Before I retired, I was a mediator and facilitator of large-group collaborations. I started this work many many years ago, before cell phones were as ubiquitous or as essential as they are now. Even so, in working with a particular group of politicians and business executives more than twenty years ago, I noticed that we couldn’t get any work done because so many of the participants were on their phones, not paying attention, and we’d have to catch them up on the conversation when it was their turn to weigh in. I decided for the final meeting to have a box at the front door of the meeting room and to require them to drop their phones into that box for the duration of the meeting. This didn’t go over well … but … they reached agreement by the end of that meeting!
About ten years later, my daughter was sitting in the back of my university classroom waiting for me to give her a ride home and had a good peek at what my students were doing during class. Playing computer games, scrolling Facebook, checking their email, texting friends. Often toggling between their note-taking of my lecture, but still not fully focused on learning. I established a policy of no devices in the classroom (laptops, ipads, cellphones) and the class discussions improved immediately. After the initial shock, my students welcomed the new policy, understanding that they couldn’t help themselves from multi-tasking if the device was available for use. In the mid 2010’s, banning devices from higher education classrooms became popular, especially when the devices were used solely for note-taking.
Fast forward to 2024, cellphones are a necessity of life and even the youngest children have them. Smart watches often are used in the same way as cellphones. Now K-12 schools are grappling with how to manage the distraction factor of having cellphones and smart watches in the classroom. At least eight states have established policies seeking to limit K-12 students’ phone use at school, whether by enacting laws or issuing orders or establishing rules. One primary issue is the distraction caused by cell phone availability, but some schools are also concerned about the phones being used to bully or otherwise harass fellow students.
Schools are trying various approaches to control cell phone use during school hours. None as simple as the cardboard box I used twenty years ago! Some simply require students to keep their cellphones in their school lockers. Some have built cell-phone-specific storage devices in a highly secure location (think how we used to store DVD’s). Some use lockable bags to store the cellphones while not in use. School policies differ on whether to prohibit cellphone use throughout the entire school day, or to allow students to access their phones during breaks.
Reaction to the cellphone bans has been mixed. Many parents are opposed, as the bans reduce their 24/7 access to their kids or access in the case of an emergency. In addition to not being able to text their kid at all times, they also can’t monitor their kids’ location if the cellphone is locked away somewhere. Students, predictably, don’t like being told what they cannot do, but the biggest push-back from students has been from those who need to use their phones to make time-sensitive arrangements (e.g., for after-school activities or jobs).
I’m not taking a position on whether or not to ban cellphones in the K-12 classroom. But I will point out that mindful cellphone use in professional/educational/social situations is a life skill that many people, young and old, seem not to have learned yet.
