School as Phone-Free Space
By Albert B. Kelly
When it comes to the topic of education and how to improve
it, it seems like many discussions center on topics such as whether or not to
have standardized tests, the frequency of such testing, and actual standards,
among other things. These discussions are certainly important, but they are mostly
outcome-based focusing on the result as opposed to how you get there- the
process.
So I was somewhat intrigued when I read a recent news story
about a small experiment at the Maxson Middle School in Plainfield NJ in which
students are required to turn off their cell phones and place them in specially
made protective pouches during the school day. This may sound insignificant,
but I it see as important because it gets directly at issues involving the
process of teaching and the process of learning. What could be more distracting
then cell phones that have teachers competing with social media and texting for
their attention?
As for the particulars of the experiment, it involves
neoprene pouches made by a company called Yondr. Students get their own pouch
which is individually numbered and is designed so that it is able to be locked
and made secure. At the start of each school day, phones are turned off and
locked inside the pouch, which stays with the student all day, and then is
unlocked when school lets out on a special device that is also provided by
Yondr.
In addition to use in schools, Yondr touts phone-free spaces
such as concerts, courtrooms, or other gatherings where phones would be a
distraction or worse. I’m now thinking of the musician or performer of some
type who, in addition to not wanting distractions or interruptions, doesn’t
want someone making an unauthorized video of a performance but wants to retain
the right to profit from video sales.
I’m also thinking about courtrooms and certain government
meetings where it is essential to capture the proceedings on the record word
for word without ringing phones or whatever other sounds, and there are many,
might issue from these mini computers we carry around in our pockets. But
courtrooms and meetings aside, I see the biggest upside of these “phone-free”
spaces in the halls of our schools.
It’s not just the question of distractions during the school
day, but one of attention. The National Center for Biotechnology Information says
that the average attention span for people has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000
to 8 seconds in 2013 which, they point out, is one second above goldfish. I
don’t know if that’s true, but I believe it.
I think about myself, and I am a big offender, along with my
colleagues and many other professionals I know who supposedly have sharpened
their adult powers of concentration and focus and I know that each sound and
vibration coming out of our phones alerting us to some new friend request,
status update, blog post, email, text message, headline alert, and sale offer means
we have to refocus on the task at hand and pick up where we left off- assuming
we actually can.
If harnessing our full powers of concentration and focus is
difficult for adults and it is, how much more for the developing mind of a
child? As children grow, they have to learn how to actually learn and that
requires learning how to focus and concentrate. That’s hard enough in a school
environment without teachers competing with thousands of small digital distractions
courtesy of today’s smart phones.
There will no doubt be some who will say that there should
be no restrictions on students and their phones citing school shootings, family
emergencies, and after school transportation logistics as examples where immediate
and unfettered phone access would be needed throughout the school day. I’m not unsympathetic but those are different
issues in need of different solutions.
I don’t know if Yondr’s neoprene pouch experiment will yield
all of the results hoped for or if it will come with some unintended
consequences. The Maxson Middle School spent over $11,000 on a lease to outfit
750 students with their own pouch. If it works, they’ll expand it to five other
schools and get a bulk rate of $10 per pouch.
As I consider students in our community and the money spent
trying to move the needle on test scores and achievement, Yondr might be worth
a try here.