognitive functions.

The first group of students left all their stuff-including phones-in another room. (That's standard procedure during such research.)

The second group brought their phones with them "for use later in the study." After silencing the phones (no ringing, no buzzing), they were told to put them wherever they usually keep them. Roughly half kept them in a pocket; the other half kept them in a nearby bag.

The third group brought phones along, and were instructed to put them in a marked place on the desk in front of them. (These phones were also silenced.)

Did the proximity of the phone matter?
The Expected Results
As is so often true, the answer to that question depends on the measurement we use.

When the researchers measured the students' working memory capacity, they found that a cell phone on the desk reduced this essential cognitive function.

Specifically, students who left phones in their bags in another room averaged about a 33 on an OSpan test. (It measures working memory-the specifics aren't important here.) Those who had cell phones on their desks scored roughly 28.5. (For the stats pros here, the p value was .007.)

If you attend Learning and the Brain conferences, or read this blog regularly, you know that working memory is ESSENTIAL for academic learning. It allows us to hold on to bits of information and recombine them into new patterns; of course, that's what learning is.

So, if the "mere presence" of a cell phone is reducing working memory, it's doing real harm to our students.

By the way, the students who had their phones on their desks said that they weren't thinking about them (any more than the other students), and didn't predict that their phones would distract them (any more than the other students).

So, our students might TELL US that their phones don't interfere with their cognition. They might not even be conscious of this effect. But, that interference is happening all the same.
The UNEXPECTED Results
Few teachers, I imagine, are surprised to learn that a nearby cell phone makes it hard to think.

What effect does that phone have on the ability to pay attention?

To answer this question, researchers used a "go/no-go" test. Students watched a computer screen that flashed numbers on it. Whenever they saw a 6, they pressed the letter J on the keyboard. They ignored all the other numbers.

(The researchers didn't go into specifics here, so I've described a typical kind of "go/no-go" task. Their version might have been a bit different.)

To do well on this task, you have to focus carefully: that is, you have to pay attention. Researchers can tell how good you are at paying attention by measuring the number of mistakes you make, and your reaction time. Presumably, the slower you are to react, the less attention you're paying.

So, how much difference did the cell phone on the desk make? How much slower were the students who had the phone on the desk, compared to those whose phones were in the other room?

Nope. Sorry. No difference.

Or, to be precise, the students who had the phone on the desk reacted in 0.366 seconds, whereas those whose phones were elsewhere reacted in 0.363 seconds. As you can imagine, a difference of 0.003 seconds just isn't enough to worry about. (Stats team: the p value was >.35.)
Explaining the Unexpected
Ward's results here are, I think, quite counter-intuitive. We would expect that the mere presence of the phone would interfere with working memory because it distracted the students: that is, because it interfered with their attention.

These results paint a more complicated picture.

The explanation can get technical quickly. Two key insights help understand these results.

Key Insight #1: Attention isn't just one thing. It has different parts to it.

One part of my attentional system brings information into my brain. I am, at this moment, focusing on my computer screen, Ward's article, my keyboard, and my own thoughts. Sensory information from these parts of my world are entering my conscious mind.

Another part of my attentional system screens information out of my brain. I am, at this moment, trying not to notice the bubble-and-hum of my cats' water gizmo, or my cat's adorable grooming (why is his leg stuck up in the air like that?)-or, really, anything about my cats. Sensory information from those parts of my world are not (I hope) entering my conscious thought.

The attention test that Ward & Co. used measured the first part of attention. That is, the go/no-go task checks to see if the right information is getting in. And, in this case, the right information was getting in, even when a cell phone was nearby.

Key Insight #2: Working Memory INCLUDES the second kind of attention.

In other words, we use working memory to keep out adorable cat behavior-and other things we don't want to distract our conscious minds. Other things such as-for example-cell phones.

The nearby phone doesn't interfere with the first part of attention, and so the correct information gets into student brains. For this reason, students do just fine on Ward's "attention" test.

However, the nearby phone does make it hard to filter information out. It's bothering the second part of attention-which is a part of working memory. For this reason, students do badly on Ward's "working memory" test.
Classroom Implications
Ward's research, I think, gives us some clear pointers about cell phones in classrooms: the farther away the better.

Specifically, it contradicts some teaching advice I'd gotten a few years ago. Some have advised me that students should silence their phones and put them on the desk in front of them. The goal of this strategy: teachers can be sure that students aren't subtly checking their phones under their desks.

While, clearly, it's beneficial to silence phones, we now know that their "mere presence" on the desk interferes with working memory.

In brief, we need another solution.

(Sadly, Ward doesn't tell us what that solution is. But she warns us away from this phone-on-the-desk strategy.)

Implications for Brain Science in the Classroom

Teachers LOVE learning about psychology and neuroscience research because it can offer such helpful and clarifying guidance for good teaching.

(I should know: I've spent the last ten years using such research to be a better teacher.)

At the same time, we teachers occasionally stumble into studies like this one where psychology gives us results that seem strange-even impossible.

After all: how can you tell me that cell phones don't interfere with our students' attention? And, if they don't interfere with attention, how can they possibly interfere with something like working memory?

The answer-as described above-is that psychologists think of attention as having multiple parts, and one of those parts overlaps with working memory. Because psychologists define the word "attention" one way and we teachers use it a different way, research like this is potentially very puzzling.

(You can imagine our students reading this study and crowing: "See! Cell phones have NO EFFECT on attention! ")

For this reason, we need to be especially careful when we enter into the world of brain science. Definitions of basic words ("attention," "transfer," "significant") might trip us up.

And so, you're wise to be attending Learning and the Brain conferences, and to be consulting with experts who know how to read such studies and make sense of them.

In brief: teachers should be modest when we try to interpret primary research in neuroscience and psychology. These fields are so complicated that we just might misunderstand even basic terms.

By the way, the same point holds in reverse. Neuroscientists and psychologists should be modest when telling us how to teach. Our work is so complicated that they just might misunderstand even basic classroom work.

This mutual modesty is-I believe-the basis of our field. We all come together to learn from and collaborate with each other. Our students will benefit from this complex and essential collaboration.

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Cell Phones in the Classroom: Expected (and Unexpected) Effects

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Quick! Where's your cell phone? Now that I've got your attention: what effect does the location of your cell phone have on your attention? Researchers have recently found some predictable answers to that question-as well as some rather surprising ones. And, their answers may help us think about cell phones in classrooms. The Study Adrian Ward and Co.