Ending the War on Phones

"Growing up in the Wild West of rapid technological development and expansion, most of my technological skills are self-taught. As I taught my first university course this past summer, I was faced with a room full of students who also seemed to have suffered this challenge. For teachers of all ages, the instinctual reaction is to simply avoid dealing with students and technology."

"Doing nothing ensures that the learning experience will be interrupted, and bans aren't a productive long-term solution. The trends I've observed in higher education, especially with the increasing capabilities of tools like ChatGPT, are moving away from technological tools that became more prominent during and after the pandemic, and regressing towards analog tools, emphasizing a return to pen and paper. Blue books are making a comeback!"

"This approach to controlling student usage of technology deals with technology in the same way we might think of dealing with a drug-it leads to addiction and loss of self-control, the solution being to forbid usage and get rid of the problem altogether. Except that strategy hasn't actually worked for drugs either. The United States had a fifty year "war on drugs," which was incredibly unsuccessful."

A classroom of students displayed inconsistent technological skills, often self-taught, creating instructional challenges. Many instructors respond by avoiding technology or imposing bans, which interrupts learning and encourages circumvention. Research indicates removing devices can improve comprehension, reduce anxiety, and increase engagement, but prohibition breeds antagonism and fails over time. Higher education shows a partial return to analog assessment methods such as pen-and-paper and blue books, while students continue to find workarounds. Comparisons to failed drug prohibition suggest that alternative, supportive strategies modeled on effective addiction programs may provide more productive solutions for managing technology use.

Read at Apaonline