Mobile Devices and Education

The Report

The recently published discussion paper Technology, Distraction & Student Performance has led to renewed calls for the banning of mobile phones in schools. The paper assessed the impact of mobile phone bans by comparing pre-ban and post-ban standardized test scores. The authors concluded:

• Mobile phone bans improved student performance on standardized tests by 6.41% of a standard deviation.
• The distraction of mobile phones can have a negative impact on productivity.
• Low achieving students are more likely to be distracted, while high achievers are barely effected.

While I can see no basis for questioning the validity of the statistical findings, I do have concerns about the assumptions on which the conclusions are based. The first assumption I am concerned about is equating educational performance with standardize testing results. Any teacher, or administrator, working in schools knows how poorly these tests assess what education is about.

The second assumption I'm concerned about is the belief that disadvantaged students cannot develop the impulse control of high achievers, and, therefore, need to be protected from their mobile phones. In other words, deficit thinking.

While both of these assumptions might make sense from an economic point-of-view, they have no place in a pedagogical framework.

An Alternative Approach

In response to these assumptions I would like to propose two alternatives. Firstly, that education is about helping students to develop the skills they will require to live a fulfilling life as a member of their society. The second assumption is, that every student is capable of developing these skills. The fact remains that mobile phones will distract students, particularly disadvantaged students, but using these two assumptions will lead to a very different resolution.

Firstly, mobile phones are not seen as problems that need to be removed from education. Rather, the new approach acknowledges that mobile phones are part of the student's society. Therefore, students need to learn the skill of appropriate use of mobile phone. They need to learn how to be productive while having access to their mobile phone.

Secondly, instead of believing that this skill in simply indicative of high achievers, the new approach looks at high achievers as an example that students can be productive while accessing their mobile phone. Therefore it is a skill that all students can be taught.

Consequently, I would like to propose an approach where schools teach students how to not be distracted by their phone.

Practical Application - The Pomodoro Technique

Just like the teaching of any skill, there are uncountable possible approaches. What follows is an approach that I have found to be effective. A small caveat, the subjects that I teach contain a significant component of individualized project work.

For a while now my classes have been using the pomodoro technique. It is a common technique for focusing on work, and curbing distractions. This technique involves breaking your work into focus blocks, separated by small breaks.

I use this technique when students need to focus on producing work (eg. assignment writing, or completing individual tasks). The process is as follows:

• Preparation
• Students log onto computers and open required programs.
• Students cue up enough music to last for the focus block.
• If they use their phone for this then it must be on no notification (ie. not even vibrate) and face down on the desk.
• I set up a timer on the projector (I use moosti, but there are plenty more).
• Focus Block
• The timer starts and students start working (15 - 25 mins).
• During this time the only person students can talk to is the teacher.
• If they think of something they need to do or say, they make a note of it, and get back to work.
• Break
• When the focus block ends, the short break starts (3 - 5 mins).
• During this time students stop work and:
• physically stand up and move around
• attend to the distractions they noted down during the focus block
• talk to their friends
• send all those 'emergence texts' to mum

The anecdotal evidence which I can provide suggests that this technique has been effective in helping students focus and reducing distraction. Even the students who struggle with focus work well through this process. I suspect there are two interrelated reasons for this:

• The process is about delay not abstinence. Students seem happier to accept "not now" rather than "no".
• The working block is small enough, that students are willing to postpone their distractions. This is reinforced by the timer which show how little they will have to wait.

There is one more aspect of this process worth mentioning. In introducing the process I explain the rationale behind it. Students are informed of the recent research which show why multi-tasking doesn't work. I find that students accept the process more readily when they understand that it is based upon scientific research, and not just some arbitrary decision by their teacher. I have found that this 2 minute video from CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta is a great way to get this message across.

Conclusion

I know that mobile technologies can be extremely distracting, and that adolescents, by their nature, have very poor impulse control, but I don't not see this as an excuse for teachers, to shirk our responsibility. Our students will be inhabiting a world with increasingly pervasive technologies, and therefore need to develop the skills required to be productive in this world. As a teacher, I believe that this is one of the skills I am responsible for teaching.