Phones in schools have been a heated debate ever since mobile phones started being small enough to keep in a pocket and cheap enough to be given to teenagers, but the learning environment never adapted to the use of technology and now there are several areas around the world that are choosing to ban them from school campuses. One such example is New Zealand, which, a year ago, banned mobile phones from schools to help students focus.
Since the experiment has run for a full school year, there are already some results we can look at and some lessons to learn, just in case other areas decide to do the same experiment. There are similar bans going on in Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, China and parts of the United States, but results have not been as conclusive.
The results of the one year mobile phones ban in New Zealand
The first people that spoke about the results were none other than the students. Studies have shown these bans are not as effective as lawmakers make them out to be and never work as planned and a recent study from the UK, which examined over 1,200 students, found that strict phone bans in schools had no notable impact on academic performance or student wellbeing when compared to institutions with more lenient policies.
With initial uncertainty surrounding how these restrictions would be enforced, researchers in New Zealand sought to understand their real effects by gathering perspectives from students themselves. Interviews were conducted with 77 young people, aged 12 to 18, from 25 different schools across the country. Reactions were mixed, some supported the bans, others opposed them, and some remained undecided.
In the camp of those who believe distractions were reduced in the learning environment, we find a student who explained that the ban gave them a break from using their phones, “otherwise, we’ll be on our phone all day, all afternoon, all night, and it won’t be healthy for our minds.”
But some did not like the ban for a very peculiar reason, the inability to contact their parents or legal guardians during the day. It is something we have all taken for granted, the ability to call or text whoever we want, whenever we want, and with parents being as connected as their children, it is not a stretch to find that especially younger students feel better knowing they are just a text away.
Others disliked the double standard, after all, some teachers applied the ban to their students and still used the phones themselves, widening the chasm of power inequality in class. This left many students feeling frustrated and unfairly treated and made some even more determined to sneak a peek at their phone. As one student admitted, “Even though we’re not allowed to use our phones, everyone is sneaky and uses it anyway.”
Many students felt excluded from the decision-making process, believing that adults imposed the bans without seeking their input or considering their opinions. One student expressed frustration, saying, “It feels like they just ban everything, thinking it will fix the problem.”
For some, the ban seemed unclear, particularly since laptops and other digital tools remained part of their lessons. Research in Aotearoa New Zealand revealed that over 80% of students found classroom technology distracting, not just mobile phones.
Students are smart and resourceful, and as such have found a way around the ban. A school in Auckland saw the use of walkie-talkies instead of phones to communicate between pupils, and many just have decoy phones that they tun in. A solution that they have proposed is to be able to use their phones at break and lunch times and for teachers to educate them on how to reduce technology dependence instead of just banning things all around as if they do not have opinions.
As more schools implement these bans it will be interesting to see if they take the lessons that we are learning every day to heart or if the same mistakes will keep being made over and over again.
