Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
The Impact of Smartphone Distractions on Academic Focus
Navigating the controversial arena of smartphones in academic settings, we dissect the myriad teacher responses to these pocket-sized disruptors. Can texting and tweets find harmony with the age-old mission of education? I argue that the answer isn't as straightforward as a blanket ban. By exploring the nuanced issue of individual student behavior and responsible device usage, the conversation shifts—from a focus on sweeping restrictions to a more personalized approach that honors both the evolving communication landscape and the timeless pursuit of knowledge. Tune in for insights that challenge the status quo and redefine what it means to be "focused" in today's connected classroom.
Greg Collins. Substitute Teacher's Lounge. It is March 26, 2024, episode 253. Interesting experiment was done that I saw on a Facebook page and I will give full credit to that Facebook page here in a moment when I bring it up about social media and it's used by students in the classroom during class. So do we need to get on our high horse and go after this problem, or is it even a problem? Let's talk about that today. Substitute Teacher's Lounge.
Speaker 1:Let me start off first of all by making an announcement, and I hesitate to do this because it's about an upcoming show and, sure as the world, when I make announcements like this a lot of times, schedules just don't work out. I'm going to make this announcement because I'm excited about it and I want it to happen. I've already got all the permissions, but I'm going to be interviewing a couple of students here soon on an upcoming episode. One is an exchange student from Germany. One is a student that I first interviewed back when she was in the sixth grade and now she is a sophomore in high school. Hopefully next week, but we do have. We've already gotten the proper permissions from parents and guardians and all that good stuff, so we'll see that how that goes. The reason this topic has come up today about social media is that I recently read something on a Facebook page it is. I'll go ahead and tell you that the name of the Facebook page is the principal's desk. I think that it was kind of eye-opening for me a bit, because I thought about it. I was shocked when I saw the results, but at the same time, the more I thought about it, I'm thinking should I really be shocked after all? So I am going to pull up my screen of the picture I took of that so that I can read the statistics to you directly.
Speaker 1:And basically, here's what a teacher did. They decided to tell the students to get out their smartphones, lay them on their desk and to turn the silencer off, or in other words, turn the volume back on, turn it up all the way so everybody could hear. And then they put a paper, a large piece of paper, on the front of the classroom. For that period they put down Facebook, snapchat, email, text messages, phone calls, instagram, twitter or whatever we're calling that now X, I guess and then other. And what the teacher wanted them to do is each time during that class that they got a notification on one of these social media sites that something had come through for them to come up and write it on the board. And in an hour's time it's pretty mind-boggling.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to quickly go through and add up. I'm going to say that there were probably 300 text messages. There were actually even 25 phone call notifications I can't hardly believe that and there's lots of emails. Instagram was up there and the point the teacher was trying to make was this is how much distraction, this is how much time we waste while we're in the classroom. And when I looked at it it was hard for me to disagree with that teacher and I've always taken up for smartphones. I just think it's another piece of technology that the teachers need to include in their curriculum. But that is an awful lot of distractions. And then I got to thinking well is it? And I got to thinking even more.
Speaker 1:I go way back to I guess this would have been 72 through 76. Back when some of my distractions were sticking a transistor radio in my pocket, putting an earpiece in my ear back then and listening to baseball games. Back then a lot of baseball games took place in the afternoon, especially post-season. I like to listen to the World Series in the middle of class and I got my A out of that class so I wasn't too worried about it. And then I got to thinking well, let's think this through now.
Speaker 1:All right, so we had 30 people in the classroom, let's say, and there was like 300 text message notifications. When we break that down, that's actually 10 notifications a piece. But it's just a 60-minute class just for. A lot of classes are shorter than that. But let's just say well, let's say 50 minutes. 50 minutes will be even better. To divide 50 minutes, that means that each student 300 text messages, 30 students. They were receiving 10 text message notifications per that hour or that 50 minutes. And if we're talking about 50 minutes, that's going to be one every five minutes. All of a sudden maybe that's not as mind-blowing as you think I get text messages once every five minutes, probably. And then I say, all right, well, how much does that waste their time in the classroom? One thing I wish the teacher had included in their information was what was the average GPA in this class? I mean, do most of the kids get A's? And if they do, should we be that ticked off that they're getting these this much notifications during class? They're still getting their work done. They're I'll say this laughingly, but they're multitasking.
Speaker 1:And then I got to thinking all right, back in the 70s we passed notes probably from the beginning of class to the end of class. First of all, let me go back real quick For our forget text messages. We're getting per student, 10 text messages per class. We're reading them, putting our phone back down. I'm going to say that's, let's say, 10 seconds apiece, that's 100 seconds. So that's about a minute and a half time we wasted. I tell you what now, back in my day. First of all, I was wasting time listening to a ballgame. I was writing notes. Sometimes the notes might take five minutes to write. Then we pass it to whoever want to read it. We watch them read it. Let's face it. We're watching the expression of a person's face after we've handed them a note, okay. Then there's the response time of the person. They're going to write a note back, and that goes on and on. Well, I'm here to tell you, guys, that we may have been more distracted, we may have taken up more time back in the 70s passing notes than these kids do on their social media. So why are we getting so upset about them being on it.
