Smartphone Bans in Schools, Validating Learning, and More

“California is the latest state to try to regulate [smartphones],” reports the New York Times. And big questions are building about just how feasible are the bans.

This is a topic I’ve written and spoken about a few times now (here and here, for example). My big take is that individual schools should have the resources to ban smartphones during the school day. That means equipping them with Yondr pouches and the like. It’s clear that for many schools, smartphone use is… disrupting the school day—and not in a good way. Getting rid of distractions is a good idea.

BUT—some schools and educators productively use smartphones as part of their educational model. Here, phones are an important tool for learning. Some of the best learning experiences I’ve personally had are on active-learning apps built for smartphones.

As a result, having a blanket policy ban is a bad idea. Potentially criminalizing the actions of educators that permit or, heaven forbid, leverage smartphones is a bad idea. Yes, Florida’s ban thankfully has a carve out for educators to allow smartphones for educational uses, but do we really want the specter of legal action hanging over educators? Don’t we want policymakers to focus on the outcomes they desire and allow educators to determine the best way to reach those outcomes (including the ability to ban phones when they are getting in the way, as they so often do)?

In the New York Times article, they offer questions about how workable the ban is. But they also cite examples where smartphones are useful for learning:

• “Smartphones are often part of instruction, particularly in high school. They quickly provide access to Google Translate in foreign-language classes or an online graphing calculator in calculus. Many teenagers compose essays and other assignments on phones.”
• “Eliana [Frierson], 17, had stronger feelings. She said that it was an overreaction to ban smartphones for the entire day, noting that she often completed school assignments by using her phone. ‘It’s an integral part of education,’ Eliana said. ‘It’s wrong to take it away when it’s a tool that is really helpful.’”
• “Eric Schildge, an eighth-grade English teacher in Newburyport, Mass., said he often directs children to take out their cellphones and text a parent when a permission slip or an assignment is missing. ‘This feels really myopic, as far as a governor mandating something like this,’ Mr. Schildge said. ‘That doesn’t feel like the most workable way for me as an educator to do my job.’”

While most educators I speak to would prefer to keep the phones off, there are many exceptions I’ve encountered as well.

St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, Conn., for example, might have its students use the PhotoMath app on their smartphones to check their work and receive more rapid feedback. They retain a strong acceptable use policy to make sure educators have the ability to take action if phones aren’t being used for educational purposes.

Ed Sacket in Belchertown, Mass., said, “I made an agreement with my principal that my students could use their smartphones. Because I needed them to be able to access information that they couldn't access through the school computers.”

Amy Price, a teacher in South Carolina, said, “In my classroom, cell phones are off. But if I do an experiment, if the kids want to use their cell phones and take a picture, I teach science. And they want to take a picture of their cheek cells, that they just swabbed. I show them how to use it. Use your cell phone. Video the lab that we're doing. If you have a question I can't answer, get your phone out. Let's look it up. Let's use it as a teaching tool in the classroom. And if we are not using it as a teaching tool, let's put it away.”

That seems like the right way to move forward to. I’ll have more on this topic in the future.

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The Competency-Based Approach to Validating Learning in Higher Ed

One of my big pushes is for competency-based, or mastery-based, education in schools of all levels. On this episode of Future U., Jeff Selingo and I welcomed Kelle Parsons, a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research, and Amber Garrison Duncan, COO of the Competency Based Education Network, to the show to talk about the state of competency-based education and the implications for employment. The conversation took my level of understanding about how to align educational programs with the needs of the workplace to a new level—and offered up a bunch of examples of higher ed programs doing some exciting things with competency-based education. Check it out here.

Rapid-Fire Reactions on Six Higher Ed Topics

Finally, in our last episode of this season of Future U., Jeff and I broke down six topics in higher education:

1. recent enrollment trends
2. the state of online education and OPMs
3. the ongoing FAFSA issues
4. campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict
5. the increasing focus on value in higher education
6. and recent developments in compensating college athletes.

From my takes on the impact of “luxury beliefs” (h/t to Ira Stoll ) on campuses to the idea of spinning out college athletic teams into affiliated for-profits, we didn’t hold back on this brief final episode.

And, given we love hearing feedback…

As we plan for the next season—our 8th!—of Future U., we're conducting?a short?survey?on what you think about the show. You also have a chance to win some swag. Here's a link to the?survey:

https://bit.ly/3Xtcfd0

Five Quick Hitters

• I joined Amira Learning’s Laura Glaab to talk about the influence of my experiences and collaborators, like Clay Christensen, to advocate for personalizing learning and mastery-based education. Timely conversation in the days after Amira Learning’s announcement that it had acquired iStation. Check out the conversation here: https://youtu.be/TyzfMI3uHBo?si=FEEL3dUlu1DxDJA5

• Anthony Salcito, who leads Varsity Tutors for Schools and is responsible for Nerdy’s efforts to support institutions as they work to transform learning opportunities for students and educators across a range of offerings, answered my questions at LinkedIn around whether tutoring will remain in school districts as COVID stimulus funds wind down and what is it about Varsity Tutors' business model that allows them to provide on-demand live courses, test prep, and chat-tutoring for free. Check it out here.
• Mere months after Hampshire College said they are out of the woods and back on track financially, clouds are darkening. Listen to the latest from GBH’s Kirk Carapezza, complete with my take about the fundamental challenges small colleges face.
• West Virginia has permanently barred a closed microschool with no intent to reopen from receiving state funding. In the article in The74, I explain why this has become the ultimate Rorschach test in the debate over educational choice and accountability.
• And finally, I’m no Roger Federer or Jerry Seinfeld, but here was my advice to the graduates of Bellevue University: https://youtu.be/tDQvFl7a-hU

As always, thanks for reading, writing, and listening.