Eliminating smartphone distractions

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: no phones in class.

A new academic year is here and schools all across the U.S. are requiring students to put away their phones. Many educators point to growing expert concerns about how constant smartphone access affects students—especially while at school.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Will the new rules help students or create new problems? WORLD’s Education Beat reporter Lauren Dunn has the story.

SOUND: [ARRIVING AT SCHOOL AND WALKING INTO OFFICE]

LAUREN DUNN: La Moille Jr./Sr. High School in North-central Illinois has long had an electronic device policy on the books, but staff and teachers knew it was in need of an update as student cell phone use in the classroom was getting distracting.

Emily Leffelman is school principal.

EMILY LEFFELMAN: I know Snapchat notifications were constantly, ding, ding, ding.

Student Sadie Quest is a senior.

SADIE QUEST: Last year it was really hectic with all the phone usage in class. Teachers were having trouble teaching and it just made for a really unorganized class.

So after surveying the teachers and staff, administrators proposed a new policy approved by the school board for this academic year.

LEFFELMAN: Where’s it at? Hmmm, oh, right here.

In her office, Principal Leffelman reaches for the school handbook. She’s looking up the exact wording…

LEFFELMAN: Here, Cell Phone Privileges. It’s just under the guidelines. So it’s permitted at lunch and study hall. No pictures or videos allowed…

As students enter each class, the first thing they do is drop their powered down phones into a pocketed organizer hanging near the door.

LEFFELMAN: If you peak in here to the right, this teacher keeps it hung just on a hook. We even have some teachers that during the passing period, they'll just hold it at the door. So it's not something that's forgotten.

Schools across the country are also wrestling with best practices.

DANIEL BUCK: I’ve been in schools that both ban them and don't ban them, and the contrast is stark.

Daniel Buck is an assistant principal at a classical charter school in Wisconsin…and previously taught English in the Green Bay Area Public School district.

DANIEL BUCK: In the schools that kind of permit phones, you walk into a lunchroom and it's eerily quiet, kids have their necks craned down. They're not really talking to each other. The schools that ban phones, not only are they more academically rigorous and focused, but they are so much more socially and emotionally healthy too.

Buck also researches education policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He says several years’ worth of data so far show objective benefits for schools that ban phones.

BUCK: Higher standardized test scores, both in math and reading, students having fewer visits to mental health professionals, kids are exercising more at recess. They just went out there and took notes. How much time do they spend running versus staring down at their phone?

So, if the benefits of removing smartphones from classrooms are so high, why aren’t more schools doing it? Buck says part of the problem has been what he calls “techno-optimism.”

BUCK: Everyone thought that learning software and the inclusion of one-to-one computing and everything was going to revolutionize education, and it just didn't. All it did was addict kids to screens.

Another obstacle is that many parents want their children to have smartphones, in case they need to reach them in an emergency. But the biggest challenge Buck sees is a fad in education that views discipline and correction as oppressive.

BUCK: So, if you are trying to implement a prohibition or ban at the same time that you are pulling back the use of consequences, that's kind of the worst of both worlds.

Others in the education space say simply banning phones is not enough to fix deeper problems.

DIANA GRABER: You know, banning anything, we've learned throughout history, really usually doesn't work unless it goes hand in hand with the why.

Diana Graber is an author and founder of Cyber Civics. That’s a digital literacy curriculum that teaches middle schoolers about internet skills and online safety.

GRABER: And so, I think, rather than taking away their connection to the world, we need to teach them how to encounter, you know, use it in a really mindful, thoughtful, responsible way.

Graber is in favor of schools banning phones in classrooms as long as schools and parents are teaching their students how to use digital technology wisely.

GRABER: I mean, we can ban them from the classroom, but we can't ban them from the world.

SOUND: [PASSING PERIOD / STUDENTS WALKING BETWEEN CLASSROOMS]

Back in LaMoille, Illinois…school has been in session for about two weeks. How is the new cell phone policy working? The students we talked to are unanimous in their feedback. Taylor Wamhoff is a junior.

TAYLOR WAMHOFF: It's kind of good for me because I'm kind of an addict. So it's like if I can't have it then I just can't have it.

And senior Sadie Quest has noticed a difference as well.

SADIE QUEST: I feel like class time is a lot more focused and direct to the point. We don't have time wasting telling, put your phone away and all that; it's expected and class time gets started right away.

LINSEY DEERY: The kids actually are looking at the teacher paying attention to the teacher.

Linsey Deery is the staff member responsible for the social and developmental needs of the school’s students. She says it's been a huge improvement.

DEERY: They are getting what the teacher is saying compared to last year where, you know, they were looking at their phone, they were looking at the teacher looking at their phone. So it's much better.

Students are allowed to have their phones in Study Hall, but Deery has noticed an interesting trend.

LINSEY DEERY: I have to tell you even when they do come in here, they do not always get on their cell phones. So I think from us taking them away in the classrooms, it could be showing them they can live without their cell phones. And I see them involving, like talking to each other more.

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn, with reporting from Paul Butler and Harrison Watters.

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