Is your phone a tool or a distraction?
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Does your phone feel like a blessing or a burden? Either way, there’s probably a lot you can learn from new phone bans.
Many K-12 students are going phone-free – but not by choice. In over half the country, there are now restrictions on cellphone possession and use in class. The goal is to increase student focus and enhance learning … but when you think about school shootings, phones have been a big part of parents’ safety plans for their kids. So are phone bans the best solution? And what do these policies teach all of us about the role phones play in our lives?
Brittany is joined by David Figlio, professor of economics at the University of Rochester, and Kathy Do, assistant project scientist at University of California, Los Angeles.
Episode Highlights
Giving grace is a good idea
DO: In some cases, this work suggests that unless phones are used as tools for learning, limiting phone use in classrooms can help students build attention and self-regulation skills. But some students are really going to have a harder time adjusting to these new phone rules. And our report is just highlighting why it’s so important that schools build these flexible, equitable policies and have support systems in place, not necessarily more suspensions, because the goal should be to help kids access the tools they need to learn and thrive.
Better vibes
DO: I think one positive that [students reported] is just realizing what phone-free interactions feel like. Really pushing them out of their shell to talk to other people that they might [not] have otherwise.
LUSE: Really engaging with their classmates who they’re actually in the same room with, right? I didn’t even think about that.
DO: Or they appreciated being distraction-free while learning, like what David was saying. They appreciated having the phones away from their bodies so that they could really focus. So those are some of the benefits that we heard from students. And then from teachers, I think some of those lockable pouches or cubbies that keep phones away from students’ person allowed the classroom to be more positive because the teacher wasn’t like, the keeper of the phone and enforcer of restrictions anymore.
Cell phones could conflict with crises
DO: Yeah, there is this tension between kind of family safety expectations, but also on the other side, crisis protocols. Of course, it’s important to maintain that line of communication with caregivers. But I think that’s one of the nuances, how having phones on you for safety reasons to maintain that line of communication with caregivers can sometimes interfere with crisis protocols that schools are thoughtfully implementing in the case of emergencies.
FIGLIO: So often, I and other parents think about one side of this equation. We think about the idea that when something bad is happening, we want the immediate reassurance that our kid is okay. And at the same time, this immediate reassurance we want can actually interfere with the process of ensuring that our kid is okay … and I don’t have a good answer to that.
This episode was produced by Corey Antonio Rose. It was edited by Neena Pathak. It was adapted for web by Mika Ellison. Our Supervising Producer is Barton Girdwood. Our Executive Producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of Programming is Yolanda Sangweni.