Should Schools Allow Students to Use Smartphones in Classrooms? (Part 1)

A recent survey found that 95 percent of all teens own smartphones in 2024. Moreover, over half of all teens agers 13 to 17 say they visit YouTube “almost constantly” or “several times a day.” Overall, 93 percent of teenagers said that they are online “almost constantly” or “several times a day.”

Such online activity among teenagers has stirred much anxiety and even fears among teachers, parents, and legislators. For anyone familiar with these devices, they are surely informative and amusing but can be a major distraction during lessons.

The states of Florida and Indiana, for example, banned smartphones during the school day. More states are considering similar legislation. Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the nation, banned use during the school day. New York City, according to the Chancellor of the New York City schools, will announce a ban shortly. Other states and school district are also considering such actions.

Advocates for a no-phone rule say that students will be less distracted; they can pay attention to what teachers are teaching without hiding their phones or sneaking glances at them.

Opponents of a no-phone rule, however, argue that banning smartphones would hinder students’ independent thinking (i.e., finding new sources for an on-going class discussion, answering teachers’ questions, and completing in-class assignments).

So what should teachers do in the vast majority of states and districts where smartphones are allowed in schools? That is the dilemma they face. But dilemmas cannot be solved like problems; they can only be managed. And that is precisely the situation that public school districts, teachers, and parents across the nation have been wrestling with when it comes to permitting or banning students’ use of cellphones during the school day.

Yes, a few states do prohibit student use while other states are considering such legislation. In states with no such ban, many school districts are considering them. Yet in the absence of such bans each school must decide what to do when no state, district or school-wide policy exists. The decision is up to individual teachers to allow or disallow students to use cellphones during lessons.

Lacking state legislation much less reliable research on the value of these devices for student learning, school boards, administrators, and teachers have felt the pinch of the dilemma over student phone use in nearly 100,000 schools across the nation. In those states and school districts where no policy on student use of these seemingly magical devices exists, up to nearly three million classroom teachers decide daily on smartphone use. They are manage the classroom dilemma.

In effect, then, nearly all state legislatures and local school boards have unloaded this sticky policy issue onto individual teachers who have to decide whether smart phones should be used in their classrooms. For observers of the U.S. system of schooling, teachers making classroom policy about electronic devices seems like an oxymoron. But when it comes to student use of smartphones, it ain’t.