Smartphones are everywhere these days, even in the classroom. These technological wonders put a world of information and social interactions at our fingertips, but they can also disrupt our productivity and focus. That may have a different kind of impact on students. Twenty years ago, fewer than half of American teenagers had cellphones; today, 95 percent have smartphones. Concerned with their impact on learning, nearly 80 percent of U.S. schools had barred nonacademic phone usage by 2020, while governments from France to China have banned them from classrooms outright. Still, some see smartphones as powerful tools for education and an unavoidable part of modern life that kids need help learning to manage. What’s the healthiest approach?
Training savvy users
The challenges of owning a smartphone don’t disappear when students leave campus, or even when they graduate. Like other technologies, phones have become intrinsic to our lifestyle. We teach students how to drive cars, operate woodworking machinery and use software applications on their computers. Why would we treat phones any different? Schools can help by reinforcing what many parents are already teaching at home: how to use phones in a healthy way.
Teaching kids how to manage their digital inclinations in class can also serve them in their daily lives, where they need to understand that sometimes it’s better to put their phones away. According to a research scientist at Harvard’s school of public health, “programs that develop ‘effortful control’ skills — the ability to self-regulate behavior — have been widely shown to be useful in dealing with problematic Internet and social media use.”
Schools can also help students to navigate an increasingly fraught online environment. One teacher in Oregon has argued that her school’s smartphone ban limits learning opportunities. Because many of her students get so much information on TikTok, she teaches them how to filter for fact-based news on social media platforms in real time. She told the International Society for Technology in Education that “there is value in using phones for real-life learning, particularly about media literacy.”
Like any tool, a phone can be used or misused — even for learning. A professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education told the university’s news website that teachers with distracted students should first assess their own didactic approach, then consider whether cellphones can enhance their lessons. “Design better learning activities, design learning activities where you consider how all of your students might want to engage and what their interests are,” he says.
It is the sad reality that smartphones can also be helpful in emergencies, from precautionary lockdowns to actual school shootings. They allow students to contact law enforcement, coordinate their own response with classmates, get updates on social media or simply call their parents. Further, this open line of communication can soothe the anxiety that arises from drills.
Distraction-free zones
The research on phones in classrooms is crystal clear: The negatives outweigh the positives to an extreme degree. The first step for students to manage their digital habits is to learn how to focus, make friends and exist without their phones. It’s in everybody’s best interest for schools to implement bans.
Smartphones are the bane of a distraction-prone demographic. According to a UNESCO study published last year, it can take students up to 20 minutes to refocus on schoolwork when they look at their phones to peep a text message or send a thumbs-up emoji. Even the urge to check can throw them off track. Recent research tells us that deep focus is the foundation of learning and productivity. In experiments conducted by a Boston University researcher, when smartphones were removed from classrooms, “it was very, very clear (the students) were better able to focus.”
Phone bans can also help students to form more meaningful relationships with one another. Writing for The Atlantic last June, NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt described a phenomenon called “phubbing” — a neologism for “when a person breaks away from a conversation to look at their screen” — which weakens the quality and intimacy of conversations. He cited a study where students sat down to dinner with families or friends; half put their phones away, while the other half put them on the table. The researchers found that “when phones were present (vs. absent), participants felt more distracted, which reduced how much they enjoyed spending time with their friends/family.”
Phones also enable negative and unsupervised social interactions, which contribute to bullying and related mental health issues. Gen Z is suffering from increased anxiety, depression and suicide that seem to coincide with the growing ubiquity of smartphones. “Drama, conflict, bullying, and scandal played out continually during the school day,” Haidt writes, citing one example, “on platforms to which the staff had no access.” If a teacher’s job is to nurture an environment conducive to learning, they must be allowed to keep these issues out of school. At the same time, students need to be present in class — and nowhere else.
This story appears in the September 2024 issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.