I think the basically American tendency to just try to regulate/ban things that *might* get kids in trouble, that adults do/use all the time, as opposed to thinking thru how to gradually teach responsible/moderate use, is troubling. And kind of lazy.
I am very comfortable saying younger kids don't need phones. But teens? It's nuanced, and they have excellent uses.
There should be nuance for teens, but I’m comfortable with “teach teens responsible phone use outside the school environment” as the norm. The evidence of learning distraction isn’t trivial, and there are plenty of hours in the day beyond school. Also, do schools need ANOTHER job beyond academics?
Haha to be clear, I’m with you - I don’t feel v nuanced either about phones in schools. I do feel more nuanced re phones for teens in general. & I think there are several plausible stories about why teen mental health numbers are where they are, which Michael & Peter do a great job unpacking.
I don't agree abt phone bans (and it's possible to reduce distractions in some settings while teaching responsible use in others...also possible to restrict use entirely for some kids & allow limited use for others), but like I said, that ship has sailed, at least in NY....
What we can't quantify now is how much instructional/admin time will be lost enforcing bans. Based on my experience in a lot of different schools w/ varying levels of allowing access to devices, the answer will be: a whole lot.
I absolutely agree that phones can present a huge distraction and that limiting access in schools is a good idea. Just stating that I think a total ban isn't a good idea, & also isn't really feasible without wasting a lot of resources enforcing it & lots of kids losing instructional time b/c of it.
I am 100% pro school day ban, which is enforced by admin and ideally with device check-in or device-in-locker-only, and not classroom-level bans enforced by teachers. For effectiveness AND minimal impact on instructional time.
We're about to see how well that works on a mass scale🤷🏻♂️. And if it doesn't lead to disproportionate discipline against students of color/students with disabilities, I'll happily admit I was wrong about it, but I will still miss opportunities to teach appropriate tech use.
I hear you. My sense so far is that the places that have been most successful have been doing a full school-wide ban precisely bc it’s more systematic, less on individual teachers to manage/ enforce/ align. Basically a cleaner & simpler system -> more efficient. This is pretty anecdotal tho so far.
I get the appeal. I just worry about it being consistently applied, & lost opportunities to teach appropriate use. And what we know about zero tolerance policies for anything is they usually mean inconsistent discipline & OVER disciplining of the most marginalized students in a given school.