Let me begin by saying that if you are looking for a solution to the cell phone in classroom dilemma, there's no need to read any further -- I don't have one.
I've gone through phases in my approach, and have yet to find something that works.
Attempt 1: Speak to the students and then trust them.
Philosophy: I believe that my role as a teacher doesn't just include math, so I want to teach students how to be disciplined themselves regarding the use of cellphones. If I forbid them in the classroom or make students put them in a basket, I am teaching them nothing. I do teach relatively small classes (12-16), and the desks are in a horseshoe, so it's difficult to hide the phone during class. I have eyes in the front of my head and I know how to use them.
Results: Not so great. Probably once every two classes I would find a student looking at a phone ("I was just checking the time!"), which means that being alert to phones being used was taking some non-epsilon-sized amount of my attention away from what's important.
Attempt 2: Speak FIRMLY to the students and confiscate phones when I see them being used.
Philosophy: Similar to Attempt 1, with the ugly truth that I was acting in conflict with my philosophy that confiscating things is a terrible way to teach. It feels like a simple use of my power as a teacher, especially in high school. It doesn't feel like I'm educating; instead, I am punishing. Certainly punishment can be educating, but when it's simply me saying, "Give me your property," that doesn't feel healthy.
Results: This didn't reduce cell phone use, but it did force more individual conversation between me and my students. Also, it made me realize what research has demonstrated -- this is an addiction. At the beginning of one period, I gave a particularly impassioned plea to the class that they should put their phones away. I explained how I'd confiscated someone else's phone that morning, and how I felt disrespectful doing that but I didn't know what else to do. Then, not 3 minutes later, I caught a young man texting. When I took his phone, he was stunned that he had gotten himself into this position. He had heard what I said, understood it, and yet couldn't control himself. He was shocked, as was I.
Attempt 3: Phones must be left outside the classroom.
Philosophy: Out of sight, out of mind.
Results: This worked better in the sense that students knew that they shouldn't have the phone in the classroom, so if they didn't remember to put the phone outside, they sure remembered not to take it out in the classroom.....for a while. At some point, my vigilance waned, and they "forgot," and phones slowly started to make their distracting way back into our classroom. That's my fault, technically, but I can't think of another norm that I can spend six months reinforcing that can't stick on it's own for another two. Such is the power of the cell phone.
The biggest issue I had with this approach, however, was how it made students resist entering the classroom until the last minute. We have five-minutes of passing time, and they would use every minute of it to be on their phones. They'd enter class at the last moment, and only then start to get physically and mentally ready for class. This prevented the casual conversations that students should be having with each other and with me that are an important part of building class culture.
This brings me to what I am planning for this year.
Attempt 4: Students will come up with a plan for where their cell phones will be ("Distraction Basket", bookbags, etc.) I will provide an engaging question that will make students want to enter the classroom when they get there.
Philosophy: Creating a community norm is always worth a try. You can't really demand a "community" norm -- that's just a "Feitelson" norm. Which is fine, too -- I am the teacher, after all. Still, better if it's done as a group. I believe that students understand how their phones are a distraction and will welcome the opportunity to help address the issue. What we come up with will sound good in theory -- whether they can turn that into practice is the challenge.
The second part of this attempt will be challenging to me. My thinking is that kids have become used to getting external mental stimulation from their phones, and so if I want to compete with that I need to provide my own external mental stimulation for them. If I'm clear that I expect them to start getting ready for class when they arrive, even if they're early, and I give them something engaging to think about, I think I have a good chance of success.
Results: <Please get back to me in 3 months.>
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An interesting set of articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education about this issue.
Two books on our faculty summer reading list on this topic:
Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle
Irresistible by Adam Alter
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