Speaker 1:I like aspects of social media. It is important there's a substitute teacher. I like to respond quickly to teachers request a sub. I like ideas I see on Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat and Instagram not as much of a Snapchat person, but I use Instagram quite often and I like that kind of stuff. I like staying up on substitute teachers topic that's how I found this source today and I like communicating with the volleyball players, the volleyball coaches, in an organized fashion. I like all that. Social media has made that possible. So should we really be upset when the students are spending so much time on their social media during class?
Speaker 1:Now, as I was reading some of the responses to that post on that page, one person made a comment well, you know I like. It started out by making a comment that the parents are actually texting their students too often. Now we're probably talking about high school here. Not too many middle schools allow use of phones unless it just expedites what's going on in class High schools. There used to be one high school in our area that didn't ban the use of smartphones at all. Now they put the sleeves on the wall for them to put their phone in. You know from a previous episode of the podcast that, on one extreme, I got a teacher that actually wants me to take attendance from these smartphone sleeves to prove that they put them up. Most teachers I'm even going to say at least 90 percent, over 90 percent will let the students keep their phone out on their desk. To be honest, it's more dependable getting the Google classroom on your phone. You can get all your assignments done like that. Sure, they're getting their their text and they're getting their tweets and they're getting their post right on there while they're doing that, but yet they're still getting their work done.
Speaker 1:So when one of the comments were you know, parents are getting notified or notifying their students too much when it's not an emergency, one response to that was what is really an emergency? Are there any real emergencies? And the way they, the way they were wording that what they were really saying was an emergency is a 911 type thing, just the fact that somebody needs to change buses. I don't know if I'd call that an emergency. That might he. His point was that might be something better to go through the office than to bother the student in the class.
Speaker 1:So, having said all that, let's talk a little bit of more about time wasters in the classroom. What can we do about it, and should we even be concerned? Are you really and they put it this way, I'm gonna put one group on one extreme, one group on the other. Okay, those of you that are hardcore against smartphones, even with students that are getting all their work done, getting A's in your class, well then, I don't know what to say to you. It's like you just need to be on your soapbox about something, so you might as well be on it about smartphones. That's the way I look at that group.
Speaker 1:On the other hand, there are there are, for sure, teachers I've co-taught with some that will let their students be on their smartphones during the whole class, even if they're not doing their work, and so be it. They don't interact with them. They don't make them get get off. If. If they would rather do that in the classroom, do their work at home, they let them do that. That might be the opposite extreme. So what can we do in the midst of both of those situations? How can we cut down on the distractions? First of all, I've told you this before Some of the loudest classes I've had are classrooms full of straight A students.
Speaker 1:My theory there is, if you don't keep their mind occupied enough, they get a little bit out of control on you. And you know subjects like math, where people move along in the assignment at different paces because, regardless of how much you've learned, math just comes easier to some people than it does to the others. So are you one that will emphasize here's the middle of the road, here's the one, and this is where most students are, and this is probably where I mean that's students, teachers, where most substitute teachers should be Doggone it. Let them keep their phones out. Emphasize, if I like doing it this way, emphasize that if you get your work done, then you can get on your smartphone.
Speaker 1:With a word of caution, if I can see that you just rushed through your work so that you can get on your smartphone, that's not what I'm talking about. I've even suggested on occasion that the same thing you can get on your smartphone after you finish your work, but you have to spend at least 30 minutes half of this class on your work, because there's no way to get a good, thorough job done without spending at least those 30 minutes in the classroom doing your work. So, guys, it's up to you. I mean you're going to have to decide what and how to spend your time, not yelling at these students, but disciplining these students about the use of smartphones. My opinion is that you shouldn't let them abuse it, but you should be nice about it.
Speaker 1:They don't have to pass notes anymore. They used to take me 15 minutes in a class from beginning to end. They can probably get done in about 90 seconds now because they can text back and forth, they can chat back and forth. Sometimes you have to be careful with chats and things like that, because some of them get vicious and then they get really distracting. So, rather than just say no smartphones, or rather than being upset about how much that means in a classroom when all those distractions come on, let's face it.
Speaker 1:When I first said 300 text messages in one class in one hour, well, once you break that down, that was 10 text messages per student, which in a 50 minute class was every five minutes, which all of a sudden no longer sounds that bad. It sounds comparable into what I have to deal with. So think about it. Think of where you think you need to go in this situation. Maybe smartphones aren't so bad. I've done episodes about this before. First one I've done where I've actually compared how much time is wasted to how much time I waste it back in the days when I still got good grades. So give the students the benefit of the doubt. That's what I'm preaching. You know it's your job to find the students that are abusing the privileges, but why should we let them take that privilege away from the ones that aren't abusing it?